Alongside the monetary support, the 2012 campaign helped to raise public awareness for the 25 charities and some of the groups received additional support as a result of the publicity.
Readers collected 4452 tokens for COPE resulting in a £1,134.67 donation. Rhona Boorman, COPE Secretary says: "The money raised by the Cambridge News readers by collecting tokens helped Cambridgeshire Older People's Enterprise (COPE) to further its aims in highlighting issues of concern for seniors, to increase its numbers and pay towards the regular Newletters. COPE is very grateful for the public's involvement in collecting these tokens and for the financial support of The Cambridge Building Society in these difficult economic times."
Readers collected 601 tokens for The City of Cambridge Brass Band resulting in a £153.18 donation. From the publicity they gained from the campaign they received the offer of a CD recording which will take place in 2013. Gill Starling from the band commented: "We were delighted to be involved last year. Not only did it help raise money for Band funds but it was especially good for the City of Cambridge Brass Band to be involved in such a community project. The CD recording will happen this year and we are very grateful for Matthew Dilley's kind offer."
Stephen Mitcham, Chief Executive of The Cambridge Building Society says: “The 2012 campaign proved to be a huge success and from the positive feedback that we received and the opportunities that this created for some of the chosen groups we wanted to give people another chance to benefit from The Cambridge’s commitment to the local community.
“Employees at The Cambridge make this campaign possible. By volunteering their own time to support and help our local communities, we are able to match fund their time, which is how we are able to donate such a significant sum.
“We continue to develop the ways in which we support the community and The Cambridge Cash for the Community campaign is an example of how we can help a wide range of wonderful causes.
“I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone the best of luck and I hope that once again the readers of the Cambridge News get behind one of the 25 successful organisations and collect tokens to help them get a major share of the £10,000.”
How will it work?
Whether you are a charity, community group, school or community club* that operates within the Cambridge News distribution area, you could be in with a chance of receiving funding from The Cambridge Building Society.
All you need to do is fill in the application form that will appear in the Cambridge News and send it back to: The Cambridge Cash for the Community, The Cambridge Building Society, PO Box 232, 51 Newmarket Road, Cambridge, CB5 8FF.
A panel of judges at The Cambridge will then choose the final 25 from all of the eligible applications.
The 25 successful organisations will then be notified by email and will be sent a marketing pack that will provide hints and tips on how to best promote their organisation. Social media will play a big part in the promotion of this year’s campaign so ‘Follow’ @cambridgebs and @cambnewsUK on Twitter and ‘Like’ both pages on Facebook at www.facebook.com/helpingyourstoryhappen and www.facebook.com/cambridgenews
On Monday 28 January 2013, each of the 25 organisations will be profiled in the Cambridge News. The first of the 23 tokens will appear in the Cambridge News on Monday 4February 2013. The remaining tokens will appear daily up until and including Friday 1March 2013.
Readers of the Cambridge News need to cut out as many of the 23 tokens as they can on behalf of one of the 25 successful organisations and take them into one of The Cambridge Building Society’s 18 branches or one of the seven Cambridge News offices. The tokens must be delivered no later 12pm on Friday 8 March 2013 in a sealed envelope which has the name of the organisation that the coupons are for and the total number of coupons in the envelope detailed on the front.
The total number of tokens will then be divided by the £10,000 which will indicate how much each token is worth. Each of the organisation’s tokens will then be counted and the total sum will be given out to each of the organisations in ‘The Cambridge Cash for the Community’ cheque presentation**.
*Full Terms and Conditions are available to view at www.cambridgebs.co.uk/news-community/CFTCtermsandconditions
** Date to be confirmed.