The North East Charity Awards are returning for their eighth year to celebrate the best of the region’s voluntary sector, plus the companies and individuals that support it.
The Charity Awards – which are organised by The Journal and our sister paper on Teesside, The Gazette – shine a light on the region’s best charities and those that work in them, as well as individual fundraisers and businesses that support voluntary groups.
A total of 11 prizes will be up for grabs when the awards take place at The Fed in Gateshead on October 19.
Last year the Newcastle United Foundation was named the region’s Charity of the Year while other winners included Back on the Map, Gateshead Older People’s Assembly and Beach Access North East. The event will be sponsored by Brewin Dolphin, who have been headline sponsors since the beginning of the awards, as well as associate sponsors voluntary sector group VONNE and the Sir James Knott Trust.
Jeff Ball, charity investment advisor at Brewin Dolphin, said: “We are excited to celebrate these awards now in their eighth year, an event we have supported since we helped create them in 2015. The awards have gone from strength to strength, and we would encourage both new and previous nominees to enter and tell us about their successes in the last 12 months. Brewin Dolphin has a long and proud history within the North East. We are passionate about the region, supporting it through our specialist charity investment management team that works with over 100 local charities.
“Our role is simply to help charities make their money work harder, investing their reserves to generate a higher return than they would from cash and allow them to support more beneficiaries, both now and for years to come. We see ourselves as ambassadors for our clients and the charity sector. We are proud to help them realise their financial objectives to support as many people as possible.”
Carol Botten, CEO at VONNE, said: “VONNE are delighted to be sponsoring the North East Charity Awards this year as part of our commitment to highlight and celebrate the outstanding work and people of the North East VCSE sector. We hope that lots of organisations and people from the sector will nominate themselves and join us at the awards in October to celebrate our combined successes.”
And Jo Curry, from the Sir James Knott Trust, added: “The North East Charity Awards provide an opportunity to amplify the brilliant charities, community groups and social enterprises that we have in the region. It is a chance to celebrate the people that work in them, volunteer for them and the businesses that support them. This is the moment to make a nomination for a person or an organisation that exemplifies all that is good about the North East and to say thank you.”
Find out how to enter or nominate charities at www.northeastcharityawards.co.uk.
Entries close on August 17.
The award categories are:
Outstanding charity support by large companies
Outstanding charity support by small to medium-sized companies
Corporate charity ambassador of the year
Uniquely North East award (sponsored by VONNE)
Outstanding social enterprise award (sponsored by Banks Group)
Charity leader of the year (sponsored by Brewin Dolphin)
Oustanding contribution to social change award (sponsored by Millfield House Foundation)
Charity champion of the year (sponsored by County Durham Community Foundation)
Young charity champion of the year (sponsored by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
Small charity of the year (sponsored by Sir James Knott Trust)
North East charity of the year (sponsored by Muckle)