PAYE temporary workers at Reed voted to split a donation of £100,000 between three charities as part of an initiative called ‘The Big Temp Give’, launched by company founder Sir Alec Reed CBE.
Funding for ‘The Big Temp Give’ comes from Reed’s charitable arm, The Reed Foundation, which Sir Alec Reed is chair of.
The votes for which charity to support, which took place over a 12 month period, meant that the £100,000 donation is to be split between three charities – Cancer Research UK received the majority of votes at 51 per cent (receiving £51,000), Save the Children got 25 per cent of the votes (receiving £25,000) and WWF got 24 per cent of the votes (receiving £24,000).
Upon delivering the donations to the chosen charities yesterday, Sir Alec Reed said: “There are so many worthy charities in the UK doing fantastic, life-changing work that it was difficult to choose just one. That’s one of the reasons we decided to leave it up to the thousands of workers that choose temporary work through Reed and split the total donation between three charities according to votes.
“The chosen charities carry out such varied strands of work from cancer research, to wildlife conservation and protection for vulnerable children, giving them a better life, so the money will assist numerous areas where ground breaking, crucial work is being done.
“The Reed Foundation was set up to find ways to improve people’s lives. Through giving, we have been able to do that and encourage others to do the same.”
Chris Gethin, director of philanthropy and campaign at Cancer Research UK, said: “A staggering one-in-two people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated. We want to thank all the Reed temporary workers who voted for us and to the Reed Foundation for this fantastic donation.”
Clive Sanders, director of regional fundraising at Save the Children, added: “A huge thank you to everyone at Reed who voted for Save the Children to receive £26,000 from The Reed Foundation. The generous donation will help Save the Children continue to build better futures for children across the world, delivering life-saving aid; providing clean water, running vaccination programmes and helping to keep children safe and give them an education.”
Michael Dent, executive director of supporter income and engagement at WWF UK, said: “A huge thank you from WWF for being voted for in ‘The Big Temp Give.’ Half of this generous donation will go towards ongoing work in the aftermath of the Amazon fires, with the other half being used to fund longer term conservation work in the region to protect this precious landscape, its people and its wildlife.”