FUNDRAISING HIGHLIGHTS

News From Our Fundraising Groups

HIGH WYCOMBE AND AMERSHAM FUNDRAISING GROUP have been very successful with a number of prestigious events taking place over the past few months. The very popular ‘An Evening with Michael Dewis’ at Penn House on the 15th November was enjoyed by a full house. The group took the opportunity to present IRHH Chairman of Trustees, Valerie Gunn, with a cheque for £13,500. The group’s Wildlife Evening with a talk by Rob Strachan on Water Voles at Coleshill on 25th October generated a great deal of interest and was a sell-out. The group also organised a four day shopping trip to the Christmas Markets in Holland and Germany which was a great success.

BEACONSFIELD FUNDRAISING GROUP organised an excellent Christmas Gift Fair on 10th November. There were 11 stalls in total, all with high quality goods. Tea, chocolate brownies and mince pies for refreshments gave a festive feel. £500 worth of IRHH Christmas cards were sold.

The group also organised a Rotary Street Collection in Beaconsfield which raised £400. We are grateful to Beaconsfield Rotary Club for allowing the IRHH to benefit.

The Beaconsfield Festival of Lights on 17th December was a very enjoyable evening. The IRHH was well represented with a “Mystery Parcels” stall organised by Beaconsfield shop, the IRHH Beaujolais Tombola, Rhyme & Reason and a bucket collection. Our thanks go to the Festival of Lights Trust for allowing us to hold the bucket collection.

Guests at the group’s annual Burns Night Dinner Dance on 24th January are still raving about this brilliant evening. As usual, it was a complete sell-out.

The ASTON CLINTON GROUP braved the cold and raised £450 Carol Singing around the village! The group has raised £690 since last September.

COLESHILL GROUP held another successful coffee morning in October. They have also been busy selling their beautiful hand-made Christmas Crackers and they organised a Carol Singing evening in the village pub.

The FARNHAMS GROUP held a successful Cheese & Wine Evening in November raising £166.

Our thanks go to HEMEL HEMPSTEAD GROUP for running tombolas at the Dacorum Council Charity Fair at West Herts College and the Victorian Evening & 'Light up a Life' Celebration in November.

The RHYME & REASON GROUP has been promoting its latest anthology of poetry by local writers to raise funds for us. IRHH patron, Pauline Quirke, kindly came along for the celebrity Book Signing in W H Smith in Beaconsfield in October.

A Christmas Card sale was held by SPEEN SUPPORTERS GROUP which raises money for the IRHH and four other local hospices.

Mr Kite's Benefit Band Presents "Huge" Cheque Members of local charity fundraisers, Mr Kite’s Benefit Band, have presented the proceeds of their musical fundraising efforts to the IRHH. Chief Executive, Rowena Dean, was rendered almost speechless when Mr Kite’s keyboard player, Alistair Hodgson, handed over a cheque for £8,000 which measured just 3cm x 1cm. Rowena Dean said “I was expecting to be amazed by the size of the cheque but I hadn’t expected to need reading glasses to find out how much the band had raised for us!”

The 7 strong band and their 3 man support crew perform about once a month throughout the year and donate their £500 fee to the Iain Rennie Hospice At Home or The Pepper Foundation. Anyone interested in booking the band can contact Alistair on 01442 875011 and more information can be found on the band’s website www.mrkite.org.uk. Click here for more.

FUN, FACTS & FIGURES

Click here to view our month by month chronicle of fundraising successes. The imagination and energy of IRHH supporters knows no bounds and we wish to thank each and every person and organisation that has supported us since our last edition of Doorstep On-line.

SHOP TALK

Around the shops With Lesley Gorton, The IRHH’s Retail & Trading Manager

I am delighted to report that December saw the opening of yet another new shop for Iain Rennie. It is in Amersham on Sycamore Road – click here for a location map. We were offered the lease of the shop by a supporter on very favourable terms. We proceeded to recruit a Manager without delay and were delighted to offer the job to Janice Hawkins who is a former volunteer at the High Wycombe shop. The shop opened for business on Tuesday 2nd December, and was opened officially by Cheryl Gillan MP on Saturday 6th.

