If you would like to discuss any of the questions below or would like any further assistance, please do call the CRY office on 01737 363 222
or email [email protected] and a member of the CRY team will be pleased to help.
Does CRY receive government funding?
CRY is entirely dependent on the funds raised by its supporters to enable it to offer the services it does to those affected by young sudden cardiac death.
With the exception of a one-off grant from the Department of Health in 2002 (to help fund our Bereavement Support Programme), we have never received any financial support from the Government. We take great pride in the fact that our fundraisers have raised millions of pounds since CRY started in May 1995, to enable the charity to work towards its vision for the future
If you are interested in how your donations are used to support CRY’s work click here.
Why does CRY not use all of its donations for its charitable objectives?
CRY is very proud of the percentage of its donations that it uses for its charitable objectives. You can read more about the breakdown of CRY’s expenditure by clicking here.
However, the charity does still need to spend some of its income on governance, overheads and fundraising activities to ensure the charity is professionally and efficiently run. Without this funding, CRY would not have been able to grow as it has since 1995 and would not have been able to offer the same level of support and help to those families affected by young sudden cardiac death.
Why does CRY have a large reserve?
A significant proportion of the funds kept by CRY in its reserve are “ringfenced” and therefore have to be used for a specifically nominated project.
The majority of these funds are raised by families who have suffered a tragedy due to young sudden cardiac death and have chosen to fund a screening programme in their community in memory of their child, sibling or partner. In essence families raise the funds and once they have reached a target we support them in taking forward a screening event, usually 12 – 18 months after the funds have been raised. We are going to great lengths to encourage families to use the funds that are ringfenced. Funding their own screening is important to many bereaved families and we do not want to stop this essential aspect of the support we offer families who contact CRY.
The second area that affects this reserve is CRY’s research programme, which is of great importance to the work the charity does. For us to ensure that we recruit the highest quality doctors to these positions we must ensure we keep significant reserves to guarantee CRY can provide the funding for their grants. This is also the case with the CRY Centre for Cardiac Pathology which provides essential support to newly bereaved families following a tragedy.
We are aware that having what appears to be a significant amount of free reserves does disadvantage us when appealing for donations but we feel these areas of CRY’s work are extremely important to ensure that CRY can work towards its vision.
Does CRY pay its staff?
Yes, it does. A charity cannot be run by volunteers alone, but it’s sometimes difficult for the wider public to accept that some of a charity’s funds will go on salaries. Funding expertise is especially important with a charity like CRY where focus is on an area that requires specialised medical knowledge. Most charities will struggle to build to a position where they can efficiently help people in their focus area without paying for the expertise that is needed to ensure that the support is proficient. Volunteers are fantastic and play a crucial role in every charity, but there is a limitation to what they can be expected to be responsible for.
What does CRY do with my details?
CRY records your details on its database for the purposes of ensuring the charity can offer the best support it can. CRY will only send you information regarding the charity in the form of its e-newsletter and Update magazine and will never ask for donations from you.
CRY is very proud of its fundraising principles and would encourage you to read them by visiting here.
Will CRY ask me for more money in the future if I donate?
CRY is proud to be able to say that it does not request monetary donations from its supporters. The charity is fortunate to be able to depend on the fundraising efforts of its supporters to be able to continue its charitable work and feels that it is down to the individual to decide whether they would like to donate to the charity or not. CRY hopes that the work that the charity does is enough to encourage this.
Read more about CRY’s fundraising principles by clicking here.
Can I choose how my fundraising donations are spent?
CRY does not have the facility to enable our supporters to choose which area of CRY’s work they can support for each individual donation. Instead CRY ensures that all those donations are appropriately used and aims to ensure that as much of each donation goes towards its charitable objectives as is possible (you can find out more about this by clicking here).
