As the voluntary and not-for-profit sector rebuilds from the immense disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, charities have continued to carry out vital work, with the invaluable support of their corporate partners.
The Business Charity Awards recognise and reward the partnerships between outstanding corporate and not-for-profit organisations, and celebrate their achievements.
The 2022 Business Charity Awards were celebrated on Thursday 19 May at London Marriot Grosvenor Square.
Our Head of Membership & Marketing attended the event, in which our Quadrant Department Stores were nominated as finalists for an award in the category of CHARITY PARTNERSHIP – FASHION & RETAIL to recognise the partnership with the Essex Community Foundation.
We narrowly missed out on winning the award, with the RNLI and Helly Hansen being announced as the winners. Helly Hansen and the RNLI entered a strategic partnership in 2018, with the technical sailing brand committing to supporting the RNLI for the following five years through a variety of life-saving activities. These include delivering drowning prevention messages to their customers, generating income, supporting fundraising and safety campaigns, product innovation and supplying the very best kit to the RNLI’s lifesavers.
About our Community Fund
A new grant-giving fund was recently created by Chelmsford Star Co-op, with those benefiting chosen by representatives from the members (co-op customers) using our retail businesses.
It offers grants of between £1.5k to £5k regularly throughout the year to charitable causes, voluntary groups or neighbourhood projects in the area. The Community Fund is managed by Essex Community Foundation.
Chelmsford Star Co-op has supported and invested into local causes for over 150 years through its various shops and stores. In previous years we have allocated all of our support behind one single charity each year, or shared out small donations to hundreds of charities all at once. When the UK was locked-down in 2020, we split the fundraising between six Essex food-banks and was pleased how much it benefited each of them. This led to a rethink as to how best assist Essex-based causes moving forward and so the Community Fund was born. Its tagline: helping those who help others.
In December 2021, the first round of payments were issued, with six local but unique causes receiving approx. £25k betweem them, The fund is self-perpetuating so more cheques will be issued in March 2022.
Kevin collecting our finalist certificate on Thursday evening.