WRVS was one of three receiving charities selected by and voted for by employees to be a recipient of the 2007 HBOS Charity of the Year programme, the ‘Million £ Challenge’.
The programme forms the main focus for collective fundraising of over 30,000 employees across the organisation which includes Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Birmingham Midshires, Clerical Medical, esure, Insight Investment and Intelligent Finance - and their customers and shareholders across the UK and Ireland. Every £1 raised by HBOS colleagues was matched £ for £ by the HBOS Foundation.
During the year, HBOS colleagues organised a wide array of fundraising activities including traditional sponsored walks, fun runs, football tournaments, coffee mornings and cycle rides as well as auctions, raffles and many more. The initial target was to collect £1 million for the main recipient of the programme, and any more money raised being divided equally between all three charities, the British Heart Foundation, WRVS and the Family Holiday Association in partnership with the RNLI.
WRVS volunteers also helped with their fundraising; the HBOS Cairngorm Mountain Bike Challenge, in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands and for 'dress down' days bucket collections at four office locations; Edinburgh, Cardiff, Wolverhampton and Clevedon, near Bristol.
WRVS was delighted to receive a cheque for over £800,000 from HBOS plc at an event on 8 January at the HBOS headquarters in Edinburgh (see
news & features, 10 January 2008)
Phil Hodkinson, chairman of the HBOS Foundation, said: “The Million £ Challenge plays a very important part in drawing our colleagues, customers and shareholders together. We’d like to thank everyone for taking part and raising money for such worthwhile causes.”