Readers of The Times are rightly renowned for their generosity, a generosity not limited by borders or by personal politics. That is why, every Christmas, the paper launches a charity appeal.

In 2007, we supported three small charities - Help the Hospices, Riders for Health and TreeHouse. The generosity of readers raised over £580,000 for the good causes, a record for the paper.

Charities which would like to be considered for the Times appeal for Christmas 2008 should submit an application. Submissions should include background details about the charity, its history and its work. Please also outline clearly any specific project you are trying to raise money for, explaining its purpose and goal. Please also include any analysis of the success of your programmes in terms of its outcomes. Please do not send DVDs or bulky material of any kind. We are looking for a brief, eloquent written description of your work and key projects.

We seek to support charities that will benefit from the enormous publicity we bring during the appeal period, as well as from the money raised from our readers. The Times commits to running a story featuring the work of our chosen charities every day during December and early January. For that reason, we will look favourably on applications which contain a dozen or so distinct story ideas that illustrate the work of the charity and, in particular, provide a wide variety of individual human interest stories and illustrated reports from the field. We are also keen to support projects whose success we can measure and demonstrate to our readers after the appeal.

How to apply

Written applications should be submitted by September 22, 2008. They should be addressed to David Chappell, Managing Editor, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT. We will make our decision by mid-October.

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