Donate
Every penny you donate goes directly towards supporting and maintaining the operational rescue team.
There is no corporate overhead, no glossy head office, no marketing department taking a slice. Just volunteers who need equipment, training and vehicles to do their job.
It means there is very little standing between a donation and the thing it pays for. No agency takes a percentage on the way through, and no salary comes out of it first.
It also means we cannot simply spend less in a quiet month. Equipment wears out on the shelf as well as in the field, certifications expire on a fixed date, and a vehicle needs servicing whether or not it has been called out. The costs stay steady even when the callouts do not.
When our volunteers deploy at 2am to search for a missing person, everything they are wearing, carrying and driving has been paid for by donations.
Donate now
Donate with PayPal
We are enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund, which charges us nothing at all, so every penny of your donation reaches the team. If you are a UK taxpayer you can add Gift Aid as you go, which is worth another 25p in every pound to us and costs you nothing. You can pay by card here as well as from a PayPal balance.
Donate by card
If you would rather not go through PayPal, you can give any amount by debit or credit card on our secure SumUp page. You do not need an account and it takes less than a minute.
Prefer to send a cheque? Email us at enquiry@westmerciasar.org.uk and we will send you the best address to post it to.
Where your money goes
£100,000+
a year to keep West Mercia Search & Rescue operational
Equipment
Boats, drones, vehicles, radios, medical kits, personal protective equipment, ropes, dry suits, helmets.
Training
Courses, venues, external instructors, certification.
Vehicle costs
Fuel, insurance, maintenance, MOTs for our fleet of response vehicles.
Operational costs
Communications, IT systems, mapping software, welfare supplies.
Overheads
Insurance, storage, administration.
That is the reality of what your contribution makes possible.
Make a one-off donation
Any amount makes a difference, and no amount is too small. To give you an idea of what your donation could contribute towards:
£25
goes towards torches, maps and personal search equipment.
£50
goes towards specialist training for a search technician.
£75
goes towards dry suits and safety gear for water operations.
£150
goes towards servicing and maintaining one of our rescue boats.
£500
goes towards a swiftwater rescue technician certification course.
You can donate securely online by card or through PayPal, and we can also accept donations by cheque.
Give monthly
A regular monthly donation, however small, gives us the certainty to plan ahead. Knowing that a steady income is coming in each month allows us to budget for training, schedule equipment maintenance and invest in capability improvements that one-off donations cannot sustain.
£5a month
→
£60a year
×
200people
Even £5 a month adds up to £60 a year, and if 200 people did that, it would cover a significant chunk of our annual running costs.
Sponsor our river patrols
Our water operations are among the most expensive parts of what we do. Boats, fuel, dry suits, sonar equipment, swiftwater training. If water safety is the cause that resonates most with you, you can earmark your donation specifically for our river patrol and water rescue capability.
Each winter we also run night-time river patrols in Shrewsbury over the festive season, working alongside the Street Pastors to keep people safe near the water on the busiest nights of the year.
Local businesses can sponsor a night, join the patrol team to see the work first hand, and receive press and social media recognition for their support.
£400
puts a single night of river patrols on the water.
Other ways to give
Leave a gift in your will
Legacy giving is one of the most powerful ways to support a charity. A gift in your will costs you nothing during your lifetime but can make an enormous difference to our future.
Legacies have funded some of our most significant equipment purchases and we are deeply grateful to everyone who remembers us in this way. We can provide a simple codicil form to include with your existing will, and we would always encourage you to discuss your wishes with your family and, if helpful, a solicitor.
Fundraise for us
If you would like to raise money for WMSAR by organising your own event, we would love to hear from you. Whether it is a sponsored walk, a cake sale, a corporate challenge or something entirely unexpected, we can provide you with a fundraising toolkit that includes our brand assets, poster templates, our fundraising rules and guidance on how to make the most of your event.
If you are taking part in a sponsored event, you can set up a fundraising page through our online giving platform so that we receive every penny you raise.
WMSAR Fundraising Toolkit (PDF) — file awaiting upload
Gift Aid
If you are a UK taxpayer, Gift Aid allows us to claim an extra 25p for every £1 you donate, at no extra cost to you.
+25% at no extra cost
£50
→
£62.50
Please tick the Gift Aid box when you donate and make sure we have your full name and home address.
