Premierline’s most charitable year to date

15 FEBRUARY 2024, Premierline’s dedication to helping the local community has been unrivalled through 2023, with lots of fundraising activity taking place across the business over the past 12 months.

Premierline is a large employer in the Lancaster area and colleagues feel a real responsibility to do everything they can to help local charities and causes. Alongside fundraising for the Allianz corporate charity – Mind, Premierline has spent the past 12 months donating money and resource to a number of local charities, including; Lancashire Mind, St. John’s Hospice, the Canal & River Trust, Morecambe Bay Foodbank, Lancaster BID and more.

By donating money, supplies and often most importantly, time, Premierline employees have helped 2023 to be our most charitable year yet, something we hope to continue in 2024 and beyond.

Every five years, Allianz UK nominates a corporate charity which is voted for by Allianz employees. 2023 saw the conclusion of their partnership with Mind, a UK based mental health charity which has seen £1,448,004.50 raised and countless volunteering hours logged during the five-year commitment. Premierline has played a huge part in the success of this partnership, by tackling the challenges of fundraising head on throughout the partnership to fundraise for the Lancashire branch of Mind, which provides mental health support services to individuals in the area.

In 2023, Premierline has taken part in:

• Various office fundraising activities such as raffles and bake sales.
• Face to face fundraising in Manchester city centre.
• A 55-mile fundraising relay from Lancaster to Manchester as part of the Allianz ‘Path to Paris’ event, raising a grand total of £4,044.00 for Mind.

Stuart Darroch, Managing Director at Premierline said:

“Working with Allianz to support their corporate charity; Mind, has provided our teams with an excellent opportunity to support those in need in our local community over the years. As this existing charity partnership draws to a close, we are very much looking forward to building a new relationship with the next Allianz charity partner through 2024 and beyond.

Thanks again to our team at Premierline who have gone above and beyond to help Lancashire Mind over these past few years.”

St. John’s Hospice in Lancaster provides palliative care to patients across Lancashire and the South Lakes areas. As a charity close to the hearts of many, it’s been fantastic to be able to get involved in fundraising activities for the hospice over the past year.

Along with 49 other local businesses, Premierline participated in the 50-50-500 challenge for St. John’s hospice which challenged 50 local businesses to raise over £500.00 in just 50 days. This challenge encouraged teams at Premierline to come up with innovative ways to raise the money, which included charity car washes, a raffle, participation in the Great Manchester Run, a Wainwright’s Mountain Challenge and a ‘wet a workmate’ event, raising a grand total of £4,930.55 across the 50-day challenge.

In addition to participation in the 50-50-500 challenge, Premierline has:

• Taken part in a charity bake off at the hospice site.
• Assisted the hospice team with the set-up of a new charity shop in Lancaster.
• Volunteered over 122 hours in supporting the hospice with fundraising and assistance at the new charity shop.

Each year, Premierline works closely with Morecambe Bay Foodbank to help support their crucial emergency food service and 2023 was no exception. Premierline has established a number of food appeals at the office to encourage team members to donate items which the foodbank needed; these appeals included:

• A donation of 100 Easter eggs and essential supplies including tins, dried foods, toiletries and sanitary products.
• A summer food appeal.
• A Uniform Project appeal taking donations of school uniform items ahead of the start of the academic year.
• A Christmas food appeal and an additional donation of 100 selection boxes to be given to families during the Christmas period.

Everyone who works at Premierline is entitled to take up to 20 hours per year during their normal working hours to volunteer for a local cause or charity. This year has seen our biggest uptake to date, with staff members across the entire business volunteering over 260 hours to help local causes which have included:

• 122 hours with St. John’s Hospice.
• 55 hours with the Canal & River Trust.
• 32 hours with Mind.
• 30 hours at a beach clean event organised by Morecambe Bay Partnership.
• 12 hours with North West Ambulance Service.