Charity of the Year

The two year partnership, which began in July 2012, aims to raise at least £2 million for the charity. This will fund up to 50 specialist prostate cancer nurses, based at the heart of communities, helping around 44,000 more men across the country.

Choosing our charity

We worked very closely with our union, the CWU, to shortlist three very deserving charities – Alzheimer's Society, Prostate Cancer UK and WhizzKidz. 36,000 of our colleagues voted for their chosen charity through our group-wide Employee Opinion Survey. 

Prostate Cancer UK (formally known as The Prostate Cancer Charity) is the UK’s leading charity helping more men survive prostate cancer and enjoy a better quality of life. The charity provides support for men and their families, runs awareness programmes and funds vital research into the disease.

Our people are raising funds for the charity through a series of fundraising activities and events, with an initial target of £1 million. Royal Mail has also donated £50,000 to the Alzheimer’s Society and Whizz-Kidz, the other two shortlisted charities that our employees voted for.

Matched funding

For the first time, Royal Mail has committed to matching funds raised by colleagues, penny for penny, up to £1 million a year for each of the two years of the partnership.

Once colleagues and Royal Mail have raised £2 million for Prostate Cancer UK, any funds colleagues raise for either Alzheimer’s Society, Prostate Cancer UK or Whizz-Kidz will also be matched by Royal Mail, up to further £1 million.

The partnership with Prostate Cancer UK, follows Royal Mail’s successful work with Barnardo’s, which raised £2.6 million for the children’s charity between 2008 and 2012.

How the partnership works

We agree with our Charity of the Year partner how the money will be used, and collaborate on a dedicated fundraising programme, our teams working with the charity to develop exciting ideas.

They also coordinate their own activities and events – we've supported treks, bike rides, fun runs and quiz nights. To help our fundraisers, our £200 Fundraising grant is available to cover start-up costs for their planned charity event. 

Added extras

We support colleagues’ fundraising for any charity or worthwhile cause. 

Apart from our Charity of the Year 'Matched Giving' scheme, we also have a 'Community Support Matched Giving' scheme which provides up to £200 per year per person, towards the money they raise for all other registered charities and good causes.

We also enable colleagues to make contributions through our world-record holding Payroll Giving programme. For the first time, we will also match-fund colleagues’ payroll giving contributions to our Charity of the Year programme, and provide grants to help with start-up costs for fundraising and volunteering activities.