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Manchester crowned UK’s most generous area in 2021 by GoFundMe

The report also revealed that the UK was the fourth most generous nation in the world.

Lily Ford
Wednesday 08 December 2021 09:29 EST
Manchester topped the GoFundMe list (PA)
Manchester topped the GoFundMe list (PA) (PA Archive)

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Manchester has topped a list of the areas of the UK that are most generous in making donations.

Figures released by the fundraising website GoFundMe to the PA news agency show the number of donations made to the site in 2021 is the equivalent of around one for every six people in the city.

The calculations are approximate and the exact number of individual donors is not known, because multiple donations can be made by the same person, the website said.

Manchester took the top spot ahead of Northern Ireland’s Londonderry and Belfast.

Rounding out the five most generous areas in the UK were Salford and Newcastle, followed in order by Edinburgh, Bangor, London, Brighton and Hove and Glasgow.

Statistics also showed that Ireland was the most generous country on a per-person basis for the third year in a row as it reached almost one million donations in the last 12 months.

The UK came fourth on this list of the world’s most giving countries, after the US in second and Canada in third – with Australia completing the top five.

The UK’s biggest GoFundMe campaign in 2021 – raising over £1.6 million in donations – was for Azaylia Diamond Cain, an eight-month-old baby who was in need of lifesaving treatment in Singapore after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukaemia.

The child of former Coventry City footballer Ashley Cain died in April, but the Ex On The Beach star and his partner, Safiyya Vorajee, have now set up the Azaylia Foundation in her honour.

The charity aims to help support children in the UK under the age of 17 who are fighting cancer by helping them to access treatment not available on the NHS.

Azaylia’s fundraiser, which garnered attention from celebrities including film and wrestling star Dwayne Johnson contributed to March 28 being the most generous day of the year on GoFundMe’s website – with more than 115,000 donations made that day.

Across the globe, one donation was made every second on the site this year.

“This year, we saw an overwhelming display of gratitude on the platform, said GoFundMe chief executive Tim Cadogan.

“More than 15 million thank you messages were sent to the GoFundMe community, reiterating that these donations are so much more than a transaction, they are profoundly important acts of support and hope.”

Here is GoFundMe’s list of the UK’s most generous areas in full.

1. Manchester: 0.163 donations per person, or around one donation for every six people2. Londonderry: 0.099, or one for every 10 people3. Belfast: 0.098, or one for every 10 people4. Salford: 0.083, or one for every 12 people5. Newcastle Upon Tyne: 0.067, or one for every 15 people6. Edinburgh: 0.067, or one for every 15 people7. Bangor: 0.065, or one for every 15 people8. London: 0.065, or one for every 15 people9. Brighton and Hove: 0.064, or one for every 16 people10. Glasgow, 0.063, or one for every 16 people

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