Cost of living crunch adds urgency to Christmas charity appeals

“Charities are very worried the cost-of-living crisis will impact donations and are hoping that Australians will again show their incredible generosity at Christmas to give to those in increasingly dire need,” Ms Raskob said.

Salvation Army Australia fundraising manager Andrew Hill said nearly half of the people who reached out to the charity this year were new. A Salvos survey of 2000 people, released last week, found 31 per cent of Australians had used a credit card for Christmas shopping, up from 18 per cent last year, while 15 per cent had relied on buy-now, pay-later, double last year.

“People who might have been donors before are now recipients,” Mr Hill told AFR Weekend.

“We are hearing from many double-income households who just cannot get by. So we need everyone to help out, from those who can give $5, to the wealthy philanthropists who can give $5000. Now more than ever.”

Anglicare Victoria has reported a 50 per cent increase in demand for its emergency relief services over the last year, with about 40 per cent of clients asking for help paying the bills after exhausting all other options.

“Unfortunately, the cost-of-living crisis isn’t taking a holiday,” chief executive Paul McDonald said.

The Smith Family aims to raise $5.3 million by year’s end so it can continue to support more than 12,000 young people through its mentoring programs. One recipient of this support has been Ahmad Alzeidy, a 22-year-old from Sydney’s west who is now running an NDIS provider with his brother, Saif.

Mr Alzeidy says that while most young people he grew up with in Fairfield developed careers in construction, help from the Smith Family opened his eyes to the business world. The son of Iraqi migrants, he was raised by a single mum from the age of seven after his father died from lung cancer.

Money was always tight and Mr Alzeidy joined the workforce at 13, pocketing $7 an hour at a chicken shop, before holding down a job at a go-kart centre for the rest of high school.

The Smith Family supported him through school and into university with a tertiary scholarship to study business at Western Sydney University, as well as helping him attain an internship at law firm King & Wood Mallesons.

“That really opened my eyes to the corporate world, the things you can do, and what I wanted to achieve,” Mr Alzeidy said.

“If you don’t have any connections to the business world, you have no idea what’s out there, and it’s very hard to get in.”