FAQs

Rainy Day Trust is the charity for the home improvement and home enhancement sector. We exist to support the workers and families who make up our industry, through crisis support when life gets tough, and through prevention programmes that help people stay well before things reach breaking point.

Anyone working in the home improvement and home enhancement sector, whether employed, self-employed or a contractor, and their immediate families. From warehouse operatives and drivers to sales reps, merchants and apprentices. If this is your industry, we’re here for you.

We offer a range of free, confidential support including emergency grants, debt and benefits advice, online mental health counselling, and access to wellbeing programmes. We also run sector-wide Campaigns and Programmes that help businesses embed a culture of positive wellbeing before crisis strikes. 

The pressures facing workers in home improvement and home enhancement are unique: seasonal demand, self-employment, physical toll, financial insecurity and a workforce that is overwhelmingly male and less likely to ask for help. Workers in our sector are 3–4 times more likely to die by suicide than the national average. Generic support services were never built for people like ours. We were. 

We work across two connected areas. The first is crisis support, being there for people at their lowest point with practical, immediate help. The second is prevention, reaching people earlier, embedding positive wellbeing across the sector and helping our industry become a place where everyone can live and work with genuine health, happiness and fulfilment. Both matter equally. 

Rainy Day Trust is funded through the generosity of individuals, fundraisers and businesses across our sector, as well as grant funding from trusts and foundations. Every pound raised goes directly to supporting workers and their families.

We publish an annual impact report that sets out exactly where our funding goes and what it achieves. We also share stories — with permission — from the people we’ve helped, because we believe transparency matters and your support deserves to be seen. 

We work in partnership with several strategic bodies across our sector, including the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF), the British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) and the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA). We also work closely with buying groups including the National Buying Group (NBG) and the National Merchant Buying Society (NMBS). These partnerships help us reach further across the industry and make sure our support gets to the people who need it most.

There are so many ways to support Rainy Day Trust, and every single one makes a difference. You could fundraise, make a donation, volunteer your time or become an Ambassador in your workplace. If you’re a business, you could become a corporate partner or nominate us as your charity of the year. Whatever you’re able to give, we’ll make it count.