Cabinet Office concludes its charity of the year partnership with BHF

Howard Lake | 26 September 2013 | News

The Cabinet Office and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) have marked the end of their Charity of the Year partnership with an event at Admiralty House, Whitehall, in London.

The organisations had engaged in a 15-month long skills sharing partnership, the first of its kind for both organisations.

During the partnership Cabinet Office staff shared their professional Civil Service skills and expertise with the BHF, conducted fundraising activities across the department, and volunteered their personal time to support the BHF. The Cabinet Office also raised awareness of heart disease internally via information and ./guidance provided by the charity.

Cabinet Office staff:

• donated over 190 hours of their time on skills sharing workshops and reviewed
   
• ran 12 workshops on topics including project and programme management, leadership, behavioural insight, and implementing a flexible resourcing model. Nearly 100 BHF employees attended these.
   
• raised over £15,000 by taking part in the London to Brighton Bike Ride, the London Marathon, and the Three Peaks Challenge
   
• filled 90 bags of clothing for BHF's charity shops

Cabinet Office staff were invited to several BHF organised events and activities to learn about the work of the charity.

Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive at the BHF, said: “We are truly delighted to have had the support of the Cabinet Office over the past 15 months. The partnership gave us the opportunity to tap into the expertise of their staff and cultivate an environment of sharing best business practice between cultures. We are continually striving to improve and grow as an organisation and there is no doubt that this partnership has helped us do this”.

Richard Heaton, Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office and First Parliamentary Counsel, added that the partnership had worked well for them too. "I've been very proud", he said, "to see civil servants being innovative, taking responsibility for their own learning, using their skills, and working in partnership with another organisation. And to such good effect – creating a real impact."

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.