Hampshire charity Dogs for Autism receives almost £8,500 from Raffle House
After setting up a corporate partnership with the prize draw operator last year, the assistance dog charity is hoping the relationship will grow to enable full sponsorship of a puppy next year.
A charity that provides assistance dogs for those with autism has received an £8,474 donation from Raffle House, funds the charity said will be a huge help as it seeks to increase the number of autistic people it is able to support.
Dogs for Autism was founded in 2019 by Hilary Armour, a dog trainer with an autistic son whose life was dramatically improved after getting his first dog. After recognising the benefits of assistance dogs for those with autism, she set up the charity with a mission to provide assistance dogs at no charge to autistic people of all ages.
The dogs are trained from puppies at the charity’s training centre in Alton, Hampshire. They are typically paired up with someone in need when they reach the age of about two.
Raffle House is a UK prize draw provider that gives away multimillion-pound homes and various other prizes. Part of its mission is to raise funds for charity, with a portion of each entry going to a charity partner.
When purchasing tickets, Raffle House allows players to decide which of its partners they wish to direct the charitable donation portion of their entry to and it distributes these funds to charities on an annual basis. Since last year, players have been able to select Dogs for Autism and it has just received its first donation.
“Every penny raised helps us towards our goal of transforming the lives of families affected by autism and we are so grateful for the support from Raffle House players so far,” said Laura McCreadie, Fundraising Manager at Dogs for Autism.
“The difference our dogs make is life-changing and it’s partly thanks to the kindness of people who choose our charity that this is possible. Raffle House’s donation will help us to continue to train and support the amazing dogs we work with, who have a profound impact on their partners.”
McCreadie said the success of the first year of the partnership, together with planned collaborations for the future, meant the charity was optimistic that the next round of Raffle House donations could potentially fund the training of an additional dog, which typically costs in the region of £25,000 in total.
“As a small charity, we can only financially afford to begin training of five or six dogs each year. Yet the demand is huge – when we last opened up applications, we had more than 700 people express interest in applying for an assistance dog over a two-week period. Every additional dog we’re able to train means another family we’re able to help.”
James Mieville, Executive Director at Raffle House, said: “We’re pleased to be able to support such a worthwhile charity and are glad our players have quickly gotten behind Dogs for Autism. We hope to grow our partnership further so that in future, our financial support allows the charity to help even more people.”