The UK's top poverty relief charities, all in one place.

Our favourite four UK poverty relief charities, each working on a different piece of the puzzle: housing, food, homelessness, and the children most at risk.

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  Shelter

  Registered Charity: 263710

  What they do

  Helping people facing homelessness or bad housing, and campaigning to fix the UK's housing crisis at its roots.

  Where they focus

  A free housing helpline and webchat, legal casework, frontline advice services, and policy and campaigning.

  Why it matters

  Over 354,000 people in England are homeless or stuck in temporary accommodation tonight, and the law is on their side only if they know how to use it.

  Why we like them

  Shelter does the unglamorous legal work behind a tenancy that nobody else will. A free phone call can mean the difference between keeping your home and losing it, and that's a very direct thing to fund.

  Visit Shelter →
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  FareShare

  Registered Charity: 1100051

  What they do

  Rescuing good-quality surplus food from the supply chain and getting it to charities that feed people in need.

  Where they focus

  Distribution to 8,500 frontline charities, including school breakfast clubs, community kitchens and refuges.

  Why it matters

  The UK throws away enough surplus food to feed millions every year while one in seven adults skip meals because of cost.

  Why we like them

  Two problems solved at once: food that would have been binned ends up on someone's plate. We back charities that find these elegant fixes, and the supermarket logistics behind it are genuinely impressive.

  Visit FareShare →
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  Crisis

  Registered Charity: 1082947

  What they do

  Working one-to-one with people experiencing homelessness, and campaigning for the policy changes that prevent it.

  Where they focus

  Year-round Skylight centres, learning and employment support, housing-first approaches, and Crisis at Christmas.

  Why it matters

  Homelessness in the UK is rising again, and one-off interventions only patch over a problem that needs structural fixes.

  Why we like them

  Crisis treats people as individuals, not case numbers. The work goes well beyond a bed for the night, with training, ID cards, GP registration and the small things that get a life back on track.

  Visit Crisis →
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  Barnardo's

  Registered Charity: 216250

  What they do

  Supporting the UK's most vulnerable children and families, from foster care to exploitation recovery.

  Where they focus

  Fostering and adoption, child sexual exploitation services, mental health, young carer programmes, and early-years work.

  Why it matters

  More than four million UK children live in poverty. Barnardo's is one of the few charities working with the children behind that statistic, family by family.

  Why we like them

  Over 150 years of doing this work and still adapting: same name, very different services from when it started. The boring, careful safeguarding work that protects children from the worst things is exactly what we want our money funding.

  Visit Barnardo's →