One sunny morning last January, me and a few friends gathered in a flat in Notting Hill. Over cinnamon buns and coffee we talked about putting together our efforts and skills to raise money for charity. That morning, Creating for Good was born.

What is Creating for Good?

Creating for good is a London based collective of creatives who use their passions and skills to make a difference in the lives of women, men and families affected by war, political discord and poverty. Through workshops, photo walks and individual tutoring we raise funds and give 100% of all proceeds to charitable organizations.

How it all started

It all started when my friend Jo Yee sent an email out to me and other fellow London Instagrammers to share a fundraising project idea. Her idea was simple: we would donate our time to teach a skill or offer a service and sell tickets to raise money. We all felt this was a fantastic way to do something good and give back.

Fast-forward three months and we have already donated more than £4,000 with our March Auction Social and We Love To Brunch meetups. A few thousand pounds may not seem like a lot, but there are people who will benefit greatly from it.

Giving 100% Back

We pledged to donate 100%. In fact, the money we raise doesn’t even get to us at all. Instead we ask people who attend our workshops / auctions / meetups to make a donation directly to the charity we have for that particular event.

Our First Creative Conference

At the moment, we are very busy planning our next event: a full day Creative Conference at WeWork Paddington in support of Women for Women, an international organisation that runs year long programmes to support women in eight countries affected by conflict and war.

Each ticket sold to our Creative Conference will enable Women for Women to give a woman a one-year programme.

Through this programme, women who struggle with poverty and violence, who are denied basic education and health care, who suffer greatly from conflict, will find new opportunities to strengthen themselves, their families and their communities.

At our Creative Conference we offer a range of workshops about Instagram, Photography, Food styling, Storytelling and photo walks with London’s top Instagrammers. Guests will be able to choose three of them to attend. After the workshops, we will get together for a social media panel discussions and Q&A with industry people.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to get one-on-one critique of your portfolio from one of our many instructors and learn how to maximise your social media platforms.

If you are a digital influencer, a brand manager or a PR, our creative conference offers a fantastic opportunity to learn, be inspired and meet peers. Most importantly, it’s an opportunity to give back to a fantastic cause.

Come for the community, to learn, share skills and to give back!

At Creating for Good, we all feel very strongly about the importance of giving back. I am lucky to have everything I want: a family, a house, a healthy body, a good job and all the opportunities I could ever dream of.

It is important not to forget that there are many people who are not as lucky as we are, people who struggle greatly on a daily basis, people who need our help. Anyone of us can help. Small actions can make a huge difference!

The money we raised with our March Auction and donated to Breaking Barriers, will enable 5 refugee women access to a 3-month work placement program (paid 1 day a week) by allowing them to afford child care. For refugee women who are single mothers the simple cost of child care is a major obstacle to them being able to enter the UK labour market. There is no charity or statutory funding in this area, so donations like ours make a huge impact on the lives of a particularly marginalised group.

When we first came up with the idea of getting together to organise creative events and raise money for charity, I had no idea we could achieve so much in so little time. In just two months we went from being a group of friends exchanging ideas over coffee to actually putting together amazing events and raising just over £4,000!

I can’t describe the pride and joy I felt on the day of our Auction Social event. Us volunteers at Creating for Good put in a lot of hard work and late hours in the weeks leading up to the 25th March to create a beautiful and fun event. The response from the public and from our sponsors was amazing!

There were lots of smiles and laughter that afternoon. Having people come up to me saying they attend because they read about it on my Instagram warmed my heart. It proves that anyone can make a change; even little actions can greatly help a community.

I am very proud to be part of Creating for Good and cannot wait for our creative conference in May!

I thought it would be nice to introduce you to the Creating for Good collective, which is made by 14 wonderful individuals. You can find them all in these photos: @candidsbyjo, @belleannee, @angrybaker, @jessonthames, @steffi_daydreamer, @whatinasees, @elensham, @hannahray, @sarkababicka, @charlottehuco, @roselladegori, @cookiesncandies, @aladyinlondon and of course myself @mondomulia. Click on the images to see their beautiful Instagram feeds.

The three charities we have decided to support are Women for Women International, Breaking Barriers and Just Bread.

Thank you to all the hard-working, smart, passionate and kind people who make up our collective.

I hope to see you on 7th May at WeWork Paddington for our full day Creative Conference!