Business Backing for £20,000 Charity Giveaway

MORE than 40 of Teesside’s leading businesses are set to donate £20,000 to local community groups to celebrate achieving notable milestones.
The £20,000 Golden Giveaway will give 15 Tees charities, community groups and schools a chance to share a cash jackpot, with the application process now open.
The cash fund is being made available by charitable movement Middlesbrough and Teesside Philanthropic Foundation, funded by local businesses and individual patrons including Cleveland Cable, Bulkhaul, Charles Clinkard, Nortech and Middlesbrough FC.
The foundation has regularly held £10,000 Golden Giveaways but has doubled the cash pot this time to mark the achievement of raising £1 million and receiving a further £700,000 boost from an anonymous donor.
The money will be split between 15 charities, community groups and schools – with dozens of local good causes expected to apply to make the shortlist.
A selection panel comprising representatives of the foundation’s patrons face the tough task of choosing the 15-strong shortlist.
Supporters of the good causes will then have an opportunity to vote via the Foundation’s official website at www.teessidecharity.org.uk for the good cause they believe most deserves the money.
The community group receiving most votes will receive £5,000.
The second-placed charity will receive £2,500, there’s £2,000 for third place and another 12 local good causes will share between £500 and £1,500 each.
Foundation chairman Andy Preston said: “Our previous Golden Giveaways have proved to be hugely popular – so we’ve now made them a fixture in our calendar.
“But we’ve also decided to double the usual cash fund to celebrate what has been a fantastic period for the foundation over the past six months.
“The Golden Giveaway is an exciting way to support some of Teesside’s amazing community groups that need our help and to get the public involved in our Foundation. It also raises the profile of our charity and the various community groups that take part.”
Previous winners of the Golden Giveaway’s usual £2,500 top prize include Grangetown Boys Club, Boro Real Fans Believe in Dreams, Middlesbrough Powerchair Football Club, Teesside Wheelchair Basketball Club and Trinity Holistic Centre at James Cook University Hospital.
To apply, complete the Golden Giveaway application form on www.teessidecharity.org.uk.
Deadline for entries is 12 midday on Monday, February 22, 2016. The online vote is expected to take place for two weeks from March 1-15.
Other prominent businesses who fund the Foundation as patrons include Endeavour Partnership, Evolution Business & Tax Advisors, Erimus Insurance Brokers, BHP Law, Ecco Finishing Supplies, Castlegate Shopping Centre, The Keys Yarm, Mandale Group, Active Charted Financial Advisors, Cool Blue, First Choice Labels, CPD Bodies, InBond, Unasys, Pass, px group, Henderson Insurance Brokers, AV Dawson, Hunters, RMB Automotive, Barclays and Devereux Transport.
Along with Andy Preston, individual patrons are Alistair Waite, Simon Scotchbrook, Rob McLaughlin, Bill Scott, Nigel Williams, Ian and Adrienne Stark, Ali Miremadi, Steve Nichols, Barney Ord and the Wadsworth, McCullagh, Sizer and Stephenson families.