- Action for Children, Age UK, Samaritans and the Stroke Association shortlisted for employee vote
- Partnership worth up to £1 million for successful bidder
- Charity partner to be selected through an employee ballot
Four high-profile charities are bidding to become the new national partner of transport operator FirstGroup.
As part of a selection process to find the company’s next UK charity of choice, the names of more than 90 charities were suggested by employees and whittled down to four finalists, who will now be put to a colleague vote.
The winner of the vote will secure a highly sought after, three-year partnership potentially worth around £1 million in cash, fundraising, and the commercial value of gifts in kind.
The four shortlisted charities, in alphabetical order, are:
- Action for Children: Action for Children helps disadvantaged children across the UK through fostering or adoption, by intervening early to stop neglect and abuse, by influencing policy, and by making life better for disabled children. With over 600 services the charity improves the lives of 370,000 children, young people and families every year
- Age UK: 1.9 million older people feel ignored or invisible. In England alone 1.2 million older people are chronically lonely. Nearly three million older people feel they have no one to turn to for advice and support. Age UK is the national charity that believes no one should have no one. They provide vital friendship, advice and support to over seven million older people every year. They also research and campaign on the issues that matter most to older people. Through 140+ local Age UKs, Age Scotland, Age Cymru and Age NI, the Age UK network operates locally across the UK
- Samaritans: Samaritans’ vision is that fewer people die by suicide. Its team of 20,000 volunteers answer calls around the clock, every single day of the year. Offering a safe place for people to talk, whoever they are and whatever life has done to them.
- The Stroke Association: The Stroke Association works directly with stroke survivors and their families and carers, with health and social care professionals and with scientists and researchers. The Stroke Association campaigns to improve stroke care and support people to make the best recovery they can. They fund research to develop new treatments and ways of preventing stroke.
FirstGroup’s current partnership with Prostate Cancer UK, which began in 2015, is on target to raise £1 million from employee fundraising, corporate donations and the commercial value of gifts in kind.
Kate Broome, Group Director of Corporate Responsibility, said: “Our charity of choice partner will have the opportunity to engage with thousands of our bus, rail and corporate employees across the UK. The fundraising element is obviously hugely important to any charity, but they will also benefit from an excellent platform for awareness across our network, in the form of advertising and through our army of enthusiastic employees.
“Our teams have always taken our chosen charities to heart and really engaged with their goals. The partnerships are particularly special to us because we, as employees, select them through a company-wide vote. It means that we are all heavily invested in the success of the partnership, as we have seen with Prostate Cancer UK, with whom we have been starting lifesaving journeys for almost three years now.”
Employees will be asked to start voting at the start of November and the final results will be announced towards the end of the year.