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Bristol autism charity becomes latest in region to receive mystery £1,000 gift

07 Jun 2024 News

White piggy bank

Adobe Stock / Dilok

Bristol Autism Support has this week become the latest charity in the region to receive an anonymous £1,000 cash donation in old paper £20 notes.

On Tuesday, the charity received a parcel containing £1,020 and no message about who sent the money.

Initially suspicious, the charity decided it was appropriate to accept the donation and cashed the money in at the post office.

The charity’s parent support manager Jade Page said the money has now been put through to its bank account and will serve as a beneficial source of unrestricted funds.

“It allows us to have the flexibility to meet the needs of the individuals that we’re supporting,” she said.

“A lot of our grant pots are constricted as to what we can spend them on, so it really, really makes a difference.”

Series of anonymous cash donations

Bristol Autism Support’s donation follows a series of similar gifts reported by other nearby charities in recent months.

Marie Curie received a donation to its office containing £1,0000 in old £20 notes last month.

Hannah Drury, the charity’s community fundraiser for Bristol, Bath and Somerset, said: “We had no contact details from the donor but I recalled a similar story about an RNLI donation and when we compared the envelope we had to the pictures, they had similar handwriting.”

Drury said the money would support the charity’s hospice care at home services as well as its information and support provision.

Portishead donation image.jpg
© RNLI Portishead

RNLI Portishead received two anonymous donations – one in February and a second in April this year.

Its first gift contained £1,260 in £20 notes without any other information while the second parcel contained £1,100.

Writing on social media after the April gift, the charity said: “Thank you so so much to our anonymous donor who has posted another envelope through our door full of £20 notes! Thankfully as we are a charity the bank will take the ‘old notes’ for now.”

Page from Bristol Autism Support said it would be “lovely” if the mystery donations continued to charities in the area.

She said: “If it just keeps going, we’ll see. I’m very pleased that we were chosen.”

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