We are so thrilled to announce that we won a national UK award. We were one of six winners in the UK Charity Governance Awards 2023, which were announced during a live ceremony in London on 8 June. All six winning charities each took home a prize of a £5,000 unrestricted grant.
We won the ‘Transforming with Digital’ award in recognition of the success of our digital transformation plan. After redeveloping the website, automating our registration service and streamlining our data reporting process, we achieved a number of successes – registrations have increased by 60%; staff can now spend 33% more time on frontline services; and public engagement with the website has almost trebled.
Harriet Opalinski our Operations Lead said,
“We were up against some tough competition and other incredibly inspiring charities. After hearing the shortlist, we didn’t think it was going to be us and were taken aback when Carers in Bedfordshire was called out. We are so proud to win the Clothworkers Charity Governance Award, our board has supported us to drive our strategy forward and we thank them for all of the time, energy, expertise and sense of humour that always gets us through.”
Deepak Nambisan, who chairs the Awards for the organisers The Clothworkers’ Company, said,
“Many congratulations to our inspirational winners. This year, we’ve been struck by the impressive showing from the country’s smallest charities – more than half of all nominees are charities with fewer than 30 employees. This is a shining example of how trustees with foresight, imagination and an authentic connection to their beneficiaries can overcome barriers and achieve great things.”
Each winner received a £5,000 cash prize (as an unrestricted grant) and we are carefully considering where these unexpected funds can be best utilised to support unpaid carers.
The ceremony took place at Drapers’ Hall in London.
Stories of all of the winning charities, and the shortlisted entrants, can be found at www.charitygovernanceawards.co.uk under ‘Shortlist and Winners’.
For the Charity Governance Awards, The Clothworkers’ Company – a City of London livery company that supports trusteeship initiatives – is partnered with not-for-profit consultancy NPC (New Philanthropy Capital), third sector recruitment specialists Prospectus, and the trustee-matching charity Reach Volunteering.
