A way to help charities and social enterprises that won’t cost you a penny!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by jenp

I bet I’m not the only person who’s a bit sick of the banks. I’m no financial expert, but from what I’ve gathered, the banks’ reckless actions in the past are at least in part to blame for the current financial crisis the world is facing. Yet the bankers seem to still be getting their enormous bonuses whilst others struggle with poverty and unemployment. But then I came across a bank that seems very different from the rest.

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Ideas needed: how can I make my target of helping 100 people in a life-changing way?

Posted on May 10, 2012 by jenp

I would love to be one of those amazing, inspiring people who drops everything and jets off to the other side of the world, to live their life a la Mother Teresa, amongst the poor and needy and making a real difference. But it just isn’t possible or practical and one of the whole reasons behind Help100 is to show that you don’t have to give up everything: you can keep the day job and still make a difference. Continue reading →

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If you’re anywhere near West Yorkshire, here’s something you might like to visit

Posted on May 3, 2012 by jenp

We’ve all read the story of the prodigal son, who ends up sleeping rough and eating the swill from the pigs’ trough. But it shocked me to read of a man who slept in a pig sty and lived on scraps of foraged food within 2 miles of my own home. Such desperate poverty is something we’d like to think is confined to developing countries millions of miles away but it isn’t. It’s on our doorsteps.

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If you’re helping others, does it matter what your motives are? Is there such a thing as a bad reason for being philanthropic?

Posted on April 27, 2012 by jenp

Someone called me a philanthropist the other day. I was a bit surprised: philanthropists are people like Titus Salt and Joseph Rowntree who did enormous amounts of good for other people. Not people like me who are just trying to do their bit. And by bit … well, I really am only doing a bit in comparison to some people.

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An Inspiring Story: Start Something That Matters

Posted on April 23, 2012 by jenp

I wandered into the Oxfam bookstore in Bloomsbury a couple of weeks ago and spent a very pleasant hour browsing. Start Something That Matters caught my eye. Perfect, I thought. I wanted to buy something as it was in a good cause. And wasn’t that what I was trying to do with Help100: start something that matters?

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It’s official: I am one of the happiest people in the world

Posted on April 16, 2012 by jenp

I love getting Amazon packages but a recent arrival was particularly exciting: Laura Vanderkam’s latest book All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know about Getting and Spending. It was exciting because I am mentioned. There’s over a whole page about my Help100 project! You can even look up “Jennifer Page” in the index (pages 178-9 if you’re interested).

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10 Special People Wanted

Posted on April 14, 2012 by jenp

When I first thought of Help100, the idea was that I would help 100 people in a life-changing way and whether I could persuade 10 other people to help 100 people. Then 1100 people would be helped. And if they each persuaded 10 of their friends – the numbers quickly stack up. I’m almost half way to 100 now. So my question is: would you like to join me?
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50 Ways To Help 100 People and Make a Difference

Posted on April 11, 2012 by jenp

Here are 50 ways that you can help other people and make a difference. Do each of them twice and you will have helped at least 100 people (some of them help more than one person anyway!)

For obvious reasons, please just do number 39 once!

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When poverty is picturesque, are we more inclined to give?

Posted on April 11, 2012 by jenp

It’s exciting going off to Africa to try to help people over there. I’ve done it twice. But now, I’m trying to help people in my local area. I love the idea of working locally, but helping West Yorkshire is less appealing than helping West Africa and I’m wondering why that is?

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The one where I get to visit an Archbishop’s palace

Posted on April 4, 2012 by jenp

On Monday, I went to the Archbishop of York’s palace to an event run by the charity Acts435. The great man himself was there and over lunch, I got talking to his lovely wife. I had to pinch myself: I am not the sort of person who normally lunches with archbishops. The Houses of Parliament one week, Bishopsthorpe Palace the next. All because of Help100.

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