Maidenhead: BGF announces charitable donation

As a regional business, BGF has announced a £12,500 donation to Maidenhead-based charity Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice as part of its £100,000 donation initiative to support local community-based charities across the UK & Ireland during the pandemic.

Alexander Devine, which provides essential support and high-quality care from the point of diagnosis to families of children (age 0-19 years) with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions across Berkshire and the surrounding counties, facilitates a wide range of services from specialist play and music therapy to end of life care and bereavement support.

The charity, which cites as its ethos is ‘the child is central to all that we do’, currently supports 135 children who have a life-limiting or life-threatening condition and their families, as well as 36 siblings, and is committed in its mission of reaching out to every child and their family that needs them.

However, Alexander Devine like charities across the country is currently facing huge challenges amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The crisis has forced the cancellation of most of the charity’s fundraising activity planned for the coming months, a devastating blow when 96% of what the organisation needs to run its services comes from fundraising activity in different local economies. BGF recognised the need for increased support to local charities like Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice and committed to make donations totalling £100,000 into organisations across UK and Ireland, with a target to deliver all funding by mid-June.

The BGF teams in Bristol and Reading have been working over the course of the last month to identify the regional charity which most needs its support and felt Alexander Devine was deserving of the £12,500 donation which will strengthen its offering during these unprecedented times.

Harjit Bola, fundraising manager at Alexander Devine, said: “We are so grateful to BFG for their incredibly generous donation. Circumstances have meant that the majority our fundraising activity in the coming months has had to be cancelled and we have very limited control over income generation.  The donation from BFG will enable us to continue to provide our much needed service to our children and their families, we have adapted and continue to evolve our service to meet the needs our children in these unprecedented times.”

Ned Dorbin, BGF’s regional lead investor, said: “It is a challenging time for all, but especially for those organisations that rely on donations. There will be many charities that are struggling to continue to offer their vital services as they did before Covid-19.

“We are immensely proud to be able to donate £12,500, with the support of our shareholders, to Alexander Devine in recognition of the invaluable services they provide to those who so desperately need them at such a difficult time in their lives.”

Across BGF’s investment portfolio, many businesses have pivoted their offering to support the fight against the virus, including Cheltenham-based beauty innovator SLG which donated hundreds of beauty and grooming products to Gloucestershire NHS workers to thank them for their incredible work during the Covid-19 crisis.