Royal Mail Group partnership smashes fundraising target
 
The three-year partnership between Royal Mail Group and the hospice movement’s national charity Help the Hospices finishes today having raised nearly double its original fundraising target of £1 million.

The partnership – the first of its kind for Royal Mail Group - saw local Royal Mail delivery offices, Mail Centres, Post Offices and Parcelforce Worldwide depots twinned with their local hospice to raise money locally. Royal Mail Group match-funded the money raised by employees with two donations of £250,000. 281 community coordinators were recruited from all parts of the business at the beginning of the partnership to take a lead on fundraising and volunteering. In total 10,122 employees took part in fundraising efforts. Employees have also donated through payroll giving; the number of donors regularly giving to Help the Hospices rose from 475 in 2005 to 5,780 in 2008 – an increase of over 1200%.

National partnership activities included the sale of a series of innovative cause-related marketing items including Christmas angels, reindeer food, collectable pin badges and a book entitled Unseen UK – a collection of photographs taken by postmen and women on their rounds. A Help the Hospices stamp cancellation mark – the first ever to carry a charity message - landed on millions of doorsteps globally and Post Office customers were encouraged to donate their unused foreign currency via collection tins at foreign exchange counters.

Kay Allen, Head of Social Policy and Inclusion at Royal Mail Group, commented: “The success of the partnership has exceeded our expectations. As it was our first charity partnership there was a lot of groundwork that needed to be done initially to set up appropriate systems and processes, and it’s clear that all that hard work has paid dividends. We are delighted with the level of engagement from people across the organisation who have really taken the hospice cause to their hearts and thrown themselves into it. It’s laid a very strong foundation for our future charity partnerships.”

Maxine Blunden, Director of Fundraising at Help the Hospices, said: “This partnership has been great for the hospice movement on many levels, in addition to the enormous sum it has raised. It has given us tremendous exposure to Royal Mail Group’s 180,000 employees, not to mention their suppliers and customers across the UK and worldwide. One in three people in the UK have direct experience of hospice care so it is a cause that very many people are keen to support when presented with the opportunity.”

The three-year partnership between Royal Mail Group and Help the Hospices started in 2005 and comes to an end on 31st March 2008. Royal Mail is currently deciding with its employees which charity to support in the future for a further period.