The first £1m tranche of funding from the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund has now been made available to those affected by the recent bombing attack.
The We Love Manchester Fund collects together a number of different fundraising initiatives on JustGiving, particularly those spearheaded by the British Red Cross and the Manchester Evening News, in the wake of a suicide bomber attack at a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.
According to a press release from the British Red Cross, some £1m of the total money raised through the fund has now been made available to “those who have been injured or bereaved as a result of the attack at the Manchester Arena” on 22 May.
A spokeswoman from the BRC said that the first £1m of funding will be made available in “flat rate payments” and “will be given to families of the bereaved, those who were in hospital for more than seven days,” as well as those who were hospitalised overnight as a result of the bombing.
She said that “early funds will be released as gift payments” which means there will be “no conditions on how the recipients spend the money to support them and their loved ones through the immediate aftermath of the atrocity”.
The We Love Manchester Emergency Fund has now raised £6.9m. Once the initial round of funding has gone out, further funds will be made available in a phased process, “with priority given to those who have been bereaved or seriously injured in the attack”.
Civil Society News reported earlier in the week that Manchester City Council was looking to register the fund as a new charity to better enable it to distribute the funds to those affected. A spokesman from the Charity Commission said that the charity has not yet been registered, but said he expected the registration to go through "in the next day or so".
Even though the registration is not complete, the fund is already legally a charity.
The BRC spokeswoman said that the first round of funding had been agreed by the charity’s trustee board.
Tickets to One Love Manchester benefit concert sell out
It was confirmed that tickets for the ‘One Love Manchester’ benefit concert sold out within minutes of going on sale yesterday.
The concert, to be headlined by Ariana Grande, features other acts including Justin Beiber, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams and Take That, is to be held this Sunday at the 50,000-seat capacity Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
In Fundraising Magazine
It was reported earlier this week that all net proceeds of the show would be donated directly to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. Ariana Grande’s touring company predicted that the benefit would raise “around £2m” for the fund.
That would take the total amount raised by the fund to around £9m.
Taxi firm Uber have also pledged to match the amount made from fares going to and from the concert on Sunday and donate that to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.
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