Plunkett UK joined with nine other charities for a festive fundraising event in Oxford. Adorned in his Christmas jumper, our Communications Manager, Andrew Dubock, was in attendance.
The Dining Hall at Keble College, Oxford was the spectacular setting for a Christmas fundraiser like no other last Friday (13 December), for a collaboration of ten charities and 16 teams of businesspeople.
Raise’24 is a campaign that is initiated by the B4 business network and has run throughout the second half of 2024, with the Oxford college event being the culmination and an opportunity to boost funds even further.
So far, almost £37,000 has been raised, from 550 donors, with a target of £50,000 set, and more donations anticipated in the coming weeks.
Raise’24 benefits ten charities, five of which are ‘core’ – Homeless Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire Community Foundation, Oxfordshire Youth, Plunkett UK and Sobell House – as well as five partnering causes: Connection Support, debra, Be Free Young Carers, Oxfordshire Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre and Pancreatic Cancer UK.
More than 100 people attended the day, which included breakfast and a three-course lunch, live entertainment, a raffle, opportunities for networking and on-the-phone fundraising, and poignant messages shared by each of the charities involved.
Top billing were the Oxford Gospel Choir and Out of the Blue, a cappella group, who sang during the lunchtime period. Earlier, there has been songs by guest with seven performances ranging in style and including ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas’, the Macarena and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Peter Bennett-Jones, Comic Relief Co-founder, shared a message about how that initiative started and encouraged those in the room for their efforts.
During the five-minute slot promoting Plunkett, I was joined on stage by Pete Smyth from the White Horse at Stonesfield and together we talked about how rural community businesses are a lifeline, particularly helping people facing isolation and loneliness – and especially at Christmas-time.
We showed a short video showed how Westbury Community Shop provides work and volunteering experience for young people like Thomas.
Plunkett is a proud gold member of B4 – a community of over 200 businesses and 500 individuals in Oxfordshire who connect at live and online events, share their expertise with each other and build great collaborative relationships.
We appreciate the access B4 membership gives us to well-connected people and organisations which leads to new partnerships. Our community business model is one many in the network can appreciate and align with.
Talking about the campaign, Richard Rosser, Chief Executive of B4, says, “Raise’24 was one of those shots in the dark that worked much better than expected. A lot of time, effort and hard work has been invested by so many people but one of the most pleasing aspects of Raise has been watching the relationships between charities develop and grow. They have clearly gained considerably from working with each other and if Raise has helped this then that in itself is a success.
“For me personally, it has been a privilege to work with everyone in bringing Raise to life. We’ve done it, which is great – but we now need to build on this amazing platform we have all created to ensure we can help as many people as possible in the future.”
Photos provided with the kind permission of Clark Wiseman at Studio 8, Inga Kebleryte & Kseniia Alexa Terpeza.
