From donations to fundraising livestreams: 10 ways companies are supporting charities
Melanie May | 1 July 2020 | News
Here are ten corporate partnerships currently helping charities around the country, from donations of pet food to support animals in shelters, to fundraising YouTube livestreams.
London Taxi Drivers Charity for Children & London foodbank
The London Taxi Drivers Charity for Children has stepped in to help a food bank in North London, with a £500 donation of essential provisions. The food bank based in St Barnabas Church, North Finchley, opened in early May, and initially offered help to 45 families facing food poverty. When the LTCFC learnt that demand for help had increased by over 600%, they offered a donation of £500 to provide emergency supplies, specifically for families with children.
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BNI Nexus & CHAS
Glasgow business networking group BNI Nexus has raised £7,934 for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) following a ‘fun forfeits’ challenge. The branch, which forms part of BNI Scotland West, decided to fundraise for CHAS to help the charity continue its work helping children and families across Scotland. Mike Stark from RPL Media in Glasgow made a video to document the collective challenge which saw his fellow BNI members waxing their legs and chests, drinking baked bean smoothies, doing ice bucket challenges and somersaulting into an ice-cold paddling pool. The branch is a ‘chapter’ of the wider BNI Scotland West Network which also donated £547 towards the forfeit fundraiser.
JPMorgan Chase & The Prince’s Trust
JPMorgan Chase and The Prince’s Trust have worked together to transform of a pre-employment healthcare programme to place young people into clinical and non-clinical roles in the health and social care sector. Traditionally delivered face-to-face, JPMorgan Chase has provided financial support of £540,000 to help deliver the Get Started with Health and Social Care programme online. JPMorgan Chase’s support will also help The Prince’s Trust increase its outreach efforts, job placements, and mentoring and coaching support for the young people. With this funding, in the next 11 months, more than 1,000 young people will receive support through the programme.
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Pet food suppliers & the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes
Pet food manufacturers and suppliers of animal care products have donated £110,000 worth of food and products to help animal welfare charities struggling due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH), the umbrella body for companion animal rescue organisations, set up an Emergency Fund with Mars Petcare, Purina, Naturediet, IAMS, Forthglade and AJM Pet Products supplying over 65 pallets of dog and cat food.
In addition, Pet Remedy has provided over £17,000 worth of products to help animals staying longer than usual in animal welfare shelters, Protectapet has contributed security fencing, Animal Courses Direct is offering dog first aid webinars for Continuing Professional Development and Royal Canin is offering donations of food direct to ADCH members.
The donations are being distributed to charities across the country that are members of the ADCH.
Future Rays & Rays of Sunshine
Future Rays, a committee of young professionals that have come together to support, fundraise, and help raise awareness of Rays of Sunshine and its work, have raised over £30,000 for the charity through their first ever campaign.
The ‘ROS TOYZ’ campaign aimed to raise £10k to fund 1,500 toys to be delivered to children’s hospitals across the UK but raised £30k through donations on JustGiving, toys purchased through Amazon and toy donations.
Thanks to the campaign, Rays of Sunshine has already been able to deliver over 600 toy packages to St Mary’s Hospital, Royal London Hospital, Evelina Children’s Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Royal Marsden Hospital.
Danone & Family Action
Danone has launched ‘Cook Along For Families’: a fundraising initiative with Family Action that will see ambassadors from the Danone Family, including author Madeleine Shaw and author and one fifth of girl band The Saturday’s Frankie Bridge host a series of weekly, cook-a-long livestreams on YouTube showing how to make imaginative recipes for teatime using everyday ingredients. For every view of the videos the brand will donate £1 to the charity, up to £60,000.
Inivos & hospices
UK infection prevention and control expert Inivos has launched a new charitable initiative, ‘Inivos in the Community’, to tackle the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen in hospices. Inivos will provide free-of-charge clinical decontamination services to hospices and palliative care organisations concerned about the spread of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 virus, within their facilities. Inivos is aiming to provide five decontamination processes each month to organisations in need of infection prevention and control, with applications assessed based on the urgency and type of decontamination required.
Deloitte One Million Futures
Deloitte has made an impact on one million futures a year ahead of target with its One Million Futures programme. More than three-quarters of the firm’s people (15,510) have volunteered a combined 115,000 hours. In addition, the firm has carried out 36,500 pro-bono business hours with Deloitte’s total contribution equating to over £21 million directly benefitting charities, social enterprises and schools across the UK. Initiatives have included nurturing individuals through mentoring and employability skills workshops through to supporting organisations with their strategic ambitions. Pictured is Moses, recognised as the millionth person the programme has helped.
Image: Debbie Pow, Chair of Royal Bank of Scotland Family and Carers Network
Royal Bank of Scotland & VOCAL
Royal Bank of Scotland staff are being offered the opportunity to take part in specialist training and support sessions as part of the bank’s partnership with carers’ charity, VOCAL. Recognising the need to support staff who may be caring for family and loved ones during lockdown, the bank has enlisted VOCAL to deliver a programme of virtual seminars. Run by Royal Bank’s Family and Carers Network, the seminars include a carers support circle, a virtual coffee morning and a session on coping with fertility and loss delivered by expert councillors.
M&S Food & Together for Short Lives
Together for Short Lives has become a new charity partner for M&S Food. M&S Food has set itself the target of raising £1m for the charity. Customers can support it through their Sparks card, and a number of other initiatives will be launched during the year.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.