Our award winning community support programme has assisted many charities and community groups over the years.
Our support ranges from staff volunteering time such as getting involved in projects such as Young Enterprise, painting and decorating, to printing promotional material for charitable events.
In 2006 we printed in excess of 300,000 items for community groups.
In order to apply for our support you must be a registered charity or a community group local to our Head Office or branches. We seek to support those who are disadvantaged. Sectors that have received our support in the past include children's charities, housing associations and arts groups. Inevitably there are causes we are unable to support. These are any organisation or individual who has political or religious affiliation, where the entirety of funds are not passed onto charity or community and any cause that receives core NHS or educational funding.
For cash donations/grants please visit our Charitable Foundation website by using the link on the right.
Each year staff nominate a charity in order to concentrate their fundraising activity. This year they have chosen Winston’s Wish, the charity for bereaved children www.winstonswish.org.uk.
This is our fourth charity of the year campaign and we have set ourselves a fundraising target of £30,000 for 2008.
In previous years we have helped Macmillan Cancer Support, Guide Dogs and British Heart Foundation (BHF). In 2007 staff raised £17,500 for BHF in a variety of ways including a swim-a-thon, canoe challenge, wine tasting evening, various raffles and numerous running events.
This year we asked charity fundraisers to pitch their ideas and tell us why our staff should vote their charity to be our charity of the year over any others. Winston’s Wish won receiving 58% of staff votes and had an excellent package to engage staff including volunteering opportunities and exciting fundraising ideas.
Winston’s Wish - who they are and what they do
Winston's Wish was set up in 1992 by clinical psychologist Julie Stokes to meet the needs of bereaved children, young people and their families.
At Winston’s Wish they provide support for bereaved children and young people up to the age of 18. They also support parents or carers.
Winston’s Wish provide a range of services including the following:
Vision and Mission
Winston’s Wish vision is that bereaved children, young people and their families will receive the support they need.
Their mission is to provide high quality services to grieving children and the community through:
Their services offer a safe, yet creative environment for those who are grieving the death of a family member
‘We are absolutely delighted to be Chelsea’s charity for 2008 – it’s a fantastic way to start the New Year. The staff have been so enthusiastic about supporting our work, with lots of activities already in the pipeline. The annual cost of providing our essential services to bereaved children and their families is over £1.2 million so having the support of such an enthusiastic and dedicated organisation such as Chelsea is invaluable for us.’
Kate Acutt
Corporate Partnerships Executive
Winston's Wish
Arts & Business are government funded. They help business to support the arts by providing grants to enable arts and business to create partnerships and embark on projects to benefit themselves and the community.
For more information on Arts & Business visit their website at www.aandb.org.uk.
