made4aid is a non-profit project which began in June 2009. It grew out of a number of things including blogging and development of on-line friendships and communities; love of handmade arts and crafts; the desire to contribute to charity and aid work.

Made4aid was inspired especially by Joyce’s Electic Bag blog where Joyce was auctioning hand-made vintage fabric bags to raise money for Darfur. The idea of made4aid grew from the thought that there might be other creative people who would welcome the opportunity to donate their work to raise money for charity, and made4aid was launched in June 2009, as a non-profit organisation, run by volunteers.

Between June 2009 and March 2010, we sold lots of lovely handmade items on the made4aid blog, and raised nearly £2000/$3000.

In Autumn 2010 the made4aid Etsy shop launched.

Overview – how does made4aid work?

Anyone can donate suitable items to made4aid – almost anything handmade by you, or vintage handmade items, or supplies for art/craft. Donations are usually virtual – details are sent to us, so that we can list your item in the made4aid Etsy shop.  Further information : Donations.

We will accept donations from anywhere in the world and we do what we can to enable people to donate if they wish to. When an item is bought, it will be shipped either by us, from London UK, or by the person who donated it.

At regular intervals the money raised is passed on to our designated charity organisation, Médecins sans Frontière / Doctors without Borders.

Made4aid organisation and giving

• made4aid is a member of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, membership number : 11190.
• made4aid is run by volunteers and is entirely non-profit-making, money raised is given to charity*.
• money raised from sales goes first to the made4aid payment account, then into a Charity Aid Foundation account where gift aid is added –  and from there it goes to our designated charity.

* Proceeds from sale of items is donated after payment of Etsy and paypal charges and shipping costs, though shipping costs are sometimes paid by the person who donated the item. In some cases the maker or creator of an item will also receive a proportion of the item price to cover the cost of materials – this will always be clearly stated in the item description on Etsy.

Made4aid donations to charity

Up to 22 December 2021: made4aid has donated £10928 / US$14565 to charity, excluding Gift Aid which is added at the point of donation. This has been raised by 772 online sales, plus some direct sales at fund-raising events or person to person. Money is organised and donated via the Charity Aid Foundation. This is where the money has gone:

From June 2009 – September 2010 made4aid sent money raised to the World Food Programme for relief work in the refugee camps in Darfur. In January and February 2010, we also sent money to the World Food Programme for relief work in Haiti.

Totals given to the World Food Programme: £1300 / $ (S) 2114.32 to the World Food Programme for work in Darfur £520 / $780.73 to the World Food Programme for work in Haiti.

In 2011, made4aid were involved in fund-raising for the Japan emergency, working with EdmissionUK. £163/$260 was raised and donated, via the Japan Embassy in London and the British Red Cross.

Since Autumn 2010 made4aid has donated all profits to Médecins sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders. Donations to MSF up to February 2022 have totalled £9545 excluding Gift Aid. TOTAL DONATED: the various donations detailed above make a total, donated by February 2022, of £11528.

Copies of our Charity Aid Account payments are available on request.