DorkyDad is a professional fundraiser. You’d think given that I’ve now been married to him for nearly five years, some of those money making skills might have rubbed off on me. But they haven’t. I am completely unimaginative when it comes to fundraising. I hate doing silly things. I hate organising events. And I hate running. That rules out three pretty major income generators right there.

But occasionally a charity will come along that makes me want to do something – however small – to stick a bit of cash in their pocket.

PiggyBankKids have just done that. When I came away from BritMums Live the other week, the one thought foremost in my mind was that I wanted to stay in touch with PiggyBankKids. I didn’t know much about them before the conference. I knew they were a small charity that Sarah Brown is involved with, and that at least one of their projects is based in Scotland (that pushes several of my goodwill buttons already), but I didn’t know the detail of their work.

After a chat with their Projects Officer, and a browse of their website I now know that the programmes they run are varied but all have the aim of changing children’s lives for the better. Their flagship project is the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory – based in Edinburgh – which is focused on pregnancy and neonatal research. Scientists at the Laboratory are making significant progress towards solving some of the life threatening complications that can arise during pregnancy and birth, in particular the causes of early labour.

I was hugely impressed with the dedication and enthusiasm of the small team at PiggyBankKids and as I used to work for a small charity myself I fully understand the challenges of raising money in a crowded sector. I still didn’t want to run a marathon or organise an event, but I did want to give them some cash.

Eventually, after a day or two of head scratching, I was inspired by the name of the charity itself – PiggyBankKids. In an era of online giving, it can be quite easy to forget that hard cash is an option too! I don’t have an actual piggy bank, but I do have several jars and pots around the house that I stick my loose change in. DorkyDad and I have both done it for years – we even had carrier bags of unsorted coins move house with us. Once every few months I’ll gather together the pound coins and pay them into DorkySon’s bank account, but I usually give up before I get to the pennies.

Piggy Bank Kids has finally provided the inspiration I need to get my hands dirty and start stacking up those pennies. I started yesterday while DorkySon was at nursery, but I didn’t manage to finish before pick-up time, so when he came home and saw lots of coins all over the table he was full of questions. I gave a very simple explanation – that the money was going to help babies to feel better – and he decided to raid his own Piggy Bank to add a few coins of his own. He is a sweet wee boy.

So this will be my donation. I have raided all my own ‘piggy banks’ and stacked up the pennies. It’s amazing how it adds up. If I’ve got my maths right then my grubby old coins added up to somewhere around £170, and a cheque for that amount will be winging its way to Piggy Bank Kids later in the week.

If you want to join me, please do. If you’re a shy, non-skydiving type but you still want to make a difference to a small charity, why not do a loose change collection in your own house? Get your kids involved. Blog about it. The best thing about this kind of small donation is that as soon as you’ve made it you can start saving up for the next one…

You can also make a text donation to PiggyBankKids by texting 70070 with the message PIGY10 followed by the amount you want to donate eg PIGY10£10

And if you want to say hello to PiggyBankKids you can follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, or just have a browse of their website.