Equity Housing Group signs up to a new charity partnership

Equity Housing Group has signed up to a brand new charity of the year partnership with St Ann’s Hospice, pledging to carry out a variety of activities over the next twelve months with the aim of raising £7,500 for local patients.

The team launched their partnership by participating in the hospice’s ObstaColour Run in Woodbank Park, and their involvement will also see them volunteering with the charity to support in other ways.

Collette King, from Equity Housing Group, said: “We are delighted that colleagues have chosen St Ann’s Hospice as our charity of the year. We have a long list of activities we will be organising throughout the year to support the charity, and hopefully raise lots of money for such a fabulous cause”.

The team have also signed up to take part in the hospice’s Accumulator challenge in October – a Dragons’ Den meets The Apprentice style event which tasks businesses to accumulate as much money as they can from £100 over a one month period.

Anne-Marie Wynne, Head of Fundraising at St Ann’s, said: “We’ve been blown away by Equity’s enthusiasm for supporting St Ann’s – they’ve already really thrown themselves into it, and are buzzing with ideas on how they can raise as much as possible for our patients.  They are also thinking laterally about other ways they can help our charity, by sharing expertise and volunteering their time with different teams in the hospice.

“Charity of the year partnerships like this one are so important to ensure we can continue to be sustainable and provide care to local people.  We find that, in addition to the obvious financial and team building benefits a partnership of this kind can bring, companies often also use working with us as an opportunity to develop staff, or as a way of raising awareness of their organisation with a broader range of people.

“We always work closely with businesses to create a bespoke partnership arrangement that meets both their needs and ours, and it’s a pleasure to be working with a team like Equity who have already embraced working with us.  We’re really excited about continuing to work with them for the next twelve months.”

Based in Stockport, Equity Housing Group builds and manages homes across the North-West, South Yorkshire and Staffordshire – from shared ownership properties to affordable rented accommodation.

St Ann’s Hospice cares for local patients with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses from its three hospice sites in Heald Green, Little Hulton and the Neil Cliffe Centre in Wythenshawe Hospital.  It also supports people from local communities via a range of outreach and home-based services.  As a charity it receives around a third of its funding from the NHS, with the rest – around £20,000 a day – being raised via fundraising and the hospice’s Trading Company.

Anne-Marie added: “With such a huge amount of money to raise every single day we can’t thank businesses and individuals in our local communities enough for all their support.  We really appreciate it, and it’s meant that we have been able to care for local patients for almost half a century.  We’re looking forward to heading towards our fiftieth birthday in a couple of years, thanks to the generosity of people like the team at Equity.”