A Christmas Carol.
Our members will each receive a “Dickensian” gift this year, and there’s a reason why, and I hope the message in this final four-i of the year resonates with you too.
In May 1843, Charles Dickens, having attended a fundraising dinner for the poor, described the rich folk who were present as “sleek, slobbering, bow-paunched, overfed, apoplectic, snorting cattle.”
Rather than just making a token donation, Dickens wanted to bring about a real change in society, and intended to write a petition to government titled: “An Appeal to the People of England, on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child”, but, the more he thought about it, he realised that he could write something far more powerful, to strike “a sledgehammer blow” on behalf of poor children and have “twenty thousand times the force” of a petition.
That October, Dickens visited Manchester to give a speech in support of an educational charity for working men and women. Apparently suffering from writer’s block, Dickens took to wandering the industrial streets at night, and what he saw in Manchester, during a period of extreme economic depression, spurred him to write, ‘A Christmas Carol’, as a way of shaming the wealthy to have compassion for the less fortunate in society. It’s perhaps his most successful, and certainly best known work – not least as the gap between the haves and have nots is still, appallingly, very much present today.
Over two decades ago, at another time of recession, I co-founded the industry charity, Agents Giving. It’s helped raise many millions of pounds for a huge number of charities and local causes.
And whilst I appreciate the testing times many businesses are currently experiencing, they pale into insignificance compared with the hardships those most economically challenged face right now – so can I ask you to get involved this Christmas, and make a real difference?
The ask is a small one, just £99 to become an Agents Giving Supporter. And you’ll get a huge return from being involved – see all about it here: https://agentsgiving.org/meet-our-supporters/
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