By Nigel Pankhurst BBC News

Model Danielle Lloyd gets behind the Field of Women charity event

One charity is �50m richer after a public vote for the Lottery People's Millions, and others benefit from the limelight generated by celebrity backing. But how do the charities that deal with the unphotogenic, the controversial and the downright unpopular raise money?

The sight of a dewy-eyed puppy or a glamorous A-lister outlining the plight of disadvantaged children is bound to get many of us reaching for our pockets and filling collection tins.

But other charities don't have such an easy ride.

Some just aren't "sexy". And then there are those which are bound to raise moral outrage in some quarters whenever money finds its way to them.

Bolton-based charity Befriending Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Brass) shies away from rattling tins on the streets of the Lancashire town, perhaps wary that not everyone might be sympathetic.

When it got its first funding cheque the bank wouldn't cash it because it had the word prostitute on it Sonia Dowdie Prostitute Outreach Workers Routes scheme tops vote

"I decided when I started this charity we wouldn't do any lobbying or anything like that. I'm not in the business of asking for trouble. We do what works for us," says chairman Ray Collett.

The charity gets much of its money from the public purse, with funding from local councils and the Lottery. This pays for its basic services, including a drop-in centre and English classes.

But public grants do not go to what might be seen as a more contentious part of its operation, its destitution project - funding basics such as food - for failed asylum seekers. For this, perhaps surprisingly, it manages to rake in �30,000 a year from donations from the public.

Supportive people

"All the funding we get for that is from the generosity of the people of Bolton," says Mr Collett.

"We get amounts from �5 a month standing orders to a legacy. Someone last year said their father had died recently and left him far too much money and could he give us �5,000? Regardless of what you read in the right-wing press, the people of Bolton are very supportive of what we do."

Ahh... the plight of penguins is the focus of the latest WWF campaign

Prostitute Outreach Workers (Pow), which helps sex workers in Nottinghamshire, is another which deals with variable levels of public support.

"Fund-raising per se is difficult, I don't think necessarily because of the people we are serving. People have an attitude about prostitutes but that's different from fund-raising," operations manager Sonia Dowdie says.

The organisation relies on money from funding bodies rather than trying to raise money from members of the public, but attitudes have certainly changed for the better.

"I remember when Pow started 20 years ago when it got its first funding cheque the bank wouldn't cash it because it had the word prostitute on it."

But even if you are not dealing with failed asylum seekers or prostitutes, charities can struggle to raise money simply because they have a lower profile.

Model backers

Christian charity Send a Cow, which provides livestock for African farmers, faces a different problem.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer benefits from the support of names such as Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer, while Ian Botham and Gary Lineker are the faces of Leukaemia Research.

They help keep their causes in the public eye to an extent Send a Cow can only dream of.

You've only got to look at where the money goes at the moment, it's children, animals and cancer Megan Pacey Institute of Fundraising

"The biggest challenge for us is we don't have the same profile as a charity like Oxfam," marketing chief Jane Pleace says.

"That's partly because they have a series of High Street shops and people know and trust the brand. We've got one small office in Bath and we do everything from here."

The Institute of Fundraising represents more than 250 organisations and 4,500 individuals. It believes that while events such as The People's Millions might raise the profile of charities it is not the way forward.

Director of policy and campaigns Megan Pacey says: "In the long-term, if it went down to public voting some charities that aren't particularly sexy are going to find it increasingly hard to find the funding. That's particularly problematic.

"You've only got to look at where the money goes at the moment, it's children, animals and cancer."