Jeans for Genes
CGD Research Trust ends arrangement for money to go to four charities only
An agreement to share the proceeds from the annual Jeans for Genes fundraising campaign between four charities has ended.
The CGD Research Trust, which holds the trademark for Jeans for Genes, has decided instead to allow all genetic disorder charities to bid for grants.
Caroline Harding, chief executive of Jeans for Genes, said the decision to end the agreement, which had lasted for 15 years, would enable the campaign to benefit a wider range of organisations.
Ninety per cent of the income from the fundraising day, which takes place on the first Friday in October, were shared by the CGD Research Trust, the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, the Primary Immunodeficiency Association and the Society for Mucopolysaccharide Diseases. The remaining 10 per cent was awarded as grants.
"Obviously the other partners would have liked the agreement to have gone on, but they can still apply for grants," said Harding.
Jeans for Genes has raised more than £35m since it started, but Harding said that annual income had fallen from £2.4m to £1.7m in recent years.
A new charity called Genetic Disorders UK is being established as the parent charity for Jeans for Genes.
Harding said the two charities would work in the same was as Red Nose Day and Children in Need – with Jeans for Genes run as a one-off fundraising day and Genetic Disorders UK in charge of year-round charitable activity.
