[1] Help Refugees grew "accidentally" out of a social media campaign organised by radio presenter and writer Lliana Bird, TV presenter and writer Dawn O'Porter, and artist management assistant Josie Naughton to help one of Bird's friends collect donations and funds to support refugees in the so-called Jungle camp in Calais.

[2] Dani Lawrence, who runs an import company with her husband and whose father was a Moroccan refugee, offered to help coordinate getting the donations to Calais.

[2] A week after the campaign started, the image of two-year-old Syrian Alan Kurdi was in the news and donations increased exponentially as people became more aware of the so-called European migrant crisis.

[2] With only six volunteers sorting the donations, the women made an appeal on social media for more; the organisers fed those who turned up by again asking for support, to which Domino's Pizza and Nando's responded.

[2] Bird, Lawrence, Naughton, and O'Porter visited Calais to work out how they could get the donations to the right place to help people there, expecting to find large NGOs like the Red Cross or the UNHCR.

[5] Corporate Watch raised concerns over the lack of transparency around Choose Love's and Prism the Gift Fund's relationship, especially around the decision to leave Northern France in 2021.

[7] In November 2021 Choose Love announced on instagram it would stop funding to all organisations, apart from ECPAT International and Safe Passage UK, in Calais and Dunkirk by the end of the year.

[10] In May 2020 Choose Love contacted partner associations[10] in Calais warning them that distributing or discussing "Safety at Sea" leaflets could be "regarded as criminal offences".

[17] Celebrities who have endorsed, advocated, partnered and performed for Help Refugees and their fundraising events include Phoebe Waller-Bridge,[18] Jude Law, Tom Odell,[19] Nicola Coughlan and Pamela Anderson.

[24] In November 2017, they launched a Choose Love pop-up shop in Soho, London, and an accompanying website, where people could purchase essential items for refugees in the guise of Christmas presents.

[25] In the run-up to Christmas 2018, a second Choose Love store opened in New York City,[26] while an art work donated by Banksy was on display and available to be won in the London shop.