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The Turner Family Turns from Crowdfunding to Tree of Hope

The Dover based Turner family have turned from crowdfunding to tax efficient fundraising at Tree of Hope, to raise $1.2 million for 16 year old Kelly’s life-saving treatment in the USA.

Kelly Turner was diagnosed in October 2015, with a rare and aggressive form of cancer called Desmoplastic, a small round cell tumour or DSRCT and told she had a life expectancy of two years.

In order to increase Kelly’s life expectancy, she has been accepted for a clinical trial at The Memorial Sloane Kettering hospital in New York, where she will undergo pioneering treatment not available to her in the UK. Whilst this is excellent news for Kelly and her family, as non-residents, surgery and post-surgical interventions will cost $1.2m and payment is required in full before Kelly can be admitted for treatment.

Kelly’s amazing Mum and Dad have already raised over £380,206 using a mixture of crowdfunding and private fundraising initiatives, but there is still quite a way to go. In October, Martin became aware of Tree of Hope and realised by fundraising with a registered charity rather than crowdfunding, Kelly’s campaign could benefit financially a great deal more.

Crowdfunding may seem like an attractive option to many families of sick children, but the reality is it can lose your campaign valuable funds as the Turner family found out. For every £100 raised through crowdfunding, page owners lose out. Some sites charge a setup fee and most have debit or credit card charges. A family such as the Turner’s will have to raise the full amount without the added benefit of Gift Aid. Fundraising through a charity such as Tree of Hope means that Gift Aid is claimed on individual qualifying donations giving an instant 25% boost to the money raised.

In addition to this, sometimes a family needs to draw down fundraised money to pay for therapies and equipment before they have reached their target. If you crowdfund you will only be able to access funds if and when you reach your target.

Martin Turner says: “Since discovering Tree of Hope in October they have been a constant source of information and support and always on hand to offer advice on the best way to maximise on our fundraising efforts. They have been a life line to our family and I just wish I had known about them before we went down the road of crowdfunding”.

Gill Gibb CEO of Tree of Hope says: “Tree of Hope is here to support children up until the age of 25 by offering the most effective, tax efficient fundraising framework available. Working in partnership with our fundraising families, Tree of Hope supports over 1,000 individual campaigns, providing the governance and financial capability to allow parents to fundraise professionally and legitimately”.

If you raise funds through a registered charity like Tree of Hope, you will have access to corporate donations as companies will only donate to registered charities. Tree of Hope can also make applications to charitable trusts and foundations on a family’s behalf.

If you would like to help raise money for Kelly please visit Kelly’s fundraising page: www.treeofhope.org.uk/kelly-patricia-turner/ or Text KPTF99 and the amount you would like to donate to 70070.

If you would like to talk to someone about the benefits of raising funds with Tree of Hope, starting a campaign, or would like to make the move from crowdfunding to fundraising with Tree of Hope please contact Georgina or Jenny on Tel: 01892 535525 or via families@treeofhope.org.uk

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