Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Newcastle Building Society mark £1m total
Howard Lake | 26 March 2015 | News
Savers and investors with the Newcastle Building Society have helped raise £1 million for The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation in just two and a half years, with a small fraction of their account balances being donated to the charity.
In Spring 2012 the Society set up ISA and Saver accounts that were branded as supporting the Foundation. Savers knew that 0.1% of the balances held in all the accounts would be donated by the Building Society to the Foundation.
In fact, the £1 million pound donation mark was reached in November 2014, just two and a half years after the first accounts were opened.
Film shows the impact of the funds raised
To mark the £1 million total, the two organisations have together produced a six minute film which explains the work of the Foundation, and what the funds are helping it to achieve.
It features interviews with Lady Elsie Robson, who co-founded The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation with Sir Bobby in 2008, Newcastle Building Society chief executive Jim Willens, and Professor Ruth Plummer, Clinical Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, at which Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre is based.
The film can be seen on Newcastle United’s YouTube channel and on the Foundation’s and Society’s websites.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izfj8d_VDig[/youtube]
Sir Bobby fought cancer over a 17 year period, including the five years in which he was Manager of Newcastle United.
Jim Willens, Newcastle Building Society chief executive, said:
“Our fundraising work with the Foundation has had such a phenomenal and sustained response from our members that we wanted to do something to provide a lasting record of the impact it’s having on cancer patients both within and outside the North East”.
“Our film shines a light on the groundbreaking work that the Foundation and its staff are undertaking, and we’re especially grateful to Alison Baxter for sharing her story with us, which provides a very moving and personal insight into how the Foundation’s support gave her and her family more precious time together with Bob.Advertisement
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.