This month marked a special moment in our partnership with The Co-operative Bank, as their fundraising hit the incredible milestone of £2m! This achievement represents four years of hard work and dedication from their fantastic team.
With their head office in Manchester, The Co-operative Bank wanted to support a charity which had an impact on the lives of disadvantaged people in their local area. At that time in 2017, Centrepoint was just about to start working in Manchester so a partnership made perfect sense. Their donations have been instrumental in helping us to offer the very bests support to vulnerable young people facing homelessness in the city, and around the country.
The money has been raised through a variety of initiatives, including the generous offer to donate £5 for every mortgage they sell or renew. Staff have been incredibly supportive of the partnership too. Over 300 people have given up their bed for a night to raise money, while others have created all sorts of fundraising initiatives in branches, offices, or at home through the pandemic.
STAY:UP, stay active
In 2020, we were facing the biggest challenge we’d ever faced. The pandemic had caused a surge in homelessness as well as throwing millions of pounds of our expected income into jeopardy. We launched our first ever STAY:UP fundraising event to help us address these challenges, and The Co-operative Bank rose to the challenge – and then some!
Staff decided to incorporate our STAY:UP challenge with a shout to Stay Active while so many were working from home. The response was fantastic. A whole 24 hours of activities was organised, ranging from static bike challenges to midnight Irish dancing lessons and everything in between. All together, with matched funding provided by The Co-operative Bank, they raised a stunning £50,000!
We’re so grateful to work with such a supporting organisation and hope our partnership continues far into the future!