‘Tis the season of giving… and this week, giving is worth double.

The Big Give 2010 Christmas Challenge runs from 6th – 10th December and means that any online donations to partnering charities made through The Big Give will be worth double the amount!

One of the charities that is part of the initiative is Volunteer Reading Help (VRH), which provides literacy support for children aged 6-11 in areas of deprivation across the UK, helping children who struggle with their reading to develop a love of books and learning. The charity recruits and trains reading helpers to work with children week in and week out, giving each child quality one to one time – reading, playing, talking, and transforming their approach to reading and learning.

So, this week, every pound donated to Volunteer Reading Help will have double the impact. To put it in perspective, a gift of £10 will be worth £20 and will fund four one-to-one reading sessions with a child instead of just two. Or a gift of £365 (a pound a day for a year) will be worth £730 – supporting two disadvantaged children twice-weekly for a year instead of just one.

What’s more, if Volunteer Reading Help can raise £5,000 between 6th – 10th December, the doubling of donations will be extended till the end of December or until donations hit another £5,000 – which will be mean an extra £10,000 towards helping children to read!

To help this initiative visit www.thebiggive.org.uk/donate/vrh now!

And to help even further…if you’re planning to buy any books off Amazon, visit the VRH website first and then click on their Amazon logo in the left column. You’re entrance to Amazon will now be tagged and for every book you purchase, VRH will receive a 5% commission! Brilliant. Now I can buy my mum the latest Judi Dench autobiography for Xmas and help a worthy cause in the process! I’ll definitely be in Santa’s good books this year.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager