20 November, 2018

The #YouMadeItHappen hashtag took twitter by storm yesterday (19^th November), and like a comfy jumper, seemed to envelop the internet in a warm and fuzzy hug. Twitter can be a caustic habitat, but for 24 hours, it was filled with love and good wishes as charities said thank you to their supporters for helping them achieve change.

#YouMadeItHappen was set up by the NCVO, CharityComms, Small Charities Coalition, FSI, the Institute of Fundraising and ACEVO in reaction to feedback from the general public that they wanted to know what difference their support, donations, and volunteering time had made. And of course, that makes sense. In a busy world, we can all be so focussed on reaching the next task that we forget about what’s been achieved. And charities are no different. But sometimes a thank you makes all the difference.

In life, we could all do with a little more reflection, some more pauses and a few more ‘thank yous’. Think about it, when did you last thank someone for a job well done, for helping you out of a scrape, or for just being there when you needed them. Those two little words can be very powerful, and we could all do with using them more.

Charities have had a bad rap over the past 12 months, and there has been a seemingly never-ending stream of negative stories about them. #YouMadeItHappen won’t take all the sting out that tail, but it has reignited a warm glow in us when we think about charities, that many of them deserve.

Alice Lythgoe Goldstein