Daily Telegraph announces four Charity Christmas Appeal beneficiaries

The Daily Telegraph has announced the four chraities that will benefit from its Christmas Charity Appeal 2009. They are BLESMA, Starehe, Bliss and Excellent Development.

Last year Telegraph readers donated more than £831,000 to the Christmas appeal on behalf of three charities.

As well as clear appeals for donations, The Telegraph also provides extensive coverage of the charities and their work over two months, including a five-page feature in The Telegraph's Saturday magazine.

Coverage includes videos on Telegraph.co.uk/TV:

Simon Maddrell, Executive Director of Excellent Development, shared his experience of the application process.

"The application process is very straightforward with a shortlist of 10-12 then presenting their cause", he said. If you make it to the shortlist, he advised "don't do slides, present with enthusiasm and keep it simple, whilst demonstrating the stories on offer."

Confirming that Excellent Development had been successful, Cassandra Jardine at The Daily Telegraph told him: "All of us listening to your presentaton were deeply impressed by the quiet passion with which you described the work of Excellent Development. The idea of the sand dam has a magnificent simplicity and clearly a relevance that could extend way beyond Kenya."

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