Kids Company 2012 Newsletters: Christmas Record

Kids Company’s recovered November and December 2012 newsletters show how the charity assembled its Christmas operation from many small, highly visible partnerships—and one art collaboration that later produced an unusually well-documented result.

The two original pages were posted on 6 November and 4 December 2012. They have been recovered in full, not reconstructed from snippets. This page preserves what supporters were told, checks the largest claims against contemporary partner and media records, and closes old commercial and donation loops wherever a later result can still be established.

What survives from the 2012 newsletters?

These were fundraising emails, not audited reports. Their value is immediacy: they name dates, products, people, venues, contribution formulas and the needs the charity said it was trying to meet. Their limitation is equally clear. A sentence such as “25% of all sales will come directly to Kids Company” records a public pledge; it does not establish units sold, refunds, campaign costs or the final banked amount.

The November issue can be read in its surviving Internet Archive capture; the December issue is preserved in a separate full-page capture. The former email addresses, gift-list number, shops, entry forms and donation buttons are historical and should not be used now. Kids Company ceased operating in 2015; the current site’s purpose is to preserve the record and publish useful family guides.

November 2012: build the audience, gifts and Christmas-day operation

The November newsletter opened with Gladrags & Handbags, the charity’s designer fashion sale, scheduled for Friday 16 and Saturday 17 November at 15 Welbeck Street in Marylebone. The copy promised new womenswear, menswear, children’s clothing, accessories and gifts, sponsored by Grazia, with “every penny spent” going towards winter support.

That phrase should be read as the newsletter’s stated fundraising mechanic, not a conclusion about net income. The issue gives no stock valuation, sales total, venue cost or settlement statement. What it does establish is the role the sale played: it was positioned as both Christmas shopping and a way to fund a party for more than 3,000 children and young people.

A party for 3,000 and Christmas-period support for 7,500 are different claims

The same issue then moved to “Christmas at Kids Company”. It said the charity expected to support 7,500 children and young people over the Christmas period and asked readers to buy presents through a John Lewis gift list or use the Big Give. This is broader than the earlier 3,000-person party sentence. The sensible reading is not that one figure replaced the other:

• more than 3,000 described the intended Christmas-day celebration associated with the designer sale;
• 7,500 described the wider group Kids Company expected to support across the Christmas period;
• neither number is accompanied by a surviving audited attendance or fulfilment report in the newsletter archive.

The distinction matters because later newsletters also use a party number and a larger community-support number side by side. Treating every Christmas figure as attendance would inflate the event; treating every figure as a duplicate would erase food, gifts and support delivered outside the central party.

9 December: more than 2,000 Santas expected in Greenwich Park

The issue promoted a 5 km or 10 km Do It For Charity Santa Run in Greenwich Park at 10am on 9 December. It expected more than 2,000 runners, joggers and walkers, supplied Santa suits, listed a £20 registration fee and asked each participant to seek at least £100 in sponsorship.

Those details show the appeal’s mass-participation layer. A supporter did not need access to a premium fashion event or luxury product; they could join an open run and fundraise through their own network. The race date, fee and registration route are now expired. The page preserves them to answer what the old backlink referred to, not to promote a current event.

Bruce Weber, Selfridges and a campaign led by a charity T-shirt

The November newsletter said photographer Bruce Weber had designed an exclusive Kids Company T-shirt for Selfridges, that 100% of proceeds would support the charity and that sterling-silver “Love is all it takes” bracelets were also available. This partnership has unusually good independent context.

In a contemporary profile of Selfridges’ Christmas strategy, the Observer reported that Weber’s festive project was deliberately led by a charity T-shirt sold for Kids Company. Separate coverage also confirms the Bruce Weber “Not Your Usual Christmas” film and campaign. Those sources verify the collaboration and its prominence; they do not publish the number of shirts sold or the final donation.

Four Urban Academy artists in the Red Bull studio

The final item is not a donation appeal at all. Kids Company said Red Bull Studios invited four Urban Academy artists—David, Natalie, Kamali and Kayann—to develop music with studio manager Brendon Harding. It described a vocal booth, live room, a guitar-led jazz piece and Kamali’s acoustic pop work.

This deserves to remain in the record because it shows what corporate support could look like beyond cash. Red Bull supplied professional space and expertise; the young artists arrived with work already in development. The newsletter does not publish completed recordings or later career outcomes, so this page does not attach success claims to the session. Readers exploring the charity’s wider history can also see the record of Print Happiness, another project where creative work and public fundraising overlapped.

