St Mary's Hospice Gets on Board Affinity Savings Campaign

St Mary’s Hospice is literally getting on board a new ‘You Save, We Give’ campaign from Furness Building Society, designed to spread the word about the good work of the charity and the fund raising benefits of special affinity saving accounts.

The campaign using Ad-Vans will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people across the North West, with Furness Building Society on one side of the travelling billboards and the charity’s own advertising message on the other.

St Mary's Hospice in Ulverston provides free dedicated palliative care for people with life limiting conditions, as inpatients or at day clinics and therapy sessions, and at home. It is funded by the community it serves in South Cumbria and to maintain the Hospice services costs around £2.4 million a year, of which £2 million (£6000 per day) must be raised from supporters.

St Mary’s is one of the most successful affinity accounts, raising more than £840,000 so far for the hospice over more than 10 years. Under the affinity arrangement, St Mary’s supporters open special instant access accounts with the Building Society, and enjoy a return on their savings. But the Society also agrees to give from its own funds an annual cash payment based on the total average balance in all the St Mary’s Hospice accounts.

Furness Building Society is a UK leader in the creation and development of affinity savings accounts with almost 20 now active for North West organisations.

Furness Building Society Chief Executive Rob Cairns says that affinity accounts are a vital part of the local commitment of the Society. He explains: “As a mutual building society the deposits of our local savers provide the funding for local mortgages and that link is at the heart of our business based on mutual benefit.

“In the same way the affinity accounts can potentially deliver a higher return for savers because the interest is calculated on the combined balance of the affinity account, and the Society recognises the business benefit in the form of an annual payment to the local charity. Again affinity accounts offer mutual benefits that work for everyone concerned because the more supporters save, the more the Society gives.”

For St Mary’s Hospice, Zoe Guest, Funding & Operations Manager commented: “In the current economic climate charities are under financial pressure and so it is important for us to maximise every possible opportunity to raise funds. We are immensely grateful for every donation we receive and our supporters put a huge amount of effort and dedication into working on our behalf. The affinity account has the unique advantage that it raises money for us while also providing a higher rate of interest return on savings for our supporters.”

St Mary’s Hospice is one of three charities featured in the advertising, which all have affinity accounts with Furness Building Society; the other two are the North West Air Ambulance and the Rosemere Cancer Foundation.

For more information on affinity accounts visit www.furnessbs.co.uk, or call in at your local branch or Furness Building Society agency.