CRY does however offer the opportunity for families to create a memorial fund/myheart fund so that they have a record of their fundraising efforts. This account can then be ringfenced so that all fundraising received in recognition is attributed to the particular project that has been requested by the fund manager (this can either be to support CRY’s research or to hold local screenings or on a one off specific project/asset).
If you are interested in setting up a fund, then please contact the support team at CRY and they will be able to assist you with this.
Can I use the funds I have raised for CRY to purchase a defibrillator for my local community?
CRY supports the placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at public places throughout the UK and many groups and charities are doing excellent work to take this forward. However, we believe it is important for the placement of AEDs to work alongside CRY’s long-standing goal of identifying young people who are at risk before a traumatic incident occurs.
It is important to note that in CRY’s experience, many young sudden cardiac deaths occur in places where defibrillators are not available – e.g. at home and / or during sleep. Furthermore, not all cardiac arrests have shockable rhythms.
CRY’s position is that its primary focus should be on ensuring that young people with cardiac conditions, who may be at risk of sudden death, are identified prior to a cardiac arrest. For more information about CRY’s cardiac screening programme visit www.testmyheart.org.uk.
For more information about AEDs we would suggest contacting The Community Heartbeat Trust – www.communityheartbeat.org.uk.
Can I fundraise for more than one charity?
From time to time, supporters choose to raise money for more than one charity/organisation and CRY is supportive of that decision. If you would like the proceeds of your event to be split between CRY and another charity, organisation or project, please ensure that the following fundraising guidelines are followed.
You will need to advise all organisations that you are supporting that the money will be split between two or more charities, organisations or projects when you register your event. You will also need to request similar quantities of promotional literature from each charity for your event.
You must ensure all of your promotional items and means to advertise your event – including, but not limited to, collection boxes, posters, literature or press releases advertising the event/activity – clearly state the names, logos and charity registration numbers (if appropriate) of the benefiting organisations, as well as details of what proportion will be going to each cause. This is to ensure that people donating to your activity are quite clear about how their donation will be used.
Please note: If the other charity you are supporting has a similar purpose/objective to that of CRY, this can cause confusion among the general public. To avoid such confusion, you could potentially consider holding separate events for each charity rather than a joint one.
Why does sponsorship raised with a CRY place get allocated to core funding?
All fundraising donations that are collected from an event where a supporter has a CRY place will be shown in the memorial fund, but this money cannot be ringfenced and will be used for core funding.
The events where the charity can offer a CRY place are called ‘Core Events’. This means that they have been designated by the CRY Fundraising Team as core funding events that support the financial stability of the charity and ensure that it is able to continue to operate all of its charitable work.
Please Note: If you have your own place (i.e. you have registered directly with the organisers) in any of the
‘Core Events’ then CRY can offer you the same support as those with a CRY place and all your fundraising can still be ringfenced for a Memorial fund.
Why does CRY need to set a pledge for CRY place events?
When CRY offers places for a specific event, they have to be purchased from the company organising that event. Many believe these are free for charities, but in actual fact can be very expensive, especially for those events that are in high demand like the London Marathon. CRY also needs to factor in the costs surrounding the event including staff time; pack costs and post-race facilities if they are being offered. All of these costs are budgeted for and then the pledge is calculated to ensure that each runner taking part raises enough to ensure the event is profitable and can support CRY’s charitable work. The pledges for each of the events can differ greatly due to all of these factors. If you are interested in taking part in an event for CRY, but don’t feel able to reach the suggested pledge, the Fundraising team will be pleased to help you find a more suitable event.
What happens if I can’t raise the pledge?
When you sign up for a CRY place, you sign a document to confirm that you are able to reach the requested pledge. If you don’t reach the pledge, this can cause issues in CRY ensuring that the event is a successful fundraiser. As such, the fundraising team will do everything they can to assist you in reaching that pledge. We appreciate that there can be issues with donor fatigue, but there are other fundraising opportunities as well as sponsorship that can help you to reach your target and the team would be happy to discuss this further with you. It is important that you share your worries with the team as soon as you can and avoid putting it off as the sooner you can get assistance with this, the better your chances of reaching your target. Unfortunately if the fundraising team do not hear from you and you haven’t reached your pledge, CRY will be forced to black list you so that you aren’t able to take part in future CRY place events.
