Companies
By partnering with Mercy Ships, your company can make a real difference to the lives of the world's poorest people. A partnership with us can also benefit your organisation in a number of ways. You can gain access to new audiences, demonstrate corporate social responsibility & increase PR. You could also help your business to:
- Increase sales
- Provide a point of differentiation from your competitors
- Develop good relations with local communities
- Motivate staff to commit to something long term and worthwhile
There are a number of ways that your company can partner with Mercy Ships.
| Cause Related Marketing | Search & Raise | |
| Sponsorship | Gifts in Kind | |
| Charity of The Year Adoptions | Employee Involvement | |
| Corporate Donations | Payroll Giving | |
| Pennies From Heaven | Corporate Christmas Cards | |
Click here for a list of our corporate supporters
Cause Related Marketing
Cause Related Marketing is when a business and charity form a partnership to market a product or service for mutual benefit. This can include trade promotions, on-pack promotions and in-store merchandising.
By publicly linking with Mercy Ships, you can provide customers with a credible incentive to select products or services which help poor people in Africa. This can help your company to:
- Increase sales, press and PR coverage
- Improve credentials as a socially responsible brand
- Increase awareness of the launch of a new product
- Increase long-term customer loyalty
For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email fundraising@mercyships.org.uk
Sponsorship
Sponsoring one of Mercy Ships many activities can improve your brand perception and corporate profile in local communities and promote a positive corporate image to your target audience.
We have a number of sponsorship opportunities targeted at diverse audiences and we can tailor packages to meet your business objectives. Sponsorship packages include:
- Literature and promotional campaigns
- Events including charity auctions, exhibitions and marathons
- Areas of our work e.g. Surgery
Your business can also claim tax relief on sponsorship to Mercy Ships.
For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email fundraising@mercyships.org.uk
Charity of The Year Adoptions
Nominate Mercy Ships as your Charity of the Year and get your entire company working together to make a positive impact for the poor in developing nations. For example, your company could work together to achieve a specific objective, such as raising money to buy a piece of equipment on a Mercy Ship or fund one of our many development projects.
Having a Charity of the Year will bring a positive impact to your company and staff fundraising can be a fun and a rewarding way of promoting team spirit and building staff morale. We will work closely with you to make it a year to remember including:
- A programme of activities throughout the year
- Opportunities for sponsorship
- A chance to develop promotions and cause related marketing
- Media and publicity support
- Encouraging staff with regular contributions through Payroll Giving
For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email: fundraising@mercyships.org.uk
Corporate Donations
Making a company donation is a simple way to make a lasting difference for those who need it most.This can be allocated towards an area of our work (e.g. micro-enterprise projects) or to a particular service in a specific geographical location.
The donation doesn't have to be financial. It could be:
- Gifts in Kind
- Employee time
- Company resources e.g. use of a company facilities
- Shares (this is a very tax efficient way to make a donation)
Your business can claim tax relief on these donations.
For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email: fundraising@mercyships.org.uk
Pennies From Heaven
Pennies from Heaven is a simple and regular way for staff to donate the spare pennies from their salaries to help Mercy Ships.
With a simple change to your payroll system, gross salaries are rounded down to the nearest pound on a monthly basis with the spare pennies going towards our life-saving work. The most anyone can give a month is £0.99, or £11.88 pa, with an average of 50p per employee, per month.
Donations made under the Pennies from Heaven Scheme can also benefit from the Government Gift Aid Scheme. By simply confirming their agreement, as a taxpayer, participants will be able to increase the value of their gift by 25p for every £1 donated.
To find out how your company can transform lives through the Pennies from Heaven scheme, click here
Search & Raise
We are now using a search engine (Yahoo) that rewards loyalty of use by giving a percentage of its advertising revenue to us. The more people who use it as their way to search the internet, the more money we can raise!
Using our search box on your own website or intranet doesn’t cost you or us a single penny, but by using this search engine, you and your staff can potentially make us money each and every day! Set up a search box now
Alternatively, why not ask your staff to add a search box to their internet browser by clicking here.
Gifts in Kind
Mercy Ships continually seek donations of goods to support our medical and community development projects such as medical equipment, hospital supplies and general consumables. We also welcome donations of prizes for auctions and raffles and the free use of facilities. Your business may also be able to claim tax relief on this kind of donation.
If you or your business can donate items to Mercy Ships, please contact Steve Cook on 01438 347493 or email steve.cook@mercyships.org.uk
Alternatively, contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email fundraising@mercyships.org.uk to donate prizes for auctions and raffles.
Employee Involvement
Employee fundraising can help raise some invaluable funds for Mercy Ships and has excellent benefits for your company and staff. By getting employees involved, your business can benefit from increased staff loyalty, teamwork and motivation, while projecting a positive corporate image to clients, suppliers and the local community. In turn employees get to have lots of fun and can gain a real sense of achievement.
You and your colleagues can raise money at work in the following ways:
- Volunteering
- Organising collections
- Payroll Giving (see more)
- Participation in events (dragon boat teams, marathons)
- Staff's own fundraising initiatives
If any of your employees are seconded to Mercy Ships, and your business continues to pay their salary, you can deduct the costs associated with employing that person as if they had continued to work for you normally.
For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email fundraising@mercyships.org.uk
Payroll Giving
Payroll Giving enables employees to make regular, tax-efficient donations to charity from their salary. Employees simply authorise the payroll department to deduct donations from their pay packet. And because the deductions are made before tax, employees get the tax relief straight away.
For example, if an employee makes a monthly donation of £10 to Mercy Ships from their pay, it will only cost them £8. The Inland Revenue gives us the extra £2, at the basic rate of taxation and £4 at the higher rate.
These regular donations, topped up by the government, enable us to offer poor people the long-term commitment they need to improve their lives.
Why should I set up a scheme?
Not only does it improve your company image, but running a Payroll Giving scheme shows that you care about your staff. Other benefits include:
- Valuable PR and local media coverage
- Enhancing your community profile
- Generating income for good causes
- Improving staff morale, recruitment and retention
All businesses can claim tax relief on the costs of setting up and running a scheme. If your business chooses to match your employees donations, that gift can also be subject to tax relief. For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email fundraising@mercyships.org.uk
Corporate Christmas Cards
If your company sends Christmas cards, why not use the opportunity to help Mercy Ships. We’ve teamed up with Admiral Charity Cards who offer a carefully selected range of personalised, high quality Christmas cards which are perfect for sending festive greetings to your customers.
They can be personalised with your name, address, company logo and signatures. What’s more 25% of the order value goes to Mercy Ships. Place your order now at :
www.admiralcharitycards.org/mercyships
For further information or assistance, please contact the fundraising department on 01438 727800, or email fundraising@mercyships.org.uk