Charity-Business Partnership of the Year
Age UK and Cadbury
Cadbury and Age UK came together to get the nation talking about loneliness. Together they launched Donate your Words - a social action campaign to raise awareness of the issue of loneliness for older people, whilst raising money through the sale of a limited-edition Dairy Milk bar.
Moved by the fact that more than 225,000 older people often go a whole week without speaking to anyone, Cadbury made the bold decision to remove all of the words from the front of its Dairy Milk bars and ‘donate’ them to Age UK, along with 30p from the sale of each limited edition bar. This special bar was a creative way of building a story around the thousands of older people who do not get to share their words with anyone.
Cadbury and Age UK were determined that the partnership would go so much further than a typical on-pack promotion.
As the country’s favourite heritage brand, and the leading charity for older people, Cadbury and Age UK recognised the power of combining our voices. So, with the limited-edition bar we launched a campaign to encourage the nation to take action to tackle loneliness and ‘donate their words’ too.
The results were bigger than either of us could have imagined. With 1million bars sold, 460,000 people moved to donate their words, features on prime-time TV and more than 170 pieces of media coverage – from local radio to the New York Post - the campaign captured the hearts of the nation.
Most importantly, Donate your Words helped to shine a light on the devastating effects of loneliness and the impact that just a few kind words can have on the lives of older people.
CLIC Sargent and Morrisons
Thanks to the ongoing enthusiasm of Morrisons colleagues and customers, £11 million has been raised for CLIC Sargent in three years. With an extra year added to the partnership in February 2019, and a brand new target of £15 million, they are not done yet.
The partnership has seen incredible growth over the last year raising £4 million in 2019 compared to £3.6 million in 2018. Now the most successful charity partnership in Morrisons history, colleagues have become valued ambassadors for the cause and support young lives facing cancer beyond just income raised. CLIC Sargent runs through the entire business; from gift in kind donations, to work experience opportunities. In addition, commercial opportunities to raise income and awareness seen through ‘Every Pack Gives Back’ campaigns, have engaged Morrisons suppliers to donate through the sale of products and Morrisons themselves have created a range of own-brand products available in stores that increase income and awareness for the charity.
The impact of the partnership is making a lasting, fundamental improvement to the way CLIC Sargent is able to support young lives affected by cancer with the implementation of ground breaking new services funded by Morrisons that would have taken years to implement without them.
Royal British Legion Industries and Barratt Developments
The unique partnership between Barratt Developments and RBLI has been incredible. For the charity, it has meant the construction of new homes and a chance of a new life with sustainable employment for some of the UK’s most vulnerable veterans; for Barratt it represents and an ongoing commitment and passion to their Armed Forces Covenant pledge.
Extending beyond a monetary gift, the partnership has enabled RBLI to develop its infrastructure and has given them the skills, expertise and brand awareness to support more injured, homeless and disadvantaged veterans into independence and into work. The partnership has also raised the profile of Barratt’s Armed Forces Transition Programme, and provided opportunities for employees to engage on a personal level with the charity – with Barratt’s Graduate cohort fundraising to deliver two additional independent projects for RBLI, including a dementia-friendly garden in the charity’s residential nursing home and a Gala Dinner that raised over £100,000.
Overall, the relationship between Barratt and RBLI represents a commitment to a set of shared values, utilising complementary skills and expertise to confront the challenges of veteran homelessness and provide long-lasting support for some of the most vulnerable people in society. One built, Barratt’s legacy will be the Centenary Village - community fit for heroes - which will be supporting veterans and their families to regain their independence, 100 years from now.
Make a Wish, Tommy's, Whizz-Kidz and Poundland
In March 2017 Make-A-Wish UK, Tommy’s, and Whizz-Kidz walked into Poundland’s boardroom as competitors to pitch to become their new charity partner. The promise was a partnership worth £1m over 3 years. Instead, Poundland saw that underneath we had a common goal to create amazing moments for families, and chose all three of us.
6 months later, we walked out on stage together at Poundland’s annual conference as equal partners in #Proudland; a partnership with an aim to change families’ lives.
Since that day our partnership has led the sector. We have brought together multiple partners under a single shared identity. We have worked together to engage more colleagues than any one of us could manage on our own. Most of all, we have built a level of collaboration and trust that is paving the way for charities of all sizes to achieve more together than they ever could alone.
World Bicycle Relief and citizenM Hotels
citizenM Hotels and World Bicycle Relief have been working together since 2018 to provide bicycles for education. Next time you stay at any citizenM hotel, look out for a citizenMovement door hanger in your room. Hang it outside in the morning, and they will skip cleaning your room and use the money they saved, which will support World Bicycle Relief who are passionate about changing the world through the gift of mobility. From the hotel to the classroom! So far, the £550k that has been raised through this partnership through the door hangar scheme, cycling events and other activations has mobilised almost 4000 bicycles to those who are challenged by the barrier of distance in the developing world. 70% of our bicycles go to girls to help them arrive at school safely and on time. Educating girls is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Both World Bicycle Relief UK and citizenMovement work seamlessly with one goal - to mobilise citizens of the world to shorten the distance between people and opportunities. We all feel incredibly blessed to have a partnership which shares such ambition, values and goals.