With the help of nearly 1000 generous supporters up and down the country, the Refugee Council have managed to raise a staggering £240,000.

Half of this amount was generously contributed by the GLC Charitable Trust who agreed an 100% match if the Refugee Council managed to reach a fundraising target of £120,000.

In the wake of 62% cuts to our statutory funding it is hugely encouraging to witness our friends and supporters clearly demonstrating their belief in our work.

The appeal was anchored by an event held on July 21 at which Jemima Khan joined our own Donna Covey (CEO) and Yeukai Taruvinga to speak out in support of the Refugee Council’s work and to celebrate 60 years since the signing of the UN Refugee Convention for Refugees.

The event generated several major donations and was featured on a range of news websites. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown also published a comment piece in the Independent which included a very emotive call to arms and attracted several new donors to the cause.

You can read the full article here.

During the appeal we also utilised the social networks of Twitter and Facebook to keep our supporters updated on the success of the Match Fund Challenge. Several new donors reported these sites as the prompt for their donations.

From our loyal donors to our new supporters we would like to express our sincere thanks to everybody who made this appeal such an enormous success.

Special thanks go to The Lincoln Centre for kindly donating the use of their venue, to Jemima Khan for her input and publicity, and to Lawrence Staden and the GLC Charitable Trust for their staggering financial generosity.

After such a turbulent few months the Refugee Council can look forward again with new hope and a determination to continue its vital work with asylum seekers and refugees.