The Guardian: ‘England hath need of thee’: appeal to save Milton’s Paradise Lost cottage‘

The Mail Online: ‘Paradise could soon be lost: £3.5m drive to save the 16th century cottage where Milton hid from the plague to write his literary masterpiece‘
BIG GIVE CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE
We’re pleased to announce that Milton’s Cottage has once again been selected to take part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2022 – the UK’s largest match funding campaign.
Last year, thanks to generous supporters, our campaign raised over £20,000 towards Milton’s Garden – a project that enabled us provide free outdoor learning opportunities for young people.  Covid-19 has shown us just how important green spaces are for our health and well-being, and this project is helping young people reconnect with nature and have fun.
This year, our Christmas Challenge aims to raise £20,000 towards Free Speech & Fake News – a social media literacy project to engage young people with Milton’s legacy.  Like him, we are living through an information revolution – and we believe his extraordinary political pamphlets can help a new generation navigate an online world of information, misinformation and more.
To help us claim the full match funding available to us through The Big Give, would you consider making an online donation to help us reach our target of £10,000 and support young people this Christmas?  All donations will be matched for 7 days from midday on 29th November 2022 – #GivingTuesday – until midday on 6th December 2022, meaning your donation will have double the impact.
Every donation makes a difference and if you would like to support Milton’s Cottage during these challenging times then we highly recommend doing so during The Christmas Challenge, when your donation will be doubled in order to make even more of a difference to our work.
If you are interested in making a donation, or helping us spread the word to other potential supporters, our Director would be delighted to discuss our campaign with you in more detail and can be contacted on businessdirector@miltonscottage.org or 01494 872313.
Big Give Christmas Challenge information
What happens during The Big Give Christmas Challenge?
  • Donations to Milton’s Cottage will be matched by The Big Give Christmas Challenge for 7 days, from midday on 29th November until midday on 6th December 2022
What do supporters need to do?
  • Make a donation online via the dedicated Big Give link below: https://donate.thebiggive.org.uk/campaign/a056900002Ni3n5AAB
  • Only donations received before midday on 6th December 2022 via The Big Give website are eligible for Christmas Challenge match funding – so please ensure your donations are only made during this time and via the link above
What will our Christmas Challenge project achieve?
  • Using our collection as a starting point, young people will be invited to explore Milton’s rare 17th century pamphlets through 21st social media channels. Exploring common themes across centuries, they will extract their own lessons from the past in order to gain a sense of perspective on issues that affect their lives today
  • At a time when anyone can publish anything (and often anonymously) we will provide young people with the media literacy tools to identify fake news, misinformation and disinformation – and help create a more digitally literate society
  • We will support young people to become creators, and not just consumers, of social media content – exploring its potential to connect us and support our well-being and helping to off-set its potential to contribute towards anxiety and low self-esteem
  • This project will bring Milton’s Cottage and our collection to life in new ways – offering relevant and engaging ways for new audiences to explore Milton’s life, work and legacy
  • It will support our essential core costs during the current cost-of-living crisis and what looks set to be another challenging year for the museum and charitable sectors in 2023
Further information
  • You can find further information about The Christmas Challenge on The Big Give website: thebiggive.org.uk/s/about
  • If you would like any further information about this project, or help to process your online donation, please contact Kelly O’Reilly – our Director – on this email address or 01494 872313
Find out more about Milton’s Cottage in our latest newsletter: Milton Messenger