December 2012: safeguarding, a global trading day and five retail routes

By 4 December, the tone had tightened. The newsletter asked for help keeping an emergency safeguarding helpline open 24 hours a day over Christmas. It linked the appeal to distress calls, warm clothing, food and gifts. This was a statement of intended service provision; no call-volume report or helpline rota survives with the page.

The significant point is how the request was framed. The charity did not present Christmas solely as a party. It described a period in which some young people needed continuous access to a trusted service. The newsletter then offered several ways for readers and companies to fund that response.

5 December: what ICAP Charity Day does—and does not prove

Kids Company announced that it had been selected for ICAP Charity Day on Wednesday 5 December. The model was striking: ICAP gave away that day’s revenues and commissions to chosen charities. The newsletter said its allocation would support safeguarding and a “Colour a Child’s Life” programme.

ICAP’s own 2013 annual report records that the 5 December 2012 event raised £11 million globally, taking Charity Day’s cumulative total over 20 years beyond £100 million. A government register of Downing Street receptions separately records an ICAP charity reception hosted there on 5 February 2013.

Neither source isolates Kids Company’s share. It would therefore be wrong to say the charity received £11 million. The firm-wide total confirms the scale of the event; the archived newsletter confirms Kids Company’s selection and intended use.

Folli Follie: the clearest percentage-of-sale product

The December issue described a pink edition of Folli Follie’s Heart4Heart range—watches, necklaces and other jewellery—with 25% of all sales pledged to Kids Company. British Vogue’s 8 November 2012 report independently matches the product types, pink treatment and 25% contribution. Glamour also reported the collaboration and percentage.

A later Folli Follie Group annual report says the UK business supported Kids Company in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and describes the special Heart4Heart range. It uses the less precise phrase “part of the proceeds”. The contemporary 25% reports are strong evidence of the advertised mechanic; none of these sources gives a final eligible sales total.

Liberty: three products, three different contribution claims

Liberty stocked the charity’s knitted Hoods That Hug, priced in the newsletter at £45 with 50% of proceeds said to support Kids Company. It also sold Christmas cards designed by young people using Liberty-print off-cuts and a £19.95 T-shirt designed by a young person, with the newsletter saying 100% of sales from the shirt would support the charity.

These items reveal a different partnership from Folli Follie. The products were connected to Kids Company’s own young people or in-house Bare Thread label, while Liberty supplied retail space and audience. They also show why exact wording matters: 50% of “proceeds”, 100% of “sales” and a percentage of the retail price can produce different sums. No final Liberty reconciliation is present in the recovered material.

eBay and Rococo: a checkout prompt versus a designated product

eBay’s “Checkout for Charity” route let shoppers add a separate donation, while Rococo offered a Love Bug chocolate bar in five designs created by a young person. Those are different forms of participation:

• the eBay purchase itself did not generate a stated percentage; the shopper opted into an additional gift at checkout;
• the Rococo bar was a designated campaign product, although the newsletter does not state a percentage or fixed amount per bar;
• both routes are long closed and should not be confused with the current organisations’ normal sites.

The newsletter’s value here is the architecture of the appeal. One partner prompted a donation during an unrelated transaction; another embedded the charity into the product itself.

The Mylo Xyloto exhibition: from announcement to £630,000-plus

The December newsletter celebrated an exhibition of original Mylo Xyloto artwork by Coldplay and the band’s visual collaborator Paris. This is the strongest item in the two issues because both the original proposition and a later result survive on the artist’s official site.

Coldplay’s announcement dated 16 October 2012 confirms that the show ran at Proud Galleries in Camden from 29 November to 2 December. It listed:

• three original paintings by Coldplay and Paris;
• the original 7m by 2.5m graffiti wall that became the album artwork;
• a second wall painted by children from Kids Company with Paris;
• signed limited-edition prints and unseen tour photographs;
• 100% of proceeds pledged to Kids Company.

The decisive follow-up came seven months later. In July 2013, Coldplay announced a final auction and said the original Camden exhibition had resulted in more than £630,000 received by Kids Company. That wording turns a promotional promise into a reported charity receipt. It is still a figure published by the collaborating artist rather than an audited Kids Company account line, but it is far stronger evidence than a launch notice alone.

The result also changes how the December newsletter reads. Its phrase “a vital lifeline” was emotive campaign language; the later amount shows that the collaboration did in fact operate at a materially different scale from a single product or till prompt.

How should the 2012 Christmas numbers be read?

The newsletters use several quantities because they describe different things. Keeping the noun attached to the number is the simplest safeguard.