A very talented local artist, Danielle Worthington painted a fantastic window depicting the 12 days of Christmas. This attracted a huge amount of attention both from local shoppers and the press! We are most grateful to Danielle for agreeing to do some further seasonally themed windows for us. The shop is in a great position and is trading strongly. In an innovative move, we are also planning to rent some space within the shop to Saturn Travel, an independent Travel Agent: we are hopeful that we will both benefit from the increased footfall.

The only cloud on the horizon is not enough volunteers. Rapid expansion in the south of the area has left us very vulnerable on the staffing front. Do you live within reach of our shops in Beaconsfield, Little Chalfont or Amersham? Could you spare a few hours a week? Are you a member of a church or other organisation? If so could you spread the word for us there? The work is fun, is a great way to meet new people and we are only looking for a commitment of a morning or afternoon per week. If you think you could help either pop into the shop and speak to the manager or contact our Voluntary Services Manager, Rozina Ahmad rahmad@irhh.org, on 01494 877200.

Christmas saw much activity throughout the Iain Rennie shops chain. The Tring shop (location) celebrated its 10th birthday in fine style with guest of honour, John Bly. The Victorian Fiesta evening in Tring at the end of November was, as ever, a great success.

There were raffles galore in all the shops. The highlight was the two splendid patchwork quilts that had been donated to us. They were raffled in the Beaconsfield (location) and Princes Risborough (location) shops and between them they raised over £400!

The last week in November saw the Grand Charity Auction organised by our Beaconsfield shop. Our Volunteer Assistant Manager, Jackie Zaziemski, put a huge amount of effort into cataloguing the hundreds of lots and arranging the evening down to the last detail. Despite an unforeseen spell in hospital for Jackie, the event ran without a hitch and raised approx £2,000. Jackie came straight from the hospital for the last hour of the evening and received a well deserved and resounding round of applause. There are plans afoot to run a similar event in Princes Risborough in the Spring. If you have any items you would like to donate that may be suitable as ‘Auction Lots’ please contact Brenda Williams at the Princes Risborough Shop on 01844 344130.

Other highlights of the festive season included The Festival of Lights at Beaconsfield, and events in Little Chalfont (location) and Hemel Hempstead (location). The amazing window display at the Warner’s End shop (map) attracted its customary attention!

Wycombe Bookshop

Unfortunately we also have some sad news to report. After careful consideration we have decided to close the High Wycombe Bookshop. There have been concerns for some time about the commercial viability of the shop and, in November, we received an offer to surrender the lease. We felt this was an offer we could not refuse and accordingly the bookshop will close by the middle of February. When trading in the charity sector it is incumbent upon us to produce a surplus and sadly we simply could not sell enough books to make that happen. My grateful thanks go to the Manager and all the shop volunteers who have shown great dedication and professionalism throughout this difficult time. We hope to find the right shop in High Wycombe in due course; Wycombe is in the heart of our area and I believe it is most important for us to have a presence there.

Volunteers

The beginning of December saw the addition of another much needed volunteer driver. You will now see Derrick Ball driving around in the van! Hilary Law has joined us one morning a week as an admin volunteer and again has proved a great asset. The ‘Christmas Card Ladies’ worked tirelessly to pack hundreds of parcels for mail order and put countless packets of cards into boxes to be taken to fundraising events. Shop volunteers worked very hard through our busiest period. My thanks go to all the shops and trading volunteers without whose tireless support we would not be able to run such profitable ventures!

Christmas Cards and Merchandise

This year has been the best ever for the sales of Christmas Cards, with ‘Sightseeing Santa’ as the runaway best seller. The card assortment was very well received with sales in the shops showing an 80% increase on last year! The calendar sold well as did the Furry Friends and glass angels. Last year is a distant memory now; as you read this all the selections and orders are being placed for Christmas 2004! Looking ahead, we anticipate the coming year to be even bigger, so if you can spare any time between October and December to help with the packing and distribution operation I would love to hear from you.

