Frequently asked questions

Celebrate and Donate is a way to use your special occasion – a birthday, wedding, anniversary, or other big day – to help raise vital funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.  By asking for donations instead of gifts, you’ll help fund the amazing work that takes place at GOSH every day – and that's definitely something to celebrate!

The easiest way to fundraise in celebration is to open a JustGiving page and share the link with family, friends, and colleagues. We also have a range of materials to help with your celebration, including:

• Donation envelopes
• Balloons, posters, and collection tins 
• Pin badges, for a suggested donation of £2 per badge

To request supplies, simply tell us about your celebration and we’ll contact you – oremail us.

The wording you choose will depend on the tone of your event and invitations, but the most popular way to convey the idea is to talk about donations instead of presents and to make the point that collectively you can achieve amazing things. Money raised in celebration is vital to fund Great Ormond Street Hospital to continue helping seriously ill children. All donations make a big difference. For example, £40 could cover the cost of one night’s stay in our family accommodation, so parents can stay minutes, not miles, from their child’s bedside while they receive life-changing treatment.

Your donations will help us to enable Great Ormond Street Hospital to provide world-class care for its young patients and their families. The funds will be used to contribute to:

• The redevelopment and refurbishment of the hospital
• The purchase of the most up-to-date equipment
• Research into new treatments and cures
• Accommodation and other support services for the children and their families

Donations from UK tax payers are worth an extra 25p for every £1 donated – at no cost to you – if you tick the Gift Aid box. Please do this if you can. More information about Gift Aid is available from HMRC.

If you request it, we can let you know the full amount raised for your celebration, but cannot tell you which individuals have donated.

Yes, unless you ask us not to, you should receive a thank you letter or email after your celebration has taken place. If you haven’t received a thank you please contact us at community.events@gosh.org so we can check for you.

Cheques or Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) vouchers can be made out to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and sent to Celebrate and Donate, 40 Bernard Street, London WC1N 1LE. Please be sure to include the details of the occasion you’re celebrating. Please do not send cash through the post.

Donations can be made over the phone on 020 7239 3002 or by post. Cheques or CAF vouchers should be made out to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and sent to Celebrate and Donate, 40 Bernard Street, London WC1N 1LE. Please ask friends and family to include the name of your celebration.

This would mean us taking personal information from you, including passwords, so unfortunately we are unable to do this. It's easy to set up a page; simply go to the JustGiving website and follow the instructions. This will take you through starting your page, adding your story and photos, and customising the email your donors will receive. For any assistance, please call the JustGiving Customer Support team on 0845 078 2063 or see their help section.

JustGiving has helpful instructions on adding offline donations to your page.

Please take a look at JustGiving's help section.

As with any service, we do have to pay a small fee for JustGiving to process your kind gifts. As a charity we have shopped around and believe we have found the most cost-effective way of providing the best customer care and ease of service to you. JustGiving charges a small monthly fee to the charity, plus a minimal fee on each donation, including Gift Aid, made through the site. These fees are reinvested back into making JustGiving better for you.

The JustGiving website has instructions on how to start a JustGiving page.