The #ChangeCollective Award

Charity Well 

Cultural Solutions

cultural solutions UK has worked with a vast range of diverse groups and organisations to ensure amplification of their voices. They have researched, written and applied for funding to make these things happen. They do not receive revenue funding from any local authority of national organisation. The organisation has a suite of Associates it works with to make things happen. Sometimes there is funding to make things happen, and sometimes things happen without any funding due to the trust and goodwill created over the years.                                                                              

cultural solutions UK is about to embark on a Windrush Day 2020 programme of engagement and education and  the 'Creative Young Minds' pilot project with a group pf young people recovering from mental illness, and in partnership with Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust and Grantham Creative CAMHS . The organisation has stamina, enthusiasm and a 'can do' approach, and places partnership, transparency and trust at the heart of everything it does.

The Youth Sport Trust have been named the number one third sector organisation for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Stonewall Equality Index, by embedding inclusion policies in all areas of the organisation and creating an inclusive culture in the workplace. This will disseminate through to our projects, programmes and events, empowering the next generation to shape a more diverse and inclusive world for all.

At IKEA we believe that our world is changing rapidly, but we are optimistic about the future. We believe that over time more and more people can and will have a better everyday life. To make this a reality requires bold ambitions and commitments to urgent actions. It also means working together to tackle the big challenges we cannot solve alone.  As part of our People and Planet Positive strategy, IKEA UK and Ireland have been working with Breaking Barriers, a London-based charity that helps refugees find meaningful employment since 2017. In 2018/9 the partnership took the learnings from a pilot in 2017 and have co-created and delivered a unique project within its business that is a first of its kind and has quickly developed to be a sector leading refugee hiring initiative.

In late 2019 the IKEA global team took the learnings from this pilot and announced a commitment at the global refugee forum in Geneva to support 2,500 refugees through job training and language skills in 300 of its stores in 30 countries by 2022. This commitment truly embedded IKEA’s support of refugees on a global scale and shows the value IKEA place on support a marginalised group such as refugees. Through a pilot with a charity in London, IKEA are now looking to have a global impact.

A strong social purpose at the core of Patron's ethos and values; and embedded across the entire business from board down has moved Patron beyond just raising money and ticking CSR boxes, Patron has built charity work into its corporate values and proves that immersive involvement with charity is the best way to make a real difference and reap the greatest rewards. This involvement means that social purpose activities influence every business decision and involves every member of Patron Capital. To highlight and ensure an impact is being made, all of Patron’s social purpose activities are outlined in an annual plan; to make sure employees and Patron’s network to ensure everyone has a part to play in the Patron values of creating a positive change whenever and wherever required.

The Entertainer is a business that continues to wholeheartedly put social good first. Its consistent messaging and long-term commitment to key issues shows the business believes in what it is doing from the top down, which encourages employees of all levels to get involved. CEO Gary Grant has championed every campaign and scheme in place to ensure its success, resulting in a business that recycles and donates toys and raises over £1m for charities that mean something to each and every employee.

After twenty years working as a hands-on Fundraiser Julia Worthington moved into consultancy. Amber Consulting (Cheshire) Ltd was set up nine years ago to support small and medium sized not-for -profits, initially as a pure fundraising consultancy, more recently as a coaching and training consultancy too.

As an owner managed business with a small turnover what I offer to the third  sector has been and is many times larger  than would be expected, my passion and belief in the sector far outweighs the size of my business. I use my expertise and entrepreneurial creative ability to deliver new initiatives and innovation.  Like many small charities I work with, I know that I can make a big difference in my niche. The business does not have large sums available to sponsor established industry events, so I have created a number of my own initiatives that fulfil the need of 95% of charities in the UK, the small and medium sized ones.

My belief is that any size of charity can have good fundraising practice, the challenge they have is accessing the support to gain the knowledge. Since 2011, I have become involved in many areas within the sector, to help small charities access this knowledge.

Availability of great training in the region I live in is very important to me,  Amber Consulting gets involved in, or organises, regional events to ensure ALL fundraisers, wherever they live, can access quality and affordable training and support!

One of my personal and business values is seeking justice, the reality of this value is that I am always looking for new ways to assist organisations in the third sector. In recent years that has meant moving more into supporting fundraisers individually with building resilience, this area of work is so important to me that I completed a Level 7  qualification in Executive Coaching and Mentoring and have written an online course to support stressed and under supported fundraisers.

Local Hospice Lottery began as Farleigh Hospice’s (Essex) own lottery back in 1996. In 2008 the decision was made to develop the Lottery for the benefit of other hospices across Great Britain and ‘Local Hospice Lottery’ was born. Through collaborating and sharing one prize fund, one operational system and an experienced and knowledgeable team – lots of expenditure can be saved and partnering hospices can enjoy a low risk, low input way of increasing their income.

Through utilising a variety of tried and tested marketing methods, but with direct sales at the heart of its growth, the weekly draw now has over 175,000 £1 entries with twenty three hospices, from Scotland to the south coast of England, benefiting from the income generated. Local Hospice Lottery is now the UK’s largest and leading lottery for hospices and has raised over £28,000,000 for hospice care across the country!

Open is at the heart of the UK not-for-profit sector. For 12 years, they have produced exceptional work with their clients – raising hundreds of millions of pounds in the process.

They have also helped drive the sector forward through innovations in payment and technique as well as via projects like IWITOT – which they created and continue to bankroll – and Charity Benchmarks, which they run in partnership with IOF.

They work tirelessly to deliver exceptional value to their clients. And they live those values – sharing their profits, their time and their knowledge to help make the world a better place.

To date they have donated over a third of a million pounds in cash to UK charities and hundreds of thousands of pounds more in pro-bono work – particularly during emergencies.

PPL don’t just enable unbelievable impact, its why they exist. Their commitment to charities of all sizes and causes comes through in everything they do. This is exemplified through their personal support to both players and charities and their commitment to long-term unrestricted funding.

Partnering with PPL has been truly transformational for War Child. It has enabled us to establish operations in Yemen, strengthen the quality of our programmes and develop innovative, award-winning fundraising campaigns. As a result War Child has doubled in size and is now supporting more children than ever before. 

“I cannot stress enough how committed People’s Postcode Lottery are to the third sector and how much impact they have had on War Child and thousands of other charities.

There are 32 million children in the world displaced by war. Support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery has enabled us to reach many more than we used to. I am pleased to be able to say that the Players of Peoples Postcode Lottery have not just funded our programmes but they have also supported the development of new methodologies and the evidence which proves their impact. We are deeply grateful for their ongoing support and would love for their contribution to be acknowledged through a IoF Award”

Rob Williams OBE, CEO War Child UK

Platypus Digital is a digital marketing agency 100% dedicated to the charity sector.

Since 2014, Platypus has delivered hugely successful digital fundraising campaigns for charity clients like Sightsavers, Clic Sargent, Dementia UK and many more. They have built the digital fundraising capacity of the whole sector through its training sessions.

Platypus also donate their time and money to the sector:

- Their team each get £1,000 to donate to the charity of their choice every year

- Their team can work up to 10% of their week pro bono for the charity of their choice

- They run free online training courses and meetups for charities

- They run free digital fundraising meetups for charities

- They created free digital services like Digital Candle and Control R.

- They attend campaign marches for causes they all believe in together

- They mentor staff in the charity sector on a one-to-one basis