On Friday 25th November 35 people decided to brave the cold weather and sleep outside Manchester Cathedral to raise money for the Booth Centre.

The event raised over £5,000, which will make an immediate difference to the work the centre can do. Amanda Croome, manager of the Booth Centre said "The number of homeless people in Manchester has increased recently and the Booth Centre is doing everything it can to ensure that as few people as possible end up rough sleeping, and those that do are able to get off the streets as quickly as possible.  This boost to our funds will make a real difference to our work."

Although the event only gave a glimpse of what life on the streets is like, we wanted to make sure that those participating understood the reality of sleeping rough. "We asked two people who have slept rough in the past to give everyone taking part a true picture of what it is really like to sleep out, how dangerous and demoralising it is and also to explain how they have rebuilt their lives with help from the Booth Centre."  

Among those taking part in the event was Jill Southern, who works at St Thomas Primary School in Leigh. "It was a great experience. I did get a couple of hours sleep, but I'm lucky enough to be able to come home to a warm house and a cosy bed afterwards. The evening really made me appreciate what I've got."

A huge thank you to everyone that took part and made this event such a success! For photos of the event please see our facebook page. 

The staff at GVA Grimley's Manchester office adopted us as their charity of the year - and so far they've raised a whopping £3,000 for us by running a series of events, including cake sales that were very popular with everyone!

They dropped by the Centre on Wednesday to present us with a cheque for all the money they've raised, which we can use right away to make a real difference to the lives of homeless people in Manchester. 

We'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone from GVA Grimley that has been involved in this fundraising. 

If you'd like to find out more about how you can help raise funds for the Booth Centre through your organisation, please take a look at our corporate giving page or get in touch.

Since we relaunched our website in 2010 we've been thrilled by the amount of support you've shown - whether it be through taking up the volunteering opportunities we advertised, participating in our campaigns, or by fundraising for the centre. You have also given us a huge amount of feedback, which gives us a fantastic opportunity to improve what we do and how we do it.

One of the things you've said you would like to see improve is the ways in which you can make donations online. We are delighted to announce that as of today you can give money to the Booth Centre online through our JustGiving page.

By using JustGiving to manage donations we hope to make it easier and faster for you to give to the Booth Centre, and it also opens up opportunities for more flexible ways of giving that we couldn't accommodate before, such as donating through PayPal or by donating a regular sum each month.

It also makes it much easier for us to claim Gift Aid on donations, meaning we will spend less time processing payments and more time where it's really needed - providing advice and activities for homeless people.

You can find out more about JustGiving at their website.

If you have any questions, feedback or ideas on these changes please post them in the comments section.