N Ireland car dealer raises £300,000 for children’s charity
Howard Lake | 28 January 2020 | News
Agnew Group, one of Northern Ireland’s top car retailers, has raised £300,000 for the Cancer Fund for Children (CFC) as it rounds off a three-year fundraising partnership.
The money raised exceeded the car sales firm’s target of £200,000 that it set back in 2017 when it made a pledge with CFC to help support its services which include residential group support to therapeutic short breaks for young people and their families living with cancer.
The 1,150-strong team at Agnew Group generated the money through a range of initiatives including payroll giving, cake sales, golf days and a Mourne Mountain Challenge. It also further assisted the charity by hosting a volunteers’ event at its Audi Belfast dealership where CFC celebrated the work carried out by its many supporters as well as showcasing its future plans.
Phil Alexander, CEO at CFC said: “The dedication of each member of staff from the Agnew Group has been incredible. The Agnew Group has also very generously matched all of their staff’s donations which has brought them to their phenomenal final total of £300,000”.
Yuile Magee, Managing Director at Agnew Group, added: “Working to raise funds for Cancer Fund for Children has been a true labour of love for our entire team. The work that Cancer Fund for Children does helps ease what is the most challenging time in many families’ lives here and we are grateful for that service and are honoured to have played a small role in enabling that amazing work to go further.”
Mr Magee said the company looks forward to entering into a new charitable partnership with mental health charity MindWise.
“As our partnership comes to an end with Cancer Fund for Children, the team at Agnew Group look forward to working with a new organisation that is also making a difference to those who need it most, Mr Magee said.
“The funds we now raise will help roll out MindWise’s Family Wellness Project to the Belfast Trust and enable the charity to provide dedicated support”.
Meanwhile, the charity has expanded its services to the Republic of Ireland and is raising money for a respite centre in Co Mayo. So far the Rory Foundation, named for golfer Rory McElroy, has pledged €1.2 million towards the capital cost.
In 2019 CFC raised £2.3 million, down from £2.6 million the year before.
WATCH: The beginnings of the CFC partnership
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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.