After two successful years in the North of England, the Weston Charity Awards are now expanding to support a larger pool of charities in the region and, for the first time, in the Midlands.
The Awards will help more organisations become more effective and resilient as the current economic climate continues to hit front-line charities across the country.
The Weston Charity Awards will help charities working in Youth, Welfare and Community across the North of England and the Midlands, including cities and rural areas from Coventry to Carlisle, Huddersfield to Hartlepool. In 2016 eighteen winning charities will have access to a team of senior business leaders through Pilotlight, which will help them plan for success.
Pilotlight’s Chief Executive, Gillian Murray, says:
You’d be surprised to see how many small organisations are delivering services they have no funding for, but people depend on them so they can’t walk away. Of course, this is not sustainable. By harnessing the expertise and strategic vision of a team of senior business executives, charities have the opportunity to look at the bigger picture, operate more effectively and become sustainable as a result.
To date, six charities from the North East have already completed the year-long Awards Programme and the evaluation, undertaken by Dr Beth Breeze, Director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent, demonstrates multiple positive impacts from all the participants. These include improvement to their strategic vision, staff morale and increased confidence in the future, and Dr Breeze concluded that the Weston Charity Awards are “clearly an innovative, successful and well-received programme”. A further twelve organisations are currently participating in the Awards Programme across the North.