VAT on Donated Goods

Thank you to everyone who signed our petition opposing the possibility of VAT being charged on the sale of donated goods. We are pleased to report that the threat seems to have been averted. This proposal was part of wide ranging VAT reforms proposed by the EU. Thankfully due to pressure from our government and the Member States of the European Union the original proposal will be revised before becoming law.

In Conclusion

The past few months have been an incredibly busy time for the Shops and Trading Department, but we have achieved a great deal! I never fail to be surprised at the generosity of our supporters. Only this week we have been collecting thousands of pounds worth of new photo frames from a supporter. All we have to do now is find somewhere to sell them, so look out for the Shop Managers and me on all the local markets. (Not joking!)

I sent out an email appeal for fax machines for the shops, at the last count I have been promised 10 machines!

In December I was invited to join the board of the Association of Charity Shops. I was most honoured by this and feel it will raise Iain Rennie’s profile even higher in the charity retail sector.

VOLUNTEER FOCUS

Hidden Talents Colleen Richardson talks to Hilary Derbyshire, a ‘behind-the-scenes’ volunteer who has a huge impact on IRHH fundraising. There are many people who work for The Iain Rennie Hospice At Home but are hardly ever seen. They work many hours, and some of them do such valuable work for the organisation, that it would be difficult for Iain Rennie to carry on efficiently without them.

One of these ‘Hidden Volunteers’ is Hilary Derbyshire. She is the IRHH’s Volunteer Trusts Co-ordinator and she has been preparing applications for funding for The Iain Rennie Hospice At Home for many years.

I asked how long she had been working for Iain Rennie?

“Since about 1997,” Hilary replied. “I was looking for something worthwhile to do when I saw an advertisement in the Parish Magazine.”

“I understand that you are now raising over £100,000 a year through Trusts. This must make you feel very pleased. Tell me a bit about what you have to do?”

“Well, there is quite a lot involved in writing an application to charitable Trusts that donate money to charity,“ Hilary replied. “Most trusts request an annual application so we are always hoping that their support is going to be renewed. I research and contact new Trusts who may wish to support us and I also keep trusts informed about what the IRHH is doing with the money they give us and keep my ear to the ground for new sources of income.”

“Since I have been working for the Iain Rennie I must say income has been going up steadily, but it’s not just me, I work closely with Robert Breakwell, IRHH’s Appeals Director, and I get regular leads from IRHH staff and supporters to follow up - especially if they have some relationship with a particular Trust. Our biggest successes often come through a personal connection. I also get involved with applications to companies, local authorities and other bodies that distribute money. At the moment, I’m working on an application to the National Lottery.”

“I also help Mike Tant, who runs the website for the Iain Rennie. I help with the coding and the programs for the application forms that enable people to support the IRHH on-line.”

Can YOU put us in touch with a trust or company that might support us? Email Robert Breakwell rbreakwell@irhh.org or call 01442 890222.

IRHH Church & Community Links
We are always pleased to hear from anyone who is prepared to act as a link with their church or community. If you can help, please call Suzie Lalé slale@irhh.org on 01442 890222.

Home & Shop Box Collections
We are always in need of people to help with box collections throughout the IRHH area. Our Box Co-ordinator, Joy Egan, would love to hear from you on 01442 890222 or email Suzie Lalé slale@irhh.org.

A Few Words From Our New HR & Voluntary Services Manager, Rozina Ahmad One of the first things that impressed me when I joined The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home was the incredible number of volunteers who contributed to our service in a variety of ways. I was impressed by their professionalism and dedication and quickly realised how essential they are to our organisation. During my time at IRHH as a Community Fundraiser I particularly enjoyed working with our many fundraising volunteers and this was one of the main reasons that I applied for the role of HR & Voluntary Services Manager when it became available. I hope to continue the excellent work started by Emily Smith and I look forward to working with many more volunteers in the future.

I would very much like to hear from anyone who is interested in helping The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home in one of our many voluntary roles. Please click here to see a list of our current vacancies, or contact me on 01494 877200 or email rahmad@irhh.org.