How Do We Invest Our Funds?
Autism All Stars is an independent charity, started from scratch without outside funding.
As a result, there are many financial demands to be met at each stage before we can expand our services and reach more people.
Practical expenses including public liability insurance, venue hire, website hosting and DBS checks all have to be found, and thanks to our amazing supporters we’ve managed to meet all our legal requirements and become officially recognised by both the Charity Commission and HMRC.
Our Plans for the Future
Autism All Stars has been run by a very small, but incredibly dedicated team for over twelve years now.
During that time we’ve helped thousands of people increase their self-esteem, improve their family relationships and gain a deeper understanding and acceptance of autism in all its forms.
The Covid-19 crisis brought unprecedented changes to everyone, and to continue our work, we now plan to expand our team, provide new services and offer additional forms of support.
We therefore need your help in raising our profile and finding new supporters to fundraise on our behalf, allowing us to work behind the scenes helping autistic people and their loved ones in times of need.
Visit our VOLUNTEER PAGE for more details on how you can support us.
Our Long-term Goals
Here are some of our objectives for the long term, so when you fundraise for Autism All Stars, these are the goals you’ll be contributing towards:
- Having our flyers freely available in libraries, schools, colleges, universities, chemists, doctors’ surgeries, health centres, advice centres and at all other relevant locations
- Paying for diagnosis, therapy, counselling and mentoring services for autistic and neurodiverse people
- Making gifts to parents and children struggling with isolation and social exclusion
- Training therapists to support autistic and neurodiverse people, their parents, siblings and carers
- Training speakers to spread a positive message of hope about autism
- Connecting autistic people’s loved ones to provide mutual support, without discrimination or division based on the severity of how autism affects their daily lives
- Organising day trips and holidays for autistic teenagers and adults, their parents and carers
- Building an online resource library, advice and support service for autistic people and those affected by its related conditions, including ADHD, epilepsy, dyslexia and Tourette’s
- Running a befriending scheme for elderly parents of autistic people, giving them peace of mind that their children will be properly cared for in the event of their death, by people who truly understand them and their unique needs
- Opening a social enterprise for autistic people where they can create items to sell for profit, with all proceeds going directly to help those most in need
- Funding research into suicide rates in teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum to allow the government to officially categorise these groups as ‘high risk’
Regular Outgoings
Below are just a few of our regular outgoings to give you an idea of what it takes to keep the charity running.
Improving the lives of autistic people and their loved ones is our number one priority, and with your help we can continue this long into the future.
People often worry about not being able to donate enough to us to make a genuine difference, but we’re extremely careful with our funds and every penny really does count.
Look at it this way: we have over 60,000 followers on social media, so even fifty pence from each of them would keep us going for a very long time!
- £10 pays for a ticket to one of our autism-friendly cinema clubs
- £25 pays for specialist toys and equipment for autistic children and adults living in poverty and crisis situations
- £45 pays for a DBS check for one of our volunteers
- £55 pays for a one-to-one session with a qualified therapist or mentor
- £100 helps towards the cost of organising individual support networks for vulnerable people
- £150 pays for volunteers’ refreshments at our character events
- £300 pays for a year’s Public & Employers Liability Insurance
- £500 pays for a year’s hosting and management of our website
- £600 helps towards the yearly running costs of our office
- £1,000 helps cover the cost of our online support services and the distribution of vitally needed supplies to families in poverty
- £4,500 pays for the running of our autism-friendly cinema and theatre clubs for a year
There are many ways you can donate online, lots of which are completely free to use. Find out more about them here: ONLINE FUNDRAISING
For more on our intentions, click here:
OUR AIMS
When we have enough funds, we’ll achieve all these things and many, many more besides. To some it may seem like an impossible task, but to us, the words of Margaret Mead ring loud and true:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead