• Winners of Keech Hospice Care Accumulator Challenge Creative Fundraising Idea
• We Are Bedford awarded
• Payroll Giving Gold Award

Lots of good stuff has been going on at Bonfire, thanks to the support of our staff!

A local hospice, Keech Hospice Care, set a challenge for local businesses of accumulating as much money for them as possible over the course of 2011 with seed capital of £50. At the start of the year, we devised a tool box to help the team. Each month a different team member took on the task of doing something to raise money. We had lots of creative fundraising ideas, from designing a new font that would raise money each time someone bought it, to selling Italian food at lunchtimes, with a grand finale of transforming our entrance into a Winter Wonderland in time for the turning on of the Ampthill Town Christmas Lights for the local community. In total, £1,192.00 was raised and was presented to Keech Hospice Care in January. They liked our ideas so much, that we were announced as Winners of the Most Creative Fundraising Idea at the presentation evening (in conjunction with the window display wining best dressed window by the local Business Chamber).

Community group We Are Bedford, run by Kayte Judge and Erica Roffe, that we provide marketing and creative support to, received an award from a local newspaper publisher. The Rising Stars Awards, run by The Times & Citizen in Bedford, had a special category, the District Improvement category, to recognise the work carried out by the group.

For the fourth year running, we have been awarded a Gold Quality Mark by the Payroll Giving Centre. The quality mark is designed to showcase the best Payroll Giving schemes in the UK. We’re proud that all members of staff contribute a part of their pay to charity.