Eat, drink and raise money

Raise money for us simply by doing something you enjoy - having your friends round for dinner!

Just go to www.dinner4good.com/GiveABrick and you'll see it couldn't be easier to Host a Dinner.

You start by creating a personalised "Dinner Page" on the Dinner4Good website (takes about 5 minutes) and then email invitations will be automatically sent from the site. Your guests then accept and donate online, which means you can see who's coming and how much is being raised - in a click. It reduces the awkwardness of asking for money and no there's no hassle with collecting cash. Dinner4Good takes care of everything, including the Gift Aid application - so all you have to do is eat, drink and enjoy yourselves!

Tell your friends over dinner about GiveABrick and they might also want to hold a Dinner4Good of their own - so the good goes on and on!

Love,
The Blue Princess x

Twitter, MySpace and all things web ...

Good Evening :)
Just a very quick (and long overdue!) update. Things have been very busy behind the scenes in charity land. I'd hoped that 2009 would be the year that Blue and I finally got our acts together and updated this blog more regularly. But here we are, mid way through February and I haven't even wished you a "Happy New Year!" yet.

Ah well, better late than never! I trust that 2009 is living up to all you anticipated it would and that it finds you happy and healthy.

So on to news ... One of the more follicle challenged trustees of GAB suggested that we should, to put it in his own words, "harness the power of viral marketing!" That sounds clever I said. When would you like to start?

So this month sees me getting my pretty little toes wet (OK, so like yours they're neither pretty nor even that little but a girl can dream!) and holding Blue's hand as we try twittering. If you haven't Twittered yet, the BBC Breakfast programme described it as the next big thing (or similar) so I did as I was told and helped Blue start twittering.

It seems that she didn't need all that much help after all and can now, after just a handful of 'updates', she can count Stephen Fry as a 'follower' (yes, Mr Trustee, THAT Stephen Fry :)

So if you'd like to Twitter with us (or if you're brand new and want to start) join us here:

The Blue Princess on Twitter

As an aside, it seems that 'Give A Brick' the website builders are in action again. We've been commissioned by Myrddin Mortgages to update their site. Many thanks to Helen Thomas, director, manager and all round lovely lady :) I'll let you know when it's ready to be unveiled so you can stand by and 'ahhhh!' wildly.

Until the next time,
Eleanor x

P.S. Sorry for the inaccurate use of the phrase 'very quick update'. I got carried away!

This is a post so I can 'claim' my blog over at Technorati!

Ok, I'm not sure how long this post will have to remain but, this is a quick post to prove that I, The Blue Princess, am the author of this blog. I have to put a little piece of code in. It's here:

Technorati Profile

OK, and now I'm done!

Why? You might be wondering. OK, we at Give A Brick, and that includes my royal highness self, are experimenting with a few different online things such as Twitter, MySpace and Technorati.

Watch this space ...

Love,

The Blue Princess x

Give A Brick - the website builders!!

Evening :D
It seems that Give A Brick have found a new way to lend a hand and raise some money at the same time. Not content with building a pretty website for ourselves, I helped a lovely policeman called Owen. Why would a policeman need a website? To advertise his telephone number?!

But this policeman is moonlighting as an actor. Everyone knows that actors love talking about themselves and this one's no exception!

Seriously though, I put a lovely (OK, so I'm biased but he's pleased with it!) page together for him and asked if he'd Give A Brick (just 1 remember) in return. The generous gentleman gave a few more than just one (now that's just naughty, you know what I always say - Give A Brick, just 1!) so this post is a public "Thank you" and an offer of my services for anyone else out there who'd like a fabulous web presense in exchange for giving a brick and telling your friends.

Until the next time ...

Love,

The Blue Princess x

Why bother?

Sometimes I feel like I'm banging my pretty little head against the proverbial brick wall (no pun intended!) Back last Summer, it seemed like such a simple, captivating idea to ask everyone to give just one brick. But it turns out that 'everyone' is quite hard to get hold of!

It seemed I might have been somewhat naive in my belief that the media would love the idea of a charity that only wanted a pound. I thought they'd jump up and down with excitement when they saw our funky website.

Give A Brick's financial year runs from August so with half our year gone, one would expect us to be very close to having earned the £5000 we need to prove ourselves worthy of registered charitable status. Without it, we can't have an online donation facility which is why we rushed into registering when we did.

So are we nearly there yet?

Not really. So we need your help. If you haven't yet done so, please visit www.GiveABrick.com and click on the 'donate now' logo to Give A Brick. It'll only cost you a quid but what is more important (or at least as important) is that you please, please ask your friends to do the same.

So why bother Giving A Brick?

Give A Brick is a grant giving charity. We put lots of effort into asking everyone to Give A Brick and we then share the bricks out by giving them to projects that are helping the people we want to help.

Who do we want to help? Lots of people: Children, young people, elderly people and people who are struggling financially.

We Give Bricks to projects that are helping make life better for people (and very soon, if you Give A Brick online you can even help us chose which projects to support).

The first project is based in Cross Hands in South Wales. Cross Hands Christian Centre are saving up for an extension to the rear of the church. This will provide facilities for parent and toddler groups, lunch clubs for their older neighbours, after-school and holiday clubs and eventually, a pregnancy advisory service.

If you live in Cross Hands, you can probably see why you'd want to Give A Brick. If you live in Carmarthenshire or Swansea, you'd again probably feel like supporting a local charity. But if you live in Leeds or Rochdale or Coventry (for example) why should you bother Giving A Brick?

Give A Brick is about putting the fun back in to life for people who could do with a smile. We might not be pouring money into your community right now but if you ask us, we could.

It all starts with a single brick from you so please Give A Brick and then tell your friends.

Thanks :D

Happy New Year!

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Happy New Year!

There's nothing else to add really, the title says it all.

Have a happy, healthy 2008 and remember, if you haven't already, please Give A Brick ;)

Give A Brick Online (a.k.a. Online Donation)

Quick, we're giving out forks ... the BBQ is almost ready!

Have you told all your friends yet? You and they can now Give A Brick online. It's powered by Charity Choice and the best news is that it's 100% free to use for both you the giver and us, the charity. You can make a Gift Aid donation (which I highly recommend as it means we get an extra 28p at no extra cost to you ;) and it is 100% secure.

You know what this means don't you? Time to ask EVERYONE to Give A Brick!