This discipline also helps with the charity’s later, much-debated 36,000 figure. Numbers can describe direct clients, indirect beneficiaries, adults, school populations, party guests or parcels; the category cannot be inferred from the brand name beside it. The expanded 2013 newsletter record explains how the 36,000 total was constructed and why the wording varied.

Seven giving models hidden inside two emails

The newsletters are an unusually compact case study in partnership design. Within one month, Kids Company offered at least seven distinct routes:

1. Buy donated stock: Gladrags & Handbags converted fashion inventory into cash.
2. Choose a requested gift: the John Lewis list directed support towards Christmas presents.
3. Use matched giving: the Big Give could increase an eligible donation during the campaign window.
4. Take part and seek sponsors: the Santa Run turned participants into fundraisers.
5. Buy a contribution-linked product: Selfridges, Folli Follie, Liberty and Rococo connected retail goods to the charity using different formulas.
6. Add a voluntary amount at checkout: eBay separated the donation from the underlying purchase.
7. Donate professional assets or revenue: Red Bull supplied studio access, ICAP donated a day’s revenue and commissions, and Coldplay/Paris supplied valuable art and audience.

The advantage is resilience of attention: supporters could encounter the charity through fashion, running, food, music, art, work or routine shopping. The operational challenge is reconciliation. Every route needs its own definition, time window and settlement. A newsletter can announce all seven in a page; it cannot by itself prove that every promised pound arrived.

This partnership-led style would remain visible in later years and across different cities. The Kids Company Bristol record shows how a local service developed its own relationships, while the Camila Batmanghelidjh record explains the founder-led public voice that ran through the campaigns.

2012 claim and outcome tracker

The table is not a verdict on whether an unquantified partnership “worked”. It answers a narrower, more useful historical question: what exactly does the surviving evidence allow us to say?

What the two newsletters reveal about Kids Company

First, Christmas was treated as both an emotional crisis and an operational peak. The copy moved between loneliness, hunger, gifts, safeguarding calls, a mass party and the practical problem of mobilising money quickly. This combination helps explain why so many partners could see a role: one could supply stock, another a stage, another transaction traffic, another professional space.

Second, the charity was skilled at making a contribution legible. Pink jewellery, child-designed cards, a Santa suit, a chocolate bar or Coldplay’s actual album-art wall gave the public something concrete to picture. The strongest collaborations also connected form to purpose: children’s art appeared beside the album wall, Urban Academy artists used a studio, and products were designed by or associated with young people.

Third, promotional fluency created an evidence problem. The emails move quickly, and phrases such as “all proceeds” or “every penny” are not defined. A modern reader should neither dismiss the partnerships nor turn them into audited outcomes. The right approach is the one the Coldplay trail makes possible: retain the original proposition, seek a later result, and say plainly when no result survives.

For the wider collection—including service histories, governance records and other recovered campaigns—start at the Kids Company archive.

Frequently asked questions

When were the Kids Company 2012 newsletters published?

The two recovered issues were posted on 6 November and 4 December 2012. They form a connected Christmas sequence but were separate webpages.

How many children did Kids Company plan to support at Christmas 2012?

The November issue used two figures: more than 3,000 in connection with the central Christmas-day celebration and 7,500 children and young people expected to receive support across the Christmas period. No final audited attendance or fulfilment count was located.

How much did the Coldplay Mylo Xyloto exhibition raise?

Coldplay reported in July 2013 that the Camden exhibition held from 29 November to 2 December 2012 resulted in more than £630,000 received by Kids Company.

Did Kids Company receive the full £11 million from ICAP Charity Day?

No. ICAP’s annual report says the 5 December 2012 Charity Day raised £11 million globally for its chosen charities. The surviving sources do not state Kids Company’s individual allocation.

What did Folli Follie promise to donate?

The recovered newsletter and contemporary British Vogue and Glamour reports say 25% of sales from the special pink Heart4Heart collection would be donated to Kids Company. No final sales or transfer total was located.

What was Gladrags & Handbags?

It was a designer fashion and beauty sale promoted for 16–17 November 2012 in Marylebone, with new clothing, accessories and gifts. Kids Company said spending would support its winter work; the recovered issue does not contain a final sales total.

Can I still use the gift list, emails or donation links in the old newsletters?

No. Those routes belonged to a charity that ceased operating in 2015. They are preserved only as historical evidence and should not be used to send money, gifts or personal information.

Are the old newsletter claims all independently verified?

No. The events and major partnerships can often be corroborated, and the Coldplay exhibition has a later result. Many final donation, attendance and service totals were not published in surviving independent records, so they remain attributed newsletter statements.