How do I set up an online fundraising page?
CRY recommends our supporters use the services of Virgin Money Giving to set up their online page. The charity is also registered with Just Giving and other online fundraising providers, so we would be pleased to support those that would prefer to use either of these services as well.
We have created a guide to help you set up your online page that you can download here.
If you would like to create a page to accept ongoing donations in memory, we have also created a guide to help with setting up a Virgin Money Giving Someone Special Page. Please click here to download this.
Can CRY print photos/names/slogans on t-shirts or vests?
Unfortunately, CRY are currently unable to help personalise your t-shirts/vests before sending them out. CRY purchases its garments printed/embroidered with its logo from a third party and therefore doesn’t have the appropriate printing machinery to be able to print further items on them. Most local printers are able to offer this service or you should be able to pick up a DIY t-shirt printing kit from your local stationers.
Will CRY help me organise my event?
While CRY would be delighted to help you with the representation of the charity at your event and also with promoting your event to CRY supporters and the general public, we unfortunately do not have the time to be able to help with the logistics of organising an event. We now regularly have over 1,000 events organised for CRY each year and this means that providing this support is just not possible.
To be able to see what CRY can do to help you with your event, please request one of our fundraising packs by filling in this online form or you can download items to assist you by visiting the Fundraising Hub
Can CRY staff attend my event?
CRY staff would like to attend events, but it is just not possible with the small number of staff the charity has and the fact they are all based in the head office in Leatherhead, Surrey.
CRY is very fortunate to have a network of volunteer representatives around the country that are, however, able to attend events on CRY’s behalf and are able to talk to audiences, answer questions and organise photo opportunities on the charity’s behalf.
If you would like to request a representative to attend please fill in the form by clicking here.
Can a CRY Patron attend my event?
As CRY has continued to grow, so have the number of supporters’ events, which is fantastic news. This does, however, mean that we are now receiving an unprecedented number of requests for the Patrons to attend these events. CRY Patrons already do a great deal to support CRY both in the public eye and behind the scenes and are asked to get behind, attend or add their names to many major CRY – led events and awareness campaigns each year.
Their support is really important to CRY and whilst we would want to be able to make requests to them for all the individual events we are asked, this is just no longer possible for us. We hope you will understand why we are no longer able to assist with requests for patron attendance at CRY supporters’ events and we would appreciate it if you did not approach CRY Patrons directly to support your event.
CRY would be pleased to help you with approaching a CRY Ambassador to attend your event. CRY Ambassadors have agreed to support CRY and their supporters within their local community and so if there is an Ambassador local to you, we would be pleased to request their attendance for you. You can see our current list of Ambassadors by visiting https://www.c-r-y.org.uk/ambassadors/ where you will also be able to fill in a request form.
If you know of anybody who you feel would be suitable as a CRY Ambassador, please email [email protected] with your suggestions.
Can I have freebies to give away at my event?
Due to the small quantities that CRY merchandise is currently ordered in, the charity cannot unfortunately provide any of it to our supporters to hand out for free at their fundraising event. CRY feels that it would not be a suitable use of the money that is raised that could instead go towards its charitable objectives.
CRY merchandise can however be provided on a sale or return basis for you to sell at your event to help raise further funds (but not increase your event costs). If you would like to request merchandise for your event, or discuss what is available to you on a sale or return basis, please contact the fundraising team.
Can the CRY fundraising team apply for a corporate/trust donation or support on behalf of a ringfenced memorial fund?
Due to the time constraints of the CRY fundraising team, all applications for support must be for the benefit of CRY’s core objectives. The team are however very happy to provide supporters with any information that might be required for them to apply for themselves and assist with any questions they might have in relation to the application.
