Corporate charity partnerships in January 2015
Howard Lake | 22 January 2015 | News
Here is our round-up of the latest corporate charity partnerships, including charity of the year partnerships, corporate events and employee fundraising.
1. Scottish Professional Football League and Play for Change
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has chosen children’s education and sports charity Play for Change as its international charitable partner, with activities beginning this month.
As part of the agreement, SPFL will lend a number of matches such as the Scottish League Cup semi-finals and final to Play for Change as platforms at which to run fundraising activities.
The funds raised will be invested in education and sports activities jointly created by SPFL and Play for Change to support the disadvantaged young in Scotland by helping them develop skills for life. The projects will be delivered through local community charities, and where suitable, through integration with existing programmes.
In addition, Shelter Scotland has been chosen as SPFL’s Scottish charity partner.
2. Santander and British Heart Foundation
Santander staff raise funds for British Heart Foundation
Santander has chosen the British Heart Foundation as its Charity of the Year for 2015. The fundraising target for the partnership is £1 million.
The funds raised by Santander will help support the BHF’s freephone Heart Helpline, which provides emotional and practical support to heart patients and their families, for two years. It will also enable the charity to fund two research projects over three years which could lead to better treatments for those living with CVD.
Santander staff are already being encouraged to get involved in BHF fundraising campaigns such as ‘Wear It. Beat it’ on Friday 6th February, and the Autumn stock donation campaign ‘Bag it. Beat it’ for their 750+ shops.
The bank will also be developing additional events for staff including a 50 million step challenge which will invite employees to get walking, monitor their steps and fundraise, and an international challenge. Last year Santander staff who took part in this challenge raised over £90,000 for BHF.
Santander’s charity of the year for 2014 was NSPCC and the campaign raised £1.3 million.
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3. Costain and four charities
As reported in July 2014, engineering solutions provide Costain is planning to raise £1 million during 2015 for the British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support, The Prince’s Trust and Samaritans, via the recently established Costain Charitable Foundation. The funding will be split equally between the charities.
As part of the Group’s 150 year anniversary celebrations, employees, contractors and customers will be encouraged to participate in fundraising events throughout the next 12 months.
4. Zoggs and Marie Curie
Zoggs googles for Swimathon raising funds for Marie Curie
Swimwear manufacturer Zoggs is once again supporting Swimathon, the world’s biggest fundraising swim. This year the thousands of swimmers will be raising funds for Marie Curie.
Zoggs will be promoting the event at over 600 pools throughout the UK, supplying every swimmer with a swimming cap and making available limited edition Marie Curie swimming goggles in blue and yellow. The goggles will be available in both adult and junior sizes and be named ‘Hero Adult’ and ‘Hero Junior’.
The company will be donating £1 to Marie Curie from the sale of every pair of the limited edition Marie Curie goggles.
The goggles will be also available from participating leisure centres, sports retailers nationwide via the Zoggs website at £15 for Hero Adult size and £10 for Hero Junior size.
5. esl Employer Services and the MSA Trust
Esl Employer Services, a payroll and HR business based in Brentwood in Essex, has chosen the Multiple System Atrophy Trust (MSA Trust) as its 2015 charity partner.
Virginia Freeman, esl’s Director of Commercial Development said:
“We are delighted to have MSA Trust as our charity of the year. It is a cause very close to our heart, providing excellent and vital support to a member of the esl family. We look forward to a successful partnership.”
6. Eden Springs and WOSP
Eden Springs supports WOSP at the Big Warsaw Run
Workplace drinks provider Eden Springs has extended its support for Polish charity, WOSP (the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity with a package of event sponsorship and a donation of almost €70,000. The company was the main sponsor of two key events for leading Polish charity day, The Great Finale, on 11 January, including Big Run Warsaw.
In 2013, Eden asked its clients to move from paper to electronic invoices. For each client that converted, Eden donated €3 to WOSP. To date, 25% of clients have converted and Eden has donated more than €19,000 to WOSP from this initiative.
7. Frankie & Benny’s and Rays of Sunshine
Danny Breithaupt, CEO of The Restaurant Group, and Jane Sharpe, CEO of Rays of Sunshine, launch their 2015 partnership.
Restaurant group Frankie & Benny’s has launched its charity partnership with Rays of Sunshine, the charity that grants wishes for seriously ill children across the UK, aged three to 18 years. The company has pledged to raise £250,000 this year.
To celebrate the launch, Frankie & Benny’s will be celebrating National Breakfast Week from 25 – 30 January 2015 by hosting a series of charity breakfasts in restaurants across the group and donating £1 from every Big Breakfast sold to Rays of Sunshine.
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.