Virgin Money Giving Blog

Over the last few months, we ran a series of prize draws giving charities who registered with us the chance to win five Virgin London Marathon 2010 places. We’ve completed two draws in September and November, here are the charities that were drawn out of the hat:

Alex and Emma from our team had the pleasure of calling our winning charities and here’s what some of them said on recieveing the news:

“Because of this fantastic opportunity offered to OCD-UK by Virgin Money Giving it will provide not only a fantastic personal challenge for our runners but for the charity it will provide financial stability allowing us to continue supporting children and adults affected by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for the considerable future, we are so grateful to Virgin Money Giving.” – Ashley Fulwood, OCD-UK.

“In the current financial climate, along with many other organisations that are entirely dependent on voluntary donations, Christian Lewis Trust has been struggling to maintain let alone enhance the services it provides to children and their families affected by cancer. The London Marathon has always been a highlight in the charity’s fundraising schedule as the income raised gives a massive boost to day to day fundraising initiatives. To have won five places for the Virgin London Marathon 2010 is a real bonus and has come at a time when the charity will more than ever appreciate the extra income these places will generate. Thanks you so much!” – Sharon Gosney, Christian Lewis Trust.

“CWAC has had the most difficult year on record due to the impact of the global downturn. We have experienced an unprecedented increase in requests for help by young children who are infected or affected by HIV and the recession has impacted on our ability to deliver assistance to all those in need. Finding out that we have been awarded an additional 5 London marathon places by the Virgin Money Giving team has given the team a welcome boost and we look forward to working closely together to ensure that the 2010 event is the most successful on record.” – Lesley, Children with Aids Charity.

Congratulations to the winners, who each get five places in the race. We look forward to seeing all your runners on the big day.

As well as officially launching Virgin Money Giving on 14 October, Sir Richard Branson attended Action Planning’s annual conference ‘Raising funds from the Rich’ to deliver a keynote speech and take questions.

If you weren’t able to attend, or you’d like to hear the speech again it’s available in full below:

On Wednesday 14^th October Virgin Money Giving had its official launch.

The morning began on Potters Field in London under the view of Tower Bridge. We’d set up a stage and borrowed a London Routemaster Bus to help set the scene. Following Virgin’s sponsorship of the London Marathon it seemed only right to mark the occasion by getting together and having a go at the iconic 80’s ‘Running man’ dance.

It was great that people from many different charities could join us, and we all had a lot of fun dancing around to Beardyman who provided the beat box backing track.

Sir Richard Branson joined in too, arriving with the dancers, dressed in a lion costume.

A huge thank you to Cancer Research UK, Macmillian, Save the rhino, Save the Children, Clic Sargent, Oxfam, Barnardo’s, British Heart Foundation, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Breast Cancer Care and the guys at Virgin Active and Virgin Money for being there.

Take a look at the Virgin Money Giving flickr stream for more pictures, and to see the videos visit the ‘Run with Richard YouTube channel‘.

If you’d like a chance to ‘Run with Richard’ in the 2010 Virgin London Marathon head over to his fundraising page at www.runwithrichard.com where there are details on how you can enter the competition.

And if running the marathon seems a little daunting why not have a go at creating a video of yourself, friends or work colleagues doing the running man dance. There’s a video showing you how to do it on the ‘Run with Richard’ YouTube channel and some great examples of people having a go. For every video uploaded Virgin Money will donate £5 to Sir Richard Branson’s marathon fundraising page.