Ten Suffolk businesses have received awards for the fundraising support they have pledged to leading local charity St Elizabeth Hospice.
The Hospice’s new corporate scheme Pillars of the Community was officially launched on November 17th at the Ramada Encore Hotel in Ipswich.
Local businesspeople attended the event to hear about how they can choose to raise between £1,000 and £50,000 through a range of ways to suit them and their staff over a year.
The Hospice will support them with their efforts and they can sign up to earn either a bronze, silver, gold or platinum Pillar award, depending on how much they wish to raise.
The first ten businesses to sign up to the initiative were presented with their Pillar award by keynote speaker East Anglian Daily Times editor Terry Hunt.
They were:
• Ramada Encore Ipswich – gold
• AV Unit – bronze
• Engraving Village – bronze
• Image Beauty Salon – bronze
• Ipswich Building Society – gold
• John Michael Hairdressing – bronze
• Mediterranean Shipping Company (UK) Ltd – gold
• Richard Jackson Ltd – silver
• Simply Money Ltd – gold
• Suffolk Life – silver
Mr Hunt said: “St Elizabeth Hospice does brilliant work and I heartily endorse the Pillars of the Community scheme. Well done to everyone who has signed up. I hope many more organisations will be able to support the initiative in the coming months.”
Chris Whitley, of Simply Money Ltd, who organises the hospice’s annual fundraising corporate golf day, said: “My brother was cared for at the hospice and I know firsthand of the excellent work they do. I have a reason to support them and will do so until I die. I urge everyone else to find a reason.”
Melissa Neisler Dickinson, of the Ramada Encore Ipswich, said: “Working with St Elizabeth Hospice has been a pleasure we have built up a great relationship and hope to work with them for many years to come.”
The second Pillars of the Community event will be held in Framlingham on November 24th when Framlingham Technology Centre and React Computer Partnership will be presented with their awards.
St Elizabeth Hospice is an independent charity which provides services free of charge to improve lives of people in Suffolk living with a progressive illness and support their families. It costs £13 a minute to run and relies on fundraising and donations to meet the majority of these costs.
Businesses can choose what sort of support they give the hospice and ways to help include sponsoring a hospice event, staff fundraising, a one-off corporate donation, affinity fundraising – where businesses can choose to give a percentage of a product or service’s sales to charity – or pro bono work. To find out more about the Pillars of the Community scheme, click here.
Its Dragon Boat event is well-supported by businesses and the next one will take place on May 27th 2012 in Oulton Broad, Lowestoft.
To find out more about how your business can support St Elizabeth Hospice please contact Sara White, corporate fundraiser, on 01473 707035 or email fundraising@stelizabethhospice.org.uk