Our aim is to raise money for local and regional charities.  We operate on a two-year cycle, nominating charities at the start of this cycle and donating at the end.

Current charities

Our current cycle started in January 2026

• The Layberry Foundation: support oung people from the age of 13-24 that may be feeling stressed or overwhelmed or finding it hard to manage school workload, exams, peer relationships or pressures at home. Through one-to-one coaching and mentoring. We provide practicval guidance to help manage stress and a place to talk things through. They also help young people move into independent living.
• SERV Kent: also known as the Bloodrunners, SERV is a charity that provides emergency courier services transporting blood products, samples and other patient essential items for the major hospitals and hospices in Kent outside normal working hours.
• West Kent Mind: Although an independent charity, West Kent Mind is a proud member of the Mind Federation and contributes to the shared goal of leaving no mind behind. We are here to ensure that people experiencing mental health problems get support and respect through inclusive, engaging support services.

We also support many local charities. Full details of our most recent donations, in March 2019, can be found here. Due to the COVID pandemic, our fundraising activities were paused and instead of multiple payments to small charities over the period 2020 – 2023, we instead provided ad hoc assistance to a number of charities in specific need.

A Contingency Fund of £1,000 has also been created to support local charities or individuals in need of charitable assistance where this need arises at other times of the year.

Charity nomination process

Charities are nominated at the end of each Carnival year.  Details of how to nominate charities will be published here.

Previous charities

In previous years we have been pleased to support:

• 2011 – 2012: Hospice in the Weald and Harris HospiceCare
• 2013 – 2014: The Maypole Project and Age UK Sevenoaks and Tonbridge
• 2015 – 2016: West Kent Mind and a refuge for women and children in West Kent
• 2017 – 2018: ICARE and SERV Kent
• 2019 – 2022: Friends for Families and ICARE
• 2023 – 2024: