14 more corporate charity partnerships for February 2016
Howard Lake | 15 February 2016 | News
Here is our latest round-up of corporate charity partnerships and charity of the year announcements.
1. Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Unicef
Starwood Hotels & Resorts raised £800,000 in 2015 for Unicef through their customer fundraising campaign Road to Awareness. Since 1995, guests and employees have raised nearly $35 million for the children’s charity through Road to Awareness as well as the Check Out for Children programme, where customers are invited to add $1 to their bill on checking out.
In the 20th year of their partnership with Unicef, the company’s associate fundraising campaign, Road to Awareness, surpassed their fundraising goal of $1 million.
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2. Open GI and St Richard’s Hospice
Insurance software company Open GI, based in Worcester, has chosen St Richard’s Hospice as its charity of the year for 2016.
It previously supported the charity in 2008.
Last year the company’s employees raised £34,000 for the Worcestershire Breast Unit campaign.
3. BlackRock and JDRF
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, has chosen diabetes charity JDRF as its charity of the year. The partnership is expected to raise £500,000.
The charity has already been chosen as one of two charity partners for 2016 of Lord Mayor of The City of London’s Appeal.
BlackRock recently raised £844,000 for Childrens’ Hospices Across London.
4. Age UK explains its partnership with E.On
Age UK was criticised by The Sun for its affinity fundraising partnership with energy supplier E.On at the beginning of the month in two front page news items.
It defended its partnership and explained it in a statement.
5. Principality Building Society and Mind Cymru
Principality Building Society has raised £90,000 for its charity of the year 2015, Mind Cymru. This is a record for its charity of the year partnerships.
Throughout the year staff at the Society’s Cardiff head office, 53 branches and 18 agencies across Wales and the border regions completed a range of activities to raise this total. These range from gruelling half marathons and fundraising walks to charity shop takeovers.
Principality Building Society’s Charity of the Year is nominated by its members of staff. A shortlist of six is drawn up before staff vote for the winning charity.
The record total was boosted by donations generated from Member votes at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in April, which raised £20,000.
6. Rugby Football Union and SSAFA
The Rugby Football Union has chosen SSAFA as its military charity partner for 2016. It will support the charity by connecting it with the rugby community through fundraising events including the Big Brew Up 2016 and Ride to the Somme 2016.
Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive Rugby Football Union said:
“The RFU is proud of its long history commemorating the dedication and sacrifice of our service men and women. We are delighted to welcome SSAFA as the RFU’s military charity partner for 2016. As we remember those who lost their lives in the Great War at this time of centenary, SSAFA are a very apposite partner, the charity having supported the Armed Forces for over 130 years.”
7. Burberry and County Durham Community Foundation and Place2Be
Luxury fashion company Burberry’s Christmas advertising campaign benefited County Durham Community Foundation and Place2Be. Romeo Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Elton John, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, James Corden, Julie Walters, George Ezra, Michelle Dockery, and James Bay all donated their fees for the Mario Testino photoshoot to the two charities.
The partnership will help further the Foundation’s Learning Working Earning initiative in East Durham which helps young people into jobs.
The partnership with both charities was developed due to the campaign’s Billy Elliott theme, and the story’s link to Easington. The donation is being made by The Burberry Foundation, which supports “innovative programmes and building sustainable partnerships with charitable organisations that help young people”.
8. BT Sport Rugby Aid and Rugby for Heroes
The inaugural BT Sport Rugby Aid event has raised £150,000 for Rugby for Heroes.
The charity game took place in September at Twickenham. It involved a mix of ex rugby pros, celebrities and serving members of the armed forces representing England and the Rest of the World. It was the brainchild of the former England star alongside Alan Lamb and Simon Bailey of Rugby for Heroes and Kenneth Shepherd of Triple S Sports and Entertainment Group.
Ten thousand fans saw England lose 29-36 to the Rest of the World in an entertaining encounter which was also broadcast live on BT Sport.
