Team members from The Cambridge had the unenviable task of choosing charities for its Partnership Programme from the 39 worthy causes which applied.
To align with The Cambridge’s purpose and values two of the chosen charities have a focus on supporting people with their homes or housing. These are YMCA Trinity Group and Cambridge Re-Use. The other charities are Wood Green, The Animals Charity and Tom’s Trust.
All four will benefit from three months of support through fundraising and hands-on help. Team leaders from across the branch and Head Office network of The Cambridge will work closely with each charity and the first partnership will begin in February 2019.
Stephen Mitcham, Chief Executive of The Cambridge said: “Supporting the community is at the heart of everything we do. We were set up nearly 170 years ago to help local people own their own homes and we’re proud to still be a big part of the community in which we live and work. It’s a real privilege finding out about the amazing work so many worthy causes do within our area.
“The level of enthusiasm for our charity work within the organisation is consistently high and there is genuine excitement when it comes to choosing our charities and setting up a programme of events and activities. People love building a relationship with the charities and spending time finding out what they do, how they do it and getting involved in a tangible way by donating their time.
“We’ve still got another month of our final partnership of 2018 left to go but I’m delighted to say it’s looking likely we’ll have raised around £15,000 in total so we’re hoping for similar success in 2019.”
In addition to the Partnership Programme young person’s charity Centre 33 was chosen to be the AGM beneficiary which sees 25p donated for every member vote received.
The final element of The Cambridge’s community fundraising work is the donations initiative which sees twelve local charities selected to be in the running for a quarterly donation of a share of £1,000 dependent on how many online votes they get.
The 12 charities in line for a donation are:
• ACT
• Cruse Bereavement Care
• EACH
• East Anglian Air Ambulance
• Eddie’s
• Hearing Dogs for Deaf People
• HPC MS Therapy Centre
• Maggie’s
• Papworth Trust
• Spectrum
• Teenage Cancer Trust
• Wintercomfort
YMCA Trinity Fundraising and Marketing Manager Ian Knibbs said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have been chosen to work with The Cambridge as a charity partner in 2019. The organisation has an excellent reputation for its community work and we share a lot of the same values so I have no doubt it’s going to be a very successful partnership for us all.”