Staff At Law Firm’s Bristol Office Raise £10,000

A charity that supports isolated and lonely older people in Bristol and the surrounding area is set to benefit from a £10,000 donation after staff from Irwin Mitchell spent a year raising funds for the good cause. 

The Anchor Society was voted for by staff at the office to be their Charity of the Year for 2017 as part of a nationwide initiative by the Irwin Mitchell Charities Foundation (IMCF). 

Established in 1997, IMCF is an independent registered charity set up by the firm which has donated more than £1.6 million to third sector organisations. 

Following 12 months of fundraising activities, including a campaign to raise £20,000 in a month to celebrate IMCF’s 20th anniversary, nationally, the law firm raised £180,000 during 2017 – a record for the firm. In doing so, the majority of Irwin Mitchell’s regional offices, including Bristol, smashed their own fundraising records in the process. 

Staff in Bristol bolstered their usual fundraising activities last year by holding a sponsored event to row 110km in one day on a rowing machine in the office and by selling a recipe books staff created and printed themselves.

The bumper donation, which is £3,000 more than staff raised in 2016, will be used by the charity to support their work with Active Aging Bristol which encourages elderly people in the region to stay as active as possible. As an additional gesture staff at the law firm donated pedometers worth £100 to the charity to help with their aims of improving wellbeing and loneliness in the elderly community through exercise.  

Julie Lewis, Regional Managing Partner at Irwin Mitchell’s Bristol office, said: 

Expert Opinion

“It’s an honour to be able to provide this record donation to a truly fantastic cause in our local community.

“Last year we celebrated 20 years of the IMCF and I am delighted that thanks to the creativity and generosity of Irwin Mitchell employees, we made our anniversary year a record breaking one.

“Everyone at IM is passionate about giving back to the communities we operate in and making a real difference to the lives of those supported through our Charities of the Year programme.

“We are incredibly proud of what we achieved last year. Hearing how The Anchor Society is going to use the donation, and the positive impact that will have on the elderly community in the region, is spurring on our staff to think of bigger and better ways to fundraise for this year’s good cause.” Julie Lewis - Partner

The donation from Irwin Mitchell will go towards expanding the range activities on offer to older people. Currently in the planning stage are a women’s walking football pilot and a walking tennis pilot, both to be run over half a year.  In addition Anchor and Active Ageing are looking to set up intergenerational activities which will engage students and older people. Physical activities for older people, particularly in team activities, can improve both physical and mental wellbeing and tackles loneliness.  

Anchor Society CEO, Richard Pendlebury said:  “We are very grateful and delighted with the amount raised by the team at Irwin Mitchell’s Bristol office. From the outset the team has been really engaged with what Anchor does and they demonstrated real empathy for the needs of older people and a genuine commitment to improving their lives.”