Current partnerships

Morrisons

Morrisons' 120,000 staff voted Asthma UK to be their Charity of the Year for 2006/2007. The supermarket raised an amazing £1.2 million through customer fundraising, cause related marketing and Morrisons employees taking part in events.

Colin Middlemass, PR Controller at Morrisons said: 'We are delighted with the results of our partnership with Asthma UK - they both supported and challenged us to ensure that the partnership worked hard and achieved real results.

Thanks to the innovation and dedication of the corporate partnerships team, we launched many new fundraising initiatives which including the selling of a wide range of charity merchandise, the Kick Asthma Heroes recognition initiative and a record number of cause related products participating in the charity promotion for Asthma UK's 80th birthday. Our partnership leaves us with a legacy of good ideas and strong governance processes which will undoubtedly help us raise record funds with future charity partnerships.'

O2

Following the success of the Bagpuss Charm Bracelets in 2007, O2 are pleased to be supporting Asthma UK during 2008 with the launch of the new Bagpuss magnetic bookmarks.

'We are delighted to be supporting Asthma UK in these ways and are confident the Bagpuss bookmarks will be as popular as the charm bracelets amongst customers and colleagues. The cause is a very worthy one and we're proud to be supporting the 5.2 million people with asthma.'
Jon Petty, Head of Retail Operations, O2.

O2 are also running a Cause Related Marketing promotion in support of Asthma UK by launching a Bagpuss mobile phone gift set complete with mobile phone cover, Bagpuss charm bracelet and stickers. Packs are available in all O2 shops priced at £12.99 with all profits (£7.39 per pack) donated to Asthma UK.

O2 is one of the leading providers of mobile phones services in the UK and their work with Asthma UK will enable them to continue to provide support for the 5.2 million people living with asthma in the UK today.This year will be an exciting one for O2 as employees are fully behind the in store campaign and will be taking part in fundraising activity in support of Asthma UK.

Kodak

Asthma UK is embarking on a new charity partnership with Kodak in 2008 and has accepted a generous contribution towards some of the charity’s key projects to help children with asthma, including a Kick Asthma Junior 2K running event and the Kick-A website.

Kodak’s funding supported the Kick Asthma Junior 2K which took place at Dorney Lake, Windsor on Easter Saturday (22 March). The event not only raised vital funds for Asthma UK’s work, but also demonstrated that, provided their asthma is well managed, children with asthma should be encouraged to enjoy sports and exercise. Paula Radcliffe has asthma and she hasn’t let it hold her back!

Kodak’s donation will also support the Kick-A website kickasthma.org.uk designed especially for children with asthma. This tailored resource provides them with helpful information and advice as well as lots of fun games and lively characters. The site not only helps children manage their asthma more effectively, but also provides them with support from their peers who understand what they are going through. With Kodak’s funding, Asthma UK can expand the website, ensuring it continues to be fun and relevant for children with asthma.

In addition to this fantastic donation, Kodak employees at its five sites around England are fundraising for Asthma UK with various activities including an asthma quiz and a Bad ‘Air Day in May where employees will come to work wearing whacky hairstyles or hats.

Anne Breary, of Asthma UK’s Corporate Fundraising Team said: ‘We are delighted to be working with Kodak. Over a million children in the UK are affected by asthma and Kodak will be providing vital funding for projects that will have the potential to have a widespread and lasting impact on children with asthma and significantly improve their lives. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Kodak and their employees for their generous donation and their commitment to fundraise for us over the year.’

Julian Baust, Chairman and Managing Director of Kodak Limited said: ‘Kodak chose to support Asthma UK because of the amazing work the charity do to help disadvantaged children in the UK who have asthma. Our donation will enable us to sponsor the Kick Asthma Junior 2K run and help make improvements to the Kick Asthma website.’

GAME

GAME Group Plc was the lead sponsor for The Asthma UK Gala Evening 2008 and provided extremely generous financial and in-kind support. 