Why can’t CRY provide raffle/auction prizes for my event?
At the current time, CRY is not able to provide raffle and auction prizes for supporter led events as it doesn’t have access to such items. The charity is not currently in a position to run its own auctions and raffles and so doesn’t receive donated items and also doesn’t have any connections with any organisations that provide such gifts for the charity to use. Unfortunately, CRY doesn’t have the staff to be able to request these from organisations on our supporter’s behalf.
The fundraising team would however be pleased to provide a letter of authority for any event organiser to help them with their approaches and to show the charity’s official support of their efforts. The team can also provide some useful hints as to who may be best to approach for support based on previous supporter’s experiences.
Can I claim gift aid on my fundraising efforts?
Gift Aid enables CRY to claim extra money from the Government on donations made by individuals as tax relief. When a donation is Gift Aided, we are able to claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated. If you are a UK taxpayer and would like to claim gift aid on your donation, we have several ways for you to make a claim. Please click here to find out more.
If you are getting sponsored and would like your donors to gift aid their donations, you can download a sponsor form to claim them here. Alternatively, you may be interested in setting up an online fundraising page with Virgin Money Giving where the offer to add gift aid is presented to all donors on your behalf as part of the donation process.
Please note: There are many scenarios where you aren’t able to claim Gift Aid including:
Unfortunately the current process of claiming Gift Aid would mean it would become very lengthy and costly for CRY to allocate Gift Aid to specific fundraising efforts. Whether the donation is received online via a fundraising platform like Virgin Money Giving or directly to the charity, it can take at least a month for the Gift Aid process to be completed, meaning this retrospective allocation would be time consuming.
We also have the issue that due to the various constraints involved with claiming, not all donations that are included for Gift Aid are eligible and so the request has to be cancelled. Due to these issues, CRY has decided that the most effective way to allocate Gift Aid is directly to CRY’s core fundraising objectives.
I am afraid that If you are raising money for a memorial fund, CRY also isn’t able to add Gift Aid to the fund, due to the complexity.
How do I pay the money I have raised/make a donation to CRY?
CRY can accept fundraising and donations via debit/credit card on our website; cheque; bank transfer; CAF donations or even text! You can make payment via the website by going to https://www.c-r-y.org.uk/donations/ or you can find out more about the other alternatives by going to https://www.c-r-y.org.uk/other-ways-to-donate/.
How do I pay money raised from collection boxes to CRY?
Due to the weight and relative value of the money collected in our plastic collection boxes, it is not possible to arrange for them to be posted. Instead, we would ask for you to open the collection boxes yourself by removing the sticker seal and prizing out the white plastic coin slot from the top. If you can then count the money inside with one other person (family members or friends are fine). Once you have the total, we would ask that you pay the money into your own account to pay to CRY or request a CRY bank paying in slip so you can pay the money directly into the charity’s account. The empty collection boxes can then be posted back to CRY to enable us to use them again, or you can request some replacement security stickers and continue to use them if you prefer.
How do I pay my online giving page donations to CRY?
As long as your page has been set up with CRY as your chosen charity, we are pleased to say that the donations are transferred to the CRY accounts automatically on a weekly basis. The fundraising team ensure that each page has been “tagged” to ensure that the money will be allocated appropriately.
How do I close my online giving page?
If you have finished your fundraising and want to close your page early to enable you to receive your thank you letter, all the online fundraising platforms offer you the opportunity to alter the closing date. To find out how to close your page early please go to the relevant link below or contact the CRY fundraising team for assistance:
Preventing young sudden cardiac deaths through awareness, screening and research, and supporting affected families.
Head Office:
Unit 1140B, The Axis Centre,
Cleeve Road, Leatherhead,
Surrey KT22 7RD
Tel: 01737 363222
Privacy Policy
Safeguarding Policy
Email: [email protected]
Registered Charity in England & Wales (1050845) & in Scotland (SC052581)
