Best Established Charity Event
Centrepoint – Sleep Out
Sleep Out is Centrepoint’s annual flagship fundraising event. Launched in 2005, the challenge aims to raise awareness of youth homelessness, generate funds for Centrepoint services and strengthen relationships with donors. Participants swap their bed for a sleeping bag for one night and create real change for homeless young people.
Initially, 50 participants from London businesses slept out in Covent Garden Market. The event was an innovative challenge that attracted businesses looking to engage employees. Now the market is booming and Centrepoint face increasing competition each year. However, the event brand continues to attract new sleepers while retaining a loyal following.
Over its 15 year history, Sleep Out event income has increased from £66,000 to over £1million (FY 19/20). Initially a stand-alone challenge in London, Sleep Out is now a national campaign – incorporating events in Yorkshire, the North East and Manchester. Centrepoint also promotes the ‘Hold Your Own Sleep Out’ model for schools and community groups.
To re-establish Centrepoint Sleep Out as the original Sleep Out, 2019 saw Centrepoint invest in digital marketing and agency support to refresh and rebrand as a national campaign with success, experiencing its most successful year to date – generating £70,000 more than 2018/19 (gross).
Help for Heroes – Big Battlefield Bike Ride
The Big Battlefield Bike has seen over 2500 participants take part in a unique experience combining a cycling challenge, fundraising, world war history and seeing the positive impact that sport has on the recovery of our veteran beneficiaries. There is a thread that combines all of this together, camaraderie. You may join the ride as an individual, but you will finish as one team and make lifelong friends.
Macmillan Cancer Support – World’s Biggest Coffee Morning
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s flagship fundraising event and 2020 marks the event’s 30th anniversary! Started in 1990 by a group of local volunteers, it has grown to be the largest and most profitable event of its kind, raising over £275m since it began.
Behind the event’s success is a simple ask. It is about coming together to enjoy good company and delicious food, and raising money to support, celebrate and remember anyone who is, or has been, affected by cancer. It’s why millions of people all over Britain gather. It’s what makes our nationwide event as diverse as the people who host it.
But Coffee Morning has not been without challenges. Since a record-breaking year in 2016, the event has seen fewer hosts taking part each year and income dropping in the face of a difficult fundraising environment. A shift in strategic approach to this long-running event has helped the team to reverse this trend, with participant numbers and income growing in 2019 for the first time in three years.
As the 30th anniversary approaches, there has never been a better time to celebrate everything Coffee Morning hosts have achieved together.
Sense – The RidgeWalk
The RidgeWalk started in 2010 when hundreds of hardy trekkers laced up their hiking boots to take on 52 miles along the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire over 24 hours. In the ten years since, it has become Sense’s flagship owned event, raising over £1 million for our work.
Over the years, the RidgeWalk has changed and adapted to a changing market with alternative distances of 13 and 26 miles and a RidgeRun option being introduced. A key element for the RidgeWalk however, has always been the ultra-marathon distance. This has attracted a huge variety of walkers, allowing us to talk to a diverse range of new supporters to Sense. The experience that participants are given from their initial enquiry to the time that they leave the event site is crucial to the event and results in participants achieving on average 177% of their minimum fundraising target.
The RidgeWalk is an event that’s unique in the saturated events market. It may not have thousands of people lined up on the start line, but everyone that did take part felt like they were part of the Sense family, going on to support Sense in many other ways.
Stroke Association – UK Stroke Assembly
The UK Stroke Assembly is one of the largest gatherings of people affected by stroke in the world. Whether a stroke survivor, carer, family member or volunteer, the Stroke Assembly is a leading community event which is there to support people in rebuilding their lives after stroke.
The event has been running since 2011. Each year we aim to grow the Assembly community. By moving the events to new locations around the UK it enables us to reach out to more people affected by stroke. So far over 1175 people affected by stroke have attended and benefitted from an Assembly event since we began.
The event aims to offer people the chance to meet others affected by stroke and share experiences of hope and determination with likeminded individuals.
The events offers participants a chance to hear the latest developments in stroke care and research and have their say on the things that matter to them. It’s an opportunity for the patient voice to come together to take action on stroke and influence future campaigns and services.
