15 years of Acts 435
This year we're celebrating 15 years of enabling donors to directly give to anyone who has need. Join us in celebrating by sharing your story of Acts 435!
Acts 435 began in 2009, and was the idea of business man Julian Richer. He approached the Archbishop of York and together they developed the idea, and the name for Acts 435! We were then officially launched by our Patron, the Right Rev Dr John Sentamu, the former Archbishop of York (both pictured here alongside Margaret Sentamu, and team from the Diocese of York).
Since these beginnings the charity has gone from strength to strength as more local churches and charities saw the benefits of partnering with Acts 435 to provide for specific needs, and more supporters found out about the unique way of giving to individuals online.
Since 2010 Acts 435 has been able to help to support 60,000 individual requests for help, with over £7 million, through a network of churches and charities who are seeing the need in their local communities.
Jenny Herrera, Executive Director, began as the sole employee of the charity, and has overseen much change and growth over the last 15 years. On reaching this milestone she has said:
When we celebrated 10 years of Acts 435 we were deep in the pandemic. Unbelievably another 5 years have gone by and seen us go from strength to strength, now giving out over 1 million pounds every year to help people who still find themselves in such difficult circumstances. When we launched in 2010 I'm sure we didn't think we would still be so needed in 2025, but with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, too many people in our nation continue to fall through the cracks. They are so grateful that complete strangers step in to help, giving over £7million to support over 60,000 people. Incredible!
Some highlights for us as a charity over the last 15 years have included seeing all the needs on our website completely met by the end of December every year! We also experienced many astonishing days of giving when we were featured on Songs of Praise (in 2011 and 2023) and during two of Stewardship's 40acts Lent Resources.
Alongside the amazing generosity of new and regular donors we have also seen amazing faithfulness from our local partners in the last 15 years, some having partnered with us for the whole duration! Just two years after the launch we had 100 Advocates posting requests for help, and we now have 788 Advocates from different partners around the UK.
We're also award-winning, and won the Best Replicable Project at the Christian Funders Forum Awards in 2018.
While 2020, and the national lockdown, was hard for many we were able to use our platform to support those struggling. We were also able to give our local partners the ability to support their communities at this difficult time. It was also greatly appreciated by many donors who wanted to help those in the UK, and we saw much generosity during this time.
2020 was also our 10th Anniversary, and while we filmed a video and printed a wonderful booklet we were unable to celebrate in-person. This is where our annual Giving Hope Together events developed, and why we still run them today. We were keen to celebrate our 15th Anniversary this year, especially due to this disappointment, so we have been celebrating throughout the year.
We firstly celebrated with our community of donors and partner churches/charities, without whom we wouldn't exist as a charity. We held our annual Giving Hope Together event online and were joined by our Founder and Chair of Trustees, Julian Richer, as well as hearing from some of our local partners who are directly seeing the need, and the impact of Acts 435 gifts, in their local community.
We celebrated around our official launch date in July by highlighting many of our friends that have been along on the journey with us over the last 15 years. These include Christians Against Poverty, Trussell and Stewardship - all of whom have contributed to our impact.
Finally, we will be celebrating in October with some of our Key Partner Advocates at our Gathering. We will be celebrating, and thanking God for all that He has provided over the last 15 years to make everything possible, but we will also look forward as we plan for growth of our network and the ability to help more individuals with their specific needs throughout the UK.
If you have given to a direct need on our website, supported individuals in your church/charity or been a recipient of a gift through Acts 435, we would love to hear your story! You can email us at communications@acts435.org.uk
Shown left, our 5th Anniversary celebration, from left to right: Julian Richer, Jenny Herrera, Mark Fordyce (former trustee), John and Margaret Sentamu. Surrounded by some of our local Advocates.