Santander raises £1.2m for British Heart Foundation
Howard Lake | 8 January 2016 | News
Santander’s year-long partnership with the British Heart Foundation has exceeded its target of £1 million for the charity.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) was chosen by Santander staff as its charity of the year in January 2015. Since then, staff, customers and suppliers have joined in the fundraising. This included taking part in some of BHF’s fundraising campaigns such as ‘Wear It. Beat it.’ in February and the autumn stock donation campaign ‘Bag it. Beat it.’ for the BHF’s 750+ shops.
Santander events
Santander staff raise funds for British Heart Foundation
Santander also ran a number of its own events and campaigns. These included:
• a London to Cambridge cycle challenge for Santander’s Executive team which raised £23,614
• a 50 million step challenge which saw over 1300 staff walk 111 million steps in 10 days raising £149,410
• a relay challenge involving six riders cycling from Glasgow to London over five days visiting Santander regional offices en route raised £49,928
• an international challenge in which 36 Santander staff travelled to India to build a school for disabled children in Pondicherry and raised £172,370.
The money raised will fund the BHF’s Freephone Heart Helpline which provides emotional and practical support to heart patients and their families for the next two years and support two research projects for three years which could lead to better treatments for those living with CVD.
Benefits for Santander
BHF staff also train Santander staff in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as part of the BHF’s ambition to create a Nation of Lifesavers.
This was extended to the bank’s 10 regional offices and all 850 branches to provide its 20,000 staff with access to the charity’s lifesaving training. As a result of the campaign, the bank also installed AEDs into its major offices to support further the chances of survival in the case of a cardiac arrest.
The BHF also supported Santander staff through Healthy Hearts activity, providing useful information and advice about looking after your heart at Santander events across the UK. Branches were provided with a selection of the BHF’s health resources to share with customers.
Nathan Bostock, CEO Santander, said:
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“We have a great track record of fundraising thanks to the boundless enthusiasm and energy of our employees and the generosity of our customers and suppliers who have all helped to make this such a fantastic year with the BHF.”
Past charity of the year partnerships
In 2012 Santander staff and customers raised £1 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care, and in 2014 raised £1.3 million for NSPCC.
Main image: Santander branch, Manchester by moneybright.co.uk on Flickr.com
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.