The event took place on 25 June at the renowned Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair and received fantastic corporate support. Asthma UK would like to thank GAME, our other sponsors OC&C Strategy Management, Clifford Chance and Jupiter Asset Management and all the companies who advertised in the programme and attended on the night, helping us to raise £155,000.

GAME’s generous support helped make this event even more successful than last year while raising awareness and essential funds for the charity.

Anne Breary of Asthma UK’s Corporate Team said: ‘It was great to see our corporate supporters rewarded with such a fantastic evening and the feedback has been excellent from our sponsors. The balance of the Gala Evening audience between high-net worth individuals and senior corporate contacts led to both excellent networking and branding opportunities for our sponsors and we hope to repeat this amazing success with future events’.

Lloydspharmacy

'At Lloydspharmacy we have always recognised the benefits of working with our charity partners to offer patient education and innovative new services. Working in partnership with Asthma UK has enabled our pharmacists, and in turn our customers, to benefit from their experience and knowledge. This has helped position Lloydspharmacy as a great source of knowledge and advice about asthma.'
Andy Murdock, Pharmacy Director, Lloydspharmacy

In 2005 and 2006, Lloydspharmacy and Asthma UK worked together on a pilot project in 200 stores to provide Medicine Use Reviews for people with asthma. Customers who regularly collected their prescription could have a consultation with a pharmacist, to discuss issues such as inhaler technique, asthma triggers etc. Asthma UK helped to produce patient information booklets, and supported the marketing of the service. Both organisations are looking to extend this relationship in 2007.

GlaxoSmithKline

'GSK is supporting Asthma UK's Childhood Exercise Campaign because this national program is reaching out to students, teachers and parents through schools to ensure that young people with asthma can benefit from and enjoy exercise without their asthma being a hindrance,'
Katie Pinnock, Director, UK Corporate Contributions, GlaxoSmithKline.

GlaxoSmithKline has worked with Asthma UK since 1993 its most recent donation was for £60,000 to support Asthma UK's childhood project, which aims to promote sports and exercise to children with asthma.

HBOS

HBOS (formerly Halifax and the Bank Of Scotland) have supported Asthma UK for a number of years, raising over £160,000 through the Bagpuss pin-badge appeal and other fundraising activity. This year, HBOS are selling the Bagpuss soft toys in all HBOS branches to coincide with the World Asthma Day in May.

MSD

MSD have supported Asthma UK through a donation which enabled us to extend our survey to people with asthma, and find out valuable information about the ways which asthma is affected by seasonal changes and allergic rhinitis (hayfever). This information will be published by Asthma UK after World Asthma Day.

Boots

‘Boots are extremely proud of our 'Charity of the Year' partnership with Asthma UK during 2003/4. The professionalism and energy of the Asthma UK team ensured a highly productive partnership supporting staff and customer awareness, fund-raising, PR and most importantly raising record breaking funds for vital research.'
Oonagh Turnbull, Head of CRM and Community Investment

Boots adopted Asthma UK as their charity of the year in 2003-04. Money and awareness was raised through in-store sales of pin badges and zip pulls and a high profile information campaign. An information booklet on asthma, providing helpful information and advice was produced and displayed in all stores. Pharmacists were sent quarterly factsheets to refresh their asthma knowledge and enable to them to answer customer questions.

Barclays

'Bagpuss has been one of the most successful pin badge characters we have seen over the last 4 years and I am delighted that its popularity with our customers has helped raise significant funds for Asthma UK and also awareness of the work of the charity. We ran a pilot with the Bagpuss plush product in May 2005 and based on the fantastic results of this we are delighted to be able to support Asthma UK with a further appeal in 2006 which we expect will raise the set a new record'
Robin Webb, Senior Manager of Community Affairs

Asthma UK has been working with Barclays for the past three years and has raised over £140,000 through the sale of the Bagpuss pin badge and other fundraising products. The relationship has been an excellent way of raising awareness of asthma throughout the UK, whilst raising funds for the 5.2 million people with asthma.