The October Club seeks 2025 charity partner, plus more corporate fundraising news
Melanie May | 25 November 2024 | News
Charities have until February to apply to The October Club. Meanwhile, Clifford Chance has announced the winner of its £50k UN SDG award, Hess Enterprises has partnered with The Hunger Project UK, and a Yorkshire housebuilder has donated £10k to PACT. More on these and other partnerships below.
The October Club seeks 2025 charity partner
Applications to be The October Club’s 2025 charity partner are open until 7 February. The October Club supports small and growing UK charities with funds for transformational projects so there are three criteria that charities must meet to apply. They must have an annual income greater than £500k and less than £2.5mn; they must also have a deliverable transformational project; and be able to use the funds in a three-year timeframe. More information here.
In October, The October Club announced that it had raised £660,000 for its 2024 partner Back Up, which supports people with spinal cord injuries.
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The Reed Foundation donates £10,000 to The Myton Hospices
The Reed Foundation, part of the Reed Group, is donating £10,000 every week for a year, to support 52 different charities chosen by its employees. This means that by April 2025, the Reed Foundation will have donated £520,000. The initiative is a celebration of Reed’s 65th year of business and its Founder, Sir Alec’s 90th birthday.
Every week, a Reed employee is drawn randomly to nominate a charity of their choice to receive the donation. This time around, it was Kayleigh Hersey – a recruitment specialist based in Reed’s Northampton office, who opted to support The Myton Hospices, which has hospices in Coventry, Rugby and Warwick. The charity provided support when Kayleigh’s dad was diagnosed with with pancreatic cancer and given four months to live.
Clifford Chance chooses BarefootLaw as winner of £50,000 UN SDG award 2024
Global law firm Clifford Chance has named BarefootLaw as the winner of its United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) award 2024. BarefootLaw’s work involves leveraging digital technology and legal expertise to promote accessible, inclusive, and effective access to justice, particularly among underserved and marginalized communities in Africa.
The charity will receive a £50,000 donation and 500 hours of pro bono support over an 18-month period which will support BarefootLaw to expand its operations in its next phase of development, specifically extending activities to additional countries.
Local accountancy firm raises funds for Julian House in Bath
Over the past 12 months, Monahans’ Bath office has raised just shy of £1,000 for the charity Julian House through a range of fundraising activities, including sales of retired IT equipment, quizzes, breakfast club meetings, and other networking events.
This recent fundraising effort is part of a larger, ongoing charity initiative across Monahans’ seven offices. Through its volunteering policy, every employee is given paid time off to support a charity of their choice. Additionally, Monahans matches donations raised through fundraising efforts, such as their annual Charity Quiz.
Yorkshire housebuilder donates £10,000 to support children with cancer
Housebuilder Keepmoat has committed a £10,000 donation to PACT (Parents Association of Children with Tumours and Leukaemia), which will aid the charity in providing equipment, facilities and holidays – including part payments towards a new caravan for families to enjoy.
PACT is based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, close to the housebuilders’ Eclipse and Beckett Hill developments. Keepmoat has worked with PACT for sixteen years and over that time have committed more than £90,000 to help aid its mission of supporting families with children with cancer.
Fieldfisher announces new charity partnership with Access Sport
Fieldfisher’s London office has chosen Access Sport as its new charity partner for 2024 -2026, marking the start of a two-year collaboration aimed at supporting inclusive community sport initiatives for disabled young people across the capital.
In addition to fundraising, the collaboration will focus on leveraging the time and resources of Fieldfisher’s people through pro bono assistance and volunteering. The aim of the partnership is to address some of the systemic issues that prevent young people from accessing sporting activities, particularly those who are disabled and who face socioeconomic barriers.
Sea Change to double donations in run up to Green Friday
This year, instead of participating in traditional Black Friday sales, Sea Change has chosen to double its donations from every online purchase the entire week leading up to Green Friday (22 to 29 November 2024). Green Friday (29 November) is an alternative to Black Friday and offers consumers a way to shop while contributing to a good cause.
Sea Change supports marine charities, including Sea Changers, Ocean Generation, and the Olive Ridley Project, and to date has raised over €500,000.
Cancer Support UK & Warmies partner on competition
Cancer Support UK and Warmies® have partnered on a new competition, Create Your Dream Bestie. Children are invited to submit an original drawing of their favourite imaginary best friend by 31 December 2024 to Cancer Support UK for the chance to see their creation brought to life by the sensory soft toy producer.
A public vote will decide the winning “Bestie”, which will then be transformed by Warmies® into a special limited edition heatable sensory cuddly toy. The winning child will receive the first toy in the limited edition run, while the remaining toys will go on sale to supporters and friends of Cancer Support UK, with the charity receiving 100% of profits from sales, to help provide practical and emotional support to people with cancer.
The Caring Family Foundation to provide a million meals to people in need with The Felix Project
The Caring Family Foundation (TCFF) has announced its 2024 ‘Food From the Heart’ Campaign in partnership with The Felix Project. This initiative seeks to address child poverty, currently affecting over 4.2 million children in the UK, equivalent to 1 in 4, according to End Child Poverty UK.
By working with The Felix Project, TCFF pledges to distribute 300,000 meals across London by the end of 2024 and an additional 700,000 meals to those who need them most in 2025 (totalling 1 million meals as part of the commitment). By the end of 2025, this means TCFF will have provided over 3.5 million meals through its network of schools and partners across the UK and Brazil. Of this 3.5 million, 2.7 will have been distributed in the UK alone.
Hess Enterprises partners with The Hunger Project UK
The partnership will see Hess Enterprises organising a variety of fundraising activities to support The Hunger Project UK’s work, including: fun runs and employee activities and targeted campaigns supporting awareness days such as International Women’s Day.
An auction will also be hosted by Hess Enterprises, with 100% of proceeds directed to The Hunger Project UK, and as part of a broader storytelling initiative. In addition, Hess Enterprises will donate a percentage of net profits from upcoming Hess Entertainment projects such as a documentary set for release in 2026, and Hess Art House, the enterprise’s art initiative, will donate £10 from every image sold to The Hunger Project UK.
The IN Group joins The Felix Group to distribute more than four tonnes of food
The Felix Group has partnered with The IN Group to package and distribute over 8,000 meals and more than four tonnes of food to the Poplar Tower Hamlets community for those in need. The programme aims to support local families in the area who are utilising free school meals, helping during school holidays and to fight wider food poverty throughout London.
Volunteers from The IN Group joined forces at The Felix Project’s Poplar site, working across Felix’s Kitchen and warehouse to prepare ingredients, package meals and organise supplies for local distribution. The IN Group is also working with other businesses to round up volunteers for upcoming school holidays to continue delivering food to those in need throughout London.
Lidl, Puma, XBox and Red Bull among 11 global brands added to Laureus Sport for Good Index 2024
Launched in 2021, Laureus Sport for Good Index recognises brands using sport to drive positive social and environmental change. Supermarket chain Lidl, official partner of UEFA Euro 2024 and now sponsor of the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League, has been recognised for its efforts to promote healthy living through nutrition and physical activity, while Dove features for its work with Nike, another brand recognised on the Index, to empower girls to participate in sport.
Brands featured in the Index were assessed according to a set of seven key criteria: their impact through sports-related CSR and ESG activities; innovation and creativity during purpose-led campaigns; commitment to environmental, social, and corporate governance; level of investment in ‘sport for good’ causes and the extent to which those investments align with the UN SDGs; their commercial viability; an overall assessment of their commitment towards building an equitable society, reducing sport’s ecological footprint, and growing the sport’s industry’s economy through sport for good campaigns.
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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.