Mahendra Patel launches ‘givaPound’ fundraising campaign

Mahendra Patel, a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and a member of the English Pharmacy Board, has launched a charitable campaign to raise money for four different charities.

The campaign, ’givaPound’ aims to raise awareness about how much difference a pound can make, Patel says.

“It’s about raising money through simplicity,” he says. “£1.00 is a sum of money that people can willingly give, without feeling obligated to donate because they may happen to know me. For some people, £1.00 is their daily meal. But many of us are fortunate enough to think of a pound coin as loose change — we’ve always got a few of them rattling around in our pocket or purse.”

The strapline of the givaPound campaign — “We’ll show how far a pound can go” — is intended to reflect power that small donations, given in sufficient numbers.

“At the end of this first year, I want to be able to say to people: ‘Look — you gave me one pound. Now just see how far your money has gone,” Patel says.

Money donated through the givaPound website will be pooled and split between the four charities — the British Heart Foundation, the South Asian Health Foundation, the Mouth Cancer Foundation and Pharmacist Support. There will also be an option to donate £1 directly to each of the four charities by text message, and by givaPound donation links on each of the four charities’ websites.

The campaign, which will initially run for 365 days, began on 17 May 2017.

Although the givaPound campaign is in its early days, Patel already plans to expand his range of fundraising activities over the next 12 months. “I’m looking at creating football and golf tournaments,” he says, adding that he is even considering entering the London Marathon in 2018.

More information can be found at the givaPound website, and through the #givaPound hashtag on Twitter. 

The RPS has no formal connection to the givaPound campaign.