Scottish Charities Secure £60,000 Christmas Gift

19 December 2011

Six charities have received £60,000 funding from the Vote that Counts

Aileen Stewart, Fundraising Manager for Macmillan Cancer Support, with Head of Charities at Postcode Lottery, Clara Govier

Six Scottish charities have an extra reason to celebrate this Christmas. They have secured a total of £60,000 funding in a free online public voting campaign.

Over 33,000 people across the country got involved in the Vote that Counts campaign. Voters nominated their favourite charity to win a Christmas gift of £50,000. Another five runner-up charities also had the chance to win £2,000 each. With such fantastic prizes up for grabs, the 12 charities involved pulled out every trick in the bag to get the highest number of votes.

Yet, it was Macmillan Cancer Support that secured the lion's share. They achieved over 16,000 votes and with it, a cheque to the value of £50,000.

“We were so thrilled to hear that we had won the campaign” said Aileen Stewart, Fundraising Manager. “We want to thank everyone who voted for Macmillan to win. Your vote has made such a difference to so many people across Scotland and could fund one Macmillan nurse for an entire year.” 

It was Macmillan's use of social media that really inspired the public to get behind their campaign and vote. Using Facebook and Twitter, they linked up their supporter requests and website activities to create one all-round call to action.

Social media also provided a great opportunity for other smaller charities to level the playing field and put the power in the hands of the public.

In Week Four of the campaign, each charity was tasked with getting a celebrity, persona or leading Twitter account to tweet on their behalf and secure an additional 500 Bonus Votes. Twitter feeds were alight with #votethatcounts and a number of high profile celebrities showed their support, including Gary Barlow, Ian Rankin, Newton Faulkner and Susan Boyle.

Speaking about the campaign, Head of Charities at People's Postcode Lottery, Clara Govier said: “It’s the first time that People’s Postcode Trust has ever created a campaign like the Vote that Counts. Giving the public the power to decide has been a great experience and a social media sensation.”

In addition to Macmillan Cancer Support's win, five runner-up charities

• Help for Heroes,

• Shelter,

• CLIC Sargent,

• Teenage Cancer Trust and

• Barnardo’s Scotland

also secured £2,000 funding each.

Clara Govier continues, “We hope that the six winning charities are as delighted as we are with the outcome of the campaign. Though for all of the charities involved, it has been a great opportunity to experience the power of social media and increase their own profile presence across the country. All that remains is to thank everyone who voted.”

The Vote that Counts campaign was a collaboration between People's Postcode Trust – funded entirely by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery – and the Sunday Mail. A total of 12 Scottish charities were invited to take part in the campaign. The additional charities were Fairbridge, Turning Point Scotland, Samaritans, Quarriers, Action for Children and Aberlour.