In 2015, after years of donating to various charities, Premier Guarantee decided to select both a local and a national charity to support for the year in order to make a larger impact. All Premier Guarantee employees were given the option of selecting our national charity from a choice of 6 different charities, each supporting worthy causes. The response rate for the charity vote was great, with all our employees feeling passionate about supporting and making an impact for such good causes.
The national charity selected by employees was Teenage Cancer Trust. The first fundraising initiative was a raffle for tickets for the Stereophonics performing at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust ball, along with a 5* hotel stay for the winning ticket and a plus 1 paid for by the company. The raffle raised just shy of £600 and got our fundraising initiatives off to a great start.
For our local charity it was decided that we would support the Feeding Birkenhead initiative, which was set up by our local MP Frank Fields. With the initiative being right on our door step truly struck a chord and we were proud to be a local business making a significant impact. Read our blog on Feeding Birkenhead to discover more about the brilliant work they do.
As voted for by our ‘Employee Champions’, we have a monthly dress down day in aid of our local and national charities, alternating each month, along with car park space raffles, cake sales and blind auctions for executive tickets to Everton FC. The money raised from our monthly dress down and other fundraising events is then matched by the company and donated to either charity. Further raffles in aid of the charities have consisted of signed Liverpool shirts, meal vouchers, 12 month memberships to Taste Card, tours of EFC, retail vouchers, car valets, wine and chocolates, champagne, a block of 10 driving lessons, hampers, and the list goes on…
Every Christmas we hold a Christmas reception in our head office for employees and their families to attend with reindeers, live music, a visit from Santa for the children (and adults who still believe!), and nibbles and drinks. This year our Champions decided it would be a great idea to make our Christmas reception into a Christmas fare to raise money for our charities. Our employees made a number of stalls including Christmas tin throw, Hook-a-Bauble, Reindeer Hoopla, Lucky Dip, Name the Teddy, Guess How Many Sweets in the Jar, Santa’s Grotto and Face Painting. The fayre was a great success and raised £751.24 which was split and half donated to each charity. Our employee’s charity efforts didn’t end there for the Christmas period; we had a Christmas hamper competition which different teams entered to make the best Christmas hamper with goodies, essentials and Christmas presents, all of which were donated to the Feeding Birkenhead initiative. In total, 13 large hampers were created by our employees and distributed by the local community centre to families in need of them over the Christmas period.
Employees have also been entering charity challenges to raise money, for which the company cover the cost of the challenge and match the amount they have raised. We have had employees enter the Liverpool 5k Santa Dash, the Wirral Coastal Walk which covers the 28 miles of the coast around the Wirral.
Last but not least, Premier Guarantee put on gym sessions for our employees including PiYo, Insanity and different forms of yoga. The sessions are paid for by the company whilst they ask employees to contribute £2 for the sessions towards our charities. These sessions have raised around £150 a month since the launch of them in March time and have been a great success with our employees.
From mid-2015 up until mid-2016 we have raised a collective £11,230, of which £4,630 of which was donated to Teenage Cancer Trust and £6,700 to Feeding Birkenhead.
The vote has recently gone out for our employees to vote for their 2016 – 2017 national charity, in which they have chosen to support the mental health charity MIND. A number of fundraising events have already been organised to raise more money and try to beat our 2015 – 2016 efforts. Already, this Sunday, a team of 14 staff members will be taking part in the grueling Total Warrior, a 10K mud and obsticle run in support of MIND. Keep an eye on the Premier Guarantee Twitteraccount on Sunday to see updates on how the team get on and the final amount they have raised.