Initially triggered by the controversial death of George Floyd, subsequent international protests and a Tweet from Oonagh Ryder and subsequent follow-up Tweets by Lucy Brisbane McKay (@lucybrisbane) and others, we received unprecedented donations to the National Mikey Powell Memorial Family Fund (NMPMFF) in May and June 2020.

During this period we received over 900 single donations, and monthly donors increase from a few dozen to 140+ and thereby ensuring good levels of regular donor income.

This has meant that the NMPMFF is now poised to open the first ever funding round since it launched the original Crowdfunder appeal in September 2015.

The Memorial Family Fund is the first permanent national resource of its kind specifically for those that are affected by deaths in custody. It will make small grants available for families and their campaign groups across the United Kingdom to provide practical domestic assistance, to further the work of their own campaigns or to assist them in engaging in a range of other local, regional or national campaigns, events and initiatives.

Tippa Naphtali (founder of the National Memorial Family Fund) said;

“We are so grateful to all those that shared on Twitter, made donations and subscribed to monthly donations. Just shows what can be done when we ‘put our backs into it’ in a concerted way. Thank you all”