UK Charity Awards 2006: a night to recognise real achievement in the charity sector

Howard Lake | 26 September 2006 | Newswire

The UK Charity Awards held on the 12th September at the Royal Lancaster Hotel celebrated the achievement of twelve organisations and individuals for their excellence and best practice in charity management, marketing and corporate citizenship.
Attending the event were HRH The Earl of Wessex and the Right Honourable Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector together with a ‘who’s who’ of the UK charity industry. The evening, presented by Charity Times magazine, filled the venue and was adroitly hosted by media personality Jeremy Vine who provided suitable introduction to the evening’s sponsors, celebrities and Award nominees.
Ed Miliband, the Minister for the recently formed Department of the Third Sector, welcomed the guests to the event with an opening speech in which he highlighted the proactive role of the charity sector in today’s society: “These awards honour the best of modern charity – showing respect not paternalism for those they help, combining professional skills with voluntary action, and demonstrating charity while demanding justice. The nominees are the heroes, problem-solvers, and activists who never give up – and I am proud to applaud their achievements.”
The winners on the evening encompass a broad spectrum of the UK charity world. The charity of the Year was awarded to beatbullying who, in the words of the judging panel, “demonstrated quality, commitment and excellence in every area of their work”. Angela Docherty of New Ways won the Award for Charity Principal of the Year and Tai Pawb, the Award for Best New Charity for demonstrating in the view of the judging panel ” a real clarity about their aims and objectives and a very real understanding from the beginning that they need to engage and involve stakeholders”.
A full list of the winners and those nominations highly commended is as follows:
• Charity of the Year: beatbullying (Christians against Poverty – highly commended)
• Best new Charity: Tai Pawb
• Charity Principal of the Year: Angela Docherty (New Ways) (Emma Jane Cross of beatbullying – highly commended)
• Fundraising Campaign of the Year: The Children’s Trust/KPMG LLP UK (FSNBF – highly commended)
• Best Use of New Media: Contact a Family
• Corporate Community Involvement: Deptford Green School/UBS (Sightsavers International/Standard Chartered Bank and UNICEF/Manchester United both highly commended)
• Trustee Board of the Year: Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation
• Volunteer of the Year: Alex McLean of Prisoners Overseas (Richard Moore of Tearfund highly commended)
• Best Practice: Inspire
• Best Charity to Work for: Christians Against Poverty
• Best use of Technology: HelpAge International (Christians against Poverty – highly commended)
• Financial Services: Venturesome.
Winners of the Awards stressed the importance of the evening as recognition of achievement, as a boost to staff and stakeholder morale and as the foundation for further progress: “Winning Charity of the Year is a touching recognition of the great work the team of practitioners and campaigners at beatbullying have been doing over the past 12 months. This win has made the team feel enormously proud of themselves. We also hope it makes people realize that beatbullying is worthy of their support in the future”.
[Niall Cowley, Head of Communications, beatbullying, 2006 Charity of the Year]
“HelpAge International are thrilled to have won this prestigious award in recognition of all the hard work and meticulous planning that went into producing our website, www.helpage.org, prior to its re-launch in December last year. It confirms that we have achieved our aim of ensuring the site is accessible to all, particularly those in developing countries where HelpAge International works we kept the site simple, practical and straightforward and avoided the use of unnecessary flashy elements that could slow down access to site for those in developing countries using outdated systems or recycled computers.” [Caroline Dobbing, Communications Officer, HelpAge International, 2006 Best Use of New Technology]
“As a new charity, winning this award has immense significance for our organisation. It provides credibility to our charity, something that is essential in the early days when the public are wondering who we are and whether we can deliver. Winning this award will enable Tai Pawb to raise its profile and provide reassurance to our funding body that we are a worthwhile investment, now and in the future”. [Madhulata Patel, Director, Tai Pawb, 2006 Best New Charity]
“This award is very important to New Ways as it improves the credibility of the organisation which is really important to small charities and I very much hope it will help us when we apply to grant making bodies. I believe the award is for all the people who help and support New Ways – the volunteers, the supporters, the benefactors and our corporate sponsors. In order to be a successful leader you need people to lead and in a voluntary run organisation that means people need to want to be part of what we are doing. It is fantastic and I am really delighted to have won” [Angela Docherty, New Ways, 2006 Charity Principal of the Year]
Endorsement received after the event indicates that the Award ceremony and the dinner brought pleasure to all who attended:
“It was an honour to be at the Charity awards, the evening was pervaded by the overwhelming sense of pride and commitment of the people working in the sector. More than just a job, those involved in the charity industry are passionate about their work and determined to give their professional best.” [Mandy Flashman-Wells]
For further information, please contact Martin Davies, Events Manager, Charity Times on 020 7426 0424 or at ma***********@pe*******************.com or Nick Parfitt at Spa Communications on 01892 511413 or at ni**@sp******.uk .
Photographs of the 2006 UK Charity Awards can be viewed online

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.