Of the £150,000 raised, approximately £70,000 has already been allocated to other military charities including Hire a Hero, Veterans Aid, Future for Heroes and the On Course Foundation, which all provide support for ex-service men and women making the transition back in to civilian life. A further £70,000 has been set aside for Rugby for Heroes ‘Transition through Rugby’ courses for 2015/16.
Other commercial partners included The Sun, Mentos, Canterbury, and Norton Rose.
9. Haynes and Mechanics for Africa
Haynes Publishing Group plc, publishers of car repair manuals, has donated Haynes manuals to Mechanics for Africa (MfA) which offers highly-subsidised education to underprivileged young adults in Zambia.
The company has provided 50 manuals, covering 31 different models of car, to the MfA college which teaches 35 students a year the City & Guilds Diploma in Automotive Mechanics. The college, which educates 18 to 30 year olds from underprivileged backgrounds, including many AIDS orphans, has been running for 13 years and has graduated over 300 people in that time.
In the next five years Mechanics for Africa hope to double the size of their college, as well as develop the workshop further in order to have the capacity to educate more young people.
In 2013 Haynes launched its “Mechanix” project in association with North London youth charity Prospex, which has since seen 25 young people from low income families graduate with a variety of qualifications in car maintenance and personal development. The project is now in its third term with a group of young people renovating a VW Golf over a 12-week period.
10. Iris and When You Wish Upon a Star
Staff and clients of innovation network agency Iris Worldwide have run and ridden the 3,273km from 185 Park Street to Santa’s Lapland Grotto. For every kilometre that is clocked-up in the Iris to Lapland campaign, Iris donated £1 to When You Wish Upon a Star.
The charity used the money to send children with life-threatening illnesses to meet the real Father Christmas in Lapland.
The activity is tracked by mobile exercise app Strava, and additional donations were encouraged via Iris’ JustGiving page.
Staff could nominate a colleague to take part, provided they commit to donating to the appeal in response.
There was livestreaming of some of the exercise activities.
11. Southampton Airport and Orbis
Southampton Airport supported sight-saving charity Orbis’ Vision for Zambia appeal by displaying digital posters in the departure lounge for two weeks during December. These called on flyers to save a child’s sight for free by signing up to the appeal website. For every email received, an Orbis supporter has pledged £1 which will be doubled to £2 by the UK government.
In addition, the airport also had a dedicated Orbis collection box. Any spare change dropped in before 3 February 2016 was doubled.
Indeed, the UK government doubled all public donations to this appeal as part of their UK Aid Match scheme. The charity aims to raise £500,000 from the nationwide Vision for Zambia appeal, matched by the government to £1 million. This will enable Orbis to screen and treat over 100,000 children, to train 750 eye health professionals to asses, treat or refer children in isolated and rural areas, and to educate communities on the signs of eye disease.
12. Payfriendz and Jo’s Cervical Cancer
During December, Payfriendz, the mobile app that lets you transfer money between you and your friends, raised funds for Jo’s Cervical Cancer, the charity that is dedicated to cervical cancer and abnormalities.
Everyone who donated £5 or more via Payfriendz’ app received a Payfriendz duck as a thank you gift. They were also entered into a prize draw to win a Swegway
The company says that 100% of donations were passed to Jo’s Trust, with all shipping costs covered by Payfriendz.
13. Rank Group and Carers Trust
Employees at Rank Group have raised £1 million for Carers Trust, the UK’s largest charity for carers.
The partnership between the charity and the Rank Group, which owns Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, began in February 2014 and saw employees at the Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca clubs take part in a host of different activities to raise funds.
Over the last two years employees have organised a range of fundraising events, from 24/7 challenges to sky dives, as well as going the extra mile by giving their time as volunteers to support local Carers Trust services.
14. Topps Tiles and Macmillan Cancer Support
Over 60,000 donations have been made to Topps Tiles’ chosen charity partner, Macmillan Cancer Support, since it introduced the Pennies microdonation initiative in October 2015. This digital version of the traditional charity box allows customers to donate a few pence when paying for goods by card at a till, making it easy and convenient for people to help out charities.\
Topps Tiles has rolled out the initiative across all of its 330 stores nationwide, which now collects over 4,500 donations a week for Macmillan Cancer Support.
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.