About Donmo

The short version

Donmo is a blog, and the line under the logo, Giving that actually helps, is the whole editorial brief. New articles go up when they are ready, and everything we have published stays available in the blog archive.

There was no plan. Imelda Ashdown kept being asked the same handful of questions about Giving, volunteering and community causes, got tired of writing the same reply, and put the replies somewhere permanent.

What we publish

• Games. Charity streams, gaming communities that raise money, and games that open play to more people.
• Giving. How to donate well: checking charities, choosing causes and making small amounts count.
• Volunteering. Realistic volunteering for people with jobs, families and limited time.
• Community. Local groups, neighbourhood projects and the people who keep them going.
• Causes. Understanding the issues behind the appeals before you support them.
• Nonprofits. How charities and nonprofits actually work, from overheads to annual reports.

Each piece sits under exactly one heading. Readers arriving from search mostly land in games, giving and volunteering, so those sections get looked after first.

Who is responsible for this

Every article carries the name of the person who wrote it, and every name links to a page listing everything else they have written.

Imelda Ashdown, Editor. Imelda spent ten years in the fundraising team of a small charity, writing appeals and reading the replies, before starting Donmo.

Tomasz Kowalczyk, Volunteering writer. Tomasz coordinates volunteers at a food bank on weekday evenings while holding down a full-time job in logistics.

Thandiwe Mbatha, Games and community writer. Thandiwe helps organise charity streams in her gaming community and writes about how players raise money together.

How this is put together

Every piece here starts with a question somebody actually asked. If we cannot answer it from experience or from a source we can name, it does not get published.

We are independent. Nobody pays for a favourable mention, and the wording of an assessment does not change because a partner asked.

The full process, including corrections and commercial links, is set out on the editorial policy page.

About the name

People ask about the name. There is rarely a good story behind a domain, and there is not one here either. Donmo was available, it was short enough to say out loud, and it has been the name long enough now that changing it would be more confusing than keeping it.

How this is paid for

Hosting and research come out of the same pocket that buys the things we write about. That keeps the running costs honest and the pace slow.

What we do not do

There are questions we routinely decline. Anything that depends on facts only you can see, and anything where being wrong would cost you real money on our say so.

Fixing mistakes

Tell us which line is wrong and why, at [email protected] or through the contact page. Small errors are corrected the same week. Anything that changes the advice gets a dated note at the bottom of the article.