The Daily Express has carried a front page appeal from Esther Rantzen, founder of Silver Line, the loneliness charity for older people, claiming it will close without urgent funding.
The paper’s front page says the charity, which has a turnover of £5.1m a year, is in danger of closure after coming to the end of a five-year package of support from the Big Lottery Fund.
Rantzen told the paper that the charity – which exists mainly to offer a helpline for elderly people in need – must find an additional £200,000 of funding to make it to the end of the year.
“The Silver Line, like many other charities working with and for older people, finds it incredibly difficult to raise the funds we need,” Rantzen wrote in today’s newspaper. “That’s why I have turned to the Daily Express, appealing for help. We have been overwhelmed by the demand for our helpline.
“We have grown as fast as we can but even so we can only answer four out of five of the older people who need us desperately.”
The Silver Line has grown rapidly in size since it was formed in 2013. As of March last year, it had free reserves of just £62,000, but additional restricted reserves of £617,000.
Grant income is currently £4.1m, compared to cash donations of £747,000. The Big Lottery funding accounts for £2.5m of that.
The BLF has not ruled out providing further funding for the project.
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