Institute of Fundraising National Awards 2011
Penny Stephens | 15 April 2011 | Blogs
It’s that awards time of year again. The Institute of Fundraising’s National Awards have been judged, and the shortlists announced. Once again, the judges, which included UK Fundraising’s Howard Lake, had their work cut out to choose shortlisted entries from the hundreds submitted.
Over the next few weeks, UK Fundraising will be featuring the shortlisted entries in each category, starting with the two best corporate relationship categories.
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Best Business-Charity Partnership (large charities with over £1m income)
For the best relationship between a charity and a business that provides benefit to the charity within the eligibility criteria The shortlisted entries in alphabetical order are:
* Helen & Douglas House/MEM Consumer Finance
* NSPCC/Childline/First Direct
* Oxfam/Pizza Express
Helen & Douglas House/MEM Consumer Finance
In September 2009 MEM established a strategic partnership with Helen & Douglas house with a target of raising over £150,000 in the first year. It also needed to raise staff morale, build team spirit and generate a ‘feel good factor’ throughout MEM’s workforce.
MEM worked closely with the charity to develop a multi-dimensional partnership. This includes staff fundraising activities, company donations, matched giving, payroll giving, gifts in kind and participation in the charity’s events and volunteering.In 12 months 70 staff fundraising activities were planned from raffles to quizzes and waxing.
In the end £200,863 was raised, including £7,000 donated through the payroll giving scheme. MEM completely furnished a new office suite for the charity worth £25k. MEM’s involvement has led to Helen & Douglas House becoming charity of the year for another company and one of the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire charities in 2011/12.
NSPCC/Childline/First Direct
First Direct aimed to raise £2.1m in cash, pro-bono and added value for the NSPCC during 2010 to celebrate their 21st birthday. First Direct raised £822,000 in direct donations from the business, customer and employees and from office events, sporting event teams, CRMs and headline sponsorship of high profile NSPCC events.
A senior call centre manager was seconded to Childline for one year and First Direct also contributed specialist advice on digital strategy, corporate culture and training. Its agents took incoming NSPCC Letter from Santa phone calls. It also facilitated additional donations and developed relevant and meaningful volunteer opportunities. One of the objectives was to create a truly integrated, multi-platform corporate partnership that can be used as a model for both organisations.
Results exceeded projections due to the success of expansion of the partnership into HSBC Direct Bank sites which had never fundraised before. First Direct has agreed to support the NSPCC until the end of 2011.
Oxfam/Pizza Express
Oxfam reasoned that it had a lot in common with Pizza Express – both big on the high street, well-loved and iconic brands. This six-week fundraising campaign ‘Fighting poverty, one goat at a time’ aimed to get more people spending money in Oxfam stores and Oxfam online, and also aimed to directly raise £150,000 from pizza sales to help Oxfam buy up to 6,000 goats and other animals to support families in poverty.
The primary mechanic was rewarding people who spent £5 in Oxfam with a £5 Pizza Express voucher. There was also a donation from sales of Christmas menus and the Padana pizza over the festive period.
Zandra Rhodes also designed a limited edition campaign t-shirt. The result was £285,000 which could buy up to 11,400 goats. 17,500 £5 vouchers were claimed by Oxfam customers with an 18% redemption rate and 73,000 new customers joined the Pizza Express database.
Best business-charity partnership (smaller charities with under £1m income)
For the best relationship between a charity and a business that provides benefit to the charity within the eligibility criteria.
The shortlisted entries in alphabetical order are:
* Berkshire East & South Bucks Women’s Aid/SEGRO
* Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation/Yorkshire Tea
Berkshire East & South Bucks Women’s Aid/SEGRO
This partnership with SEGRO was to provide a building that would enable the charity to increase the bedspace within their three refuge houses while providing space for a new service to increase the number of high risk victims who can be supported. SEGRO provided a building that would otherwise have been empty. The company also engaged with the charity to offer business support and advice which saved the charity in terms of purchasing external expertise.
The space is over two floors, one of which has been used for office space and the other has been used to store donations that can be sold to generate income. The building opened in December 2008. Over 800 clients have been supported by the new independent domestic violence advocacy and outreach team and the charity has been able to raise more awareness of the impact of domestic abuse. The company also now has a much greater awareness of domestic abuse.
Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation/Yorkshire Tea
The Great British Tea Party formed a partnership with Yorkshire Tea. This aimed to drive people to register to take part in the event, to increase awareness and raise funds for the Foundation, increase brand awareness and trail of Yorkshire Tea nationally, and increase sales. An integrated, multi-channel marketing campaign was created running over four months and supported by a six week on-pack promotion. Both parties benefited and since 2008 the number of people registering has increased by 100,000 a year.
Yorkshire Tea has seen an increase in sales of around 20% from on pack promotion and the number of registrations driven from the promotion. The campaign has seen £2 raised for every £1 spent.
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