Seven more corporate fundraising partnerships for March 2018
Melanie May | 21 March 2018 | News
Here are seven more companies supporting charities through a range of activities, including raising funds through bake sales, tombolas and challenge events, volunteering, and offering services such as B&Q’s support for people settling into new homes after being homeless.
1. EDF Energy Doxford & Breast Cancer Now
Employees at EDF Energy Doxford have raised over £1,300 in a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Now, the company’s official charity partner, through a range of fun-filled activities. Employees got into the charitable spirit by hosting quizzes, cake sales, raffles and a tombola, to raise a total of £1,324.10 to help fund the charity’s life-saving breast cancer research. The company-wide partnership with Breast Cancer Now began in 2016, and EDF Energy has pledged to raise a total of £450,000 over the course of the three-year partnership.
2. QVC & Breast Cancer Care
Breast Cancer Care’s fundraising partnership with QVC raised £340,000 in 2017. Over £6.4 million has now been raised during QVC UK’s 18-year partnership with Breast Cancer Care. QVC UK employees donated £32,829.17 to the charity with employees taking part in a range of activities from cake baking, raffles and tombolas to fancy dress days in the office. QVC UK was also able to reach its £340,000 fundraising total through customer donations and creating a bespoke Breast Cancer Care product range.
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3. B&Q & Shelter
B&Q has marked a year of its partnership with Shelter with colleagues participating in a national fundraising campaign. Colleagues in stores took part in step challenges that replicated Shelter’s tower running event, Vertical Rush, which takes place at Tower 42 in London annually. B&Q also funds Shelter’s team of specialist DIY advisers who provide practical help to those settling into a new home following a period of homelessness, as well as supporting others to stay in their current home by making essential home improvements. To date B&Q support has helped 240 families.
4. Leeds Building Society & Samaritans
Samaritans is partnering with Leeds Building Society, which is aiming to raise £250,000 to help the charity support more people by futureproofjng its services and boosting capacity. Leeds Building Society colleagues and a panel of its members will be given the chance to choose how the funds raised are spent by voting for one of two projects, to be announced later this year. The first will see new technology introduced allowing volunteers to move more easily between phone, email, text and chat responses. The second will fund volunteer recruitment to help meet demand.
5. Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banks & Hospice UK
Since February 2008 when Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks announced a new fundraising partnership with Hospice UK, over £6 million has now been raised by the banks’ employees and customers with 124 local hospices directly benefitting over the last 10 years. Hospices have also benefitted from over 40,000 volunteer hours while almost 400 staff have completed three separate marathon hikes, with 60 scaling Ben Nevis and 29 cycling from Workington to Whitby in 2013. In 2017 an auction of new Clydesdale Bank £10 notes featuring Robert Burn also raised £50,000.
Image: CYBG CEO David Duffy by Peter Devlin
6. J D Wetherspoon & CLIC Sargent
J D Wetherspoon has now raised £15m for CLIC Sargent. The milestone means fundraisers at J D Wetherspoon pubs across the country have raised the equivalent of £1 million each year since the partnership began in 2002. J D Wetherspoon is CLIC Sargent’s longest-standing corporate partner. The partnership was formed when the pub chain’s founder, Tim Martin, found himself sat opposite the charity’s then chief executive David Ellis on a train journey. The chance meeting led to the agreement of a fundraising partnership with an initial target of £500,000.
Image: Geraldine Burns, Joanna Hancock (CLIC Sargent), Fiona McCann, Kate Burns, Allison Rice, Gareth McEllduff, John Hutson (Wetherspoon Director), Sharon Reid.
7. Truckman & RNLI
Truckman has introduced a new scheme to support UK charities, which has already helped RNLI. The West Midlands-based company has provided the RNLI’s Criccieth Lifeboat station in North Wales with one of its Truckman Utility hardtops, which will be used as a support vehicle for rescue operations. Using Truckman’s scheme, the RNLI was able to save on the cost price of the hardtop. In addition to hardtops, the scheme also allows registered UK charities to receive a discount on a range of Truckman products, including everything from tow-bars to personalised car mats.
Main image: CLIC Sargent
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.