AIMS accepts no commercial sponsorship. We believe this is important to make sure that the charity is, and is seen to be, wholly independent of any third parties in order to preserve our reputation for providing impartial information. This means that AIMS is reliant on membership subscriptions, donations, profits from AIMS Shop sales, grants and other fundraising to be able to continue our work.
Most of the work of AIMS is carried out by volunteers, but like everyone else, the charity is experiencing rising costs. With income from membership fees and book sales falling in the last year, we are struggling to remain financially viable. We also have ambitions to develop new information resources, including in different formats and languages, but these will cost money.
If you like what AIMS does to support individuals and to campaign for improvements to the maternity services and want us to be able to continue and build on our work, please consider supporting us financially and encouraging your colleagues, family and friends to do so. Here are some suggestions for ways to do this.
If you are a UK taxpayer and paying a membership subscription or making a donation, then AIMS can claim gift aid if you have made a gift aid declaration. This enables AIMS to claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give. It will not cost you any extra, and you can include any subscriptions or donations you’ve made over the last four years, as well as future ones. If you are eligible, you can make a declaration here www.aims.org.uk/giftAid.php
Annual membership subscriptions are an important part of AIMS income. If you are not already a member please consider joining and encouraging others to do so Join AIMS - Become a Member. You can also give an AIMS Gift Membership
If you are already a member, could you consider giving a donation as well as renewing your membership? We have kept the membership fee unchanged since 2008, but if it had risen with inflation it would now be around £43. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making up all or part of the difference.
We welcome donations - large or small.
We use Peoples Fundraising as it is a non-profit organisation and has the lowest charges whilst also providing a service which manages gift aid on donations made through them.
You can use the site to make a one-off or regular donation towards our work. Please remember to tick the Gift Aid box if you are eligible
Sales of AIMS books, as well as providing valuable, evidence-based information for anyone who is soon to give birth and anyone supporting parents through pregnancy and birth, are one of our main sources of income Please think about buying them for yourself, for pregnant family members or friends, or any birthworkers that you know. Most are available as paperbacks or eBooks. We also sell notelets, bags and mugs. You can see the full range here AIMS UK Shop.
Don’t forget that you can can choose a free AIMS Bag, DVD or pack of notelets if you spend over £30, plus free postage if you spend over £50
You can raise funds for AIMS just by shopping online, at no cost to you. All you need to do is register on the easyfundraising website and choose “Association for Improvement in the Maternity Services (AIMS)” as your cause. easyfundraising partners with over 7,000 brands. When you shop with any of these through the easyfundraising link they will donate part of what you spend to AIMS. It won't cost you any extra.
Even better, if you use this link www.easyfundraising.org.uk/support-a-good-cause/step-1/?char=307804&invite=jnfo1c&referral-campaign=s2s&utm_campaign=refCROtest to sign up, AIMS will get an extra £5 donation once you’ve raised £5 through your online shopping.
Please share this with your colleagues, friends and family and encourage them to support our work in this way.
Instead of creating cardboard waste, why not send eCards from the website DontSendMeACard.com and donate the cost equivalent of printed greeting cards and postage to AIMS? They have a wide range of designs for all occasions. You just need to choose AIMS (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services) as your charity, select your card design and decide how much you want to donate.
Or if you want to send a physical card check out the AIMS Christmas cards and notelets here Leaflets, Notelets, Bags & Mugs – AIMS UK Shop
If you sell on eBay you can choose to donate a percentage of the proceeds to AIMS. All you need to do is add to your listing the name of the charity (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services) and the donation percentage you want to give. After the item sells and the buyer pays, the system will automatically route your donation to AIMS through PayPal Giving Fund. You can also add Gift Aid to your donation by logging into PayPal Gift Aid to make your declaration.
See https://charity.ebay.co.uk/help/seller for more details.
We’d love people to fundraise for us. You might like to hold a coffee morning, get sponsored for a parachute jump - or anything else you can think of!
The easiest way to fundraise for AIMS is to create an account with Peoples Fundraising here. You can then set up a donation or fundraising page, including raffle, event, auction, lottery or memory pages. Donors will be able to make their donations directly to AIMS, and to gift aid donations if they are UK tax payers.
Thank you for your support of AIMS.