Matthew Clark Community Pub Hero Awards
This year, PubAid has changed the name of its annual competition to the Community Pub Hero Awards, and we’re looking for pubs who went the extra mile to help others during lockdown.
Entering is free of charge via a simple online form, with a closing date of 30 November. Whatever you and your team have done to support your local community this year, please think about entering and gaining the recognition you deserve.
Latest News & Press Releases
Blackburn pub reaches finals of Community Pub Hero Awards - Photo by the Morning Advertiser
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Every Year Pubs Raise in Excess of
£100Million
About Us
PubAid is a working party dedicated to promoting pubs as a force for good in their local communities.
Research carried out by PubAid shows that every year, pubs raise over £100m for hundreds of charities and worthy causes, and provide a further 40m in funding or in-kind support for grassroots sport.
The PubAid team works with press, broadcast media, social channels, MPs and others to showcase the invaluable support provided by licensees, their teams and their customers. .
Our initiatives include the World’s Biggest Pub Quiz, which has raised £750,000 for charities since its launch in 2016, and annual competitions to find the Best Charity Fundraising Pub – renamed this year as the Community Pub Heroes in recognition of the outstanding lockdown efforts by pubs - and Corporate Charity Fundraiser.
The PubAid founders were: Des O’Flanagan (former Scottish & Newcastle MD), Keith Knowles OBE (CEO, Beds and Bars) and Tim Sykes (Former Chairman, Beds and Bars). The committee members are: Jon Dale, Director of Corporate Communication, Stonegate Pub Company; Paul Hegarty, Honorary Secretary, All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, Robert Humphreys MBE; Stuart Mills, founder of useyourlocal.com; Katy Moses, founder of KAM Media; Ross Piggott (RP Databases); Greg Sage, Communications Director at Greene King; Andy Slee, Chairman at Titanic and Black Sheep, member of the One Voice Group and Anne Toms, External and Government Affairs Lead at Budweiser Brewing Group; John Longden, Pub is the Hub; Nic Robinson, Morning Advertiser; Molly Davis, BII; Josh Green, Beer and Pub Association; Murray Roberts, MD Beds and Bars; Ros Shiel, Shiel Porter PR; Paula Smith, Licensed Trade Charity; Tom Stainer, CE CAMRA; Tony Sophoclides, UK Hospitality. In January 2020, Keith Bott MBE became PubAid’s first President.
Make a Nomination
There are thousands of licensees doing great work for charity every year. If you know one who is really exceptional, perhaps you could consider nominating them for an honour? Read our guide to how to do that here.
The World's Biggest Pub Quiz
Every year, thousands of pubs take part in the World’s Biggest Pub Quiz, raising money for hundreds of charities. PubAid works with an official charity partner, which pubs are encouraged to support, but they are welcome to raise funds for a cause local to them. Many choose to split their money between more than one charity. To find out more and register for the next Quiz.
CORPORATE CHARITY FUNDRAISER AWARD
We recognise pub companies and breweries who support charities and good causes, presenting one company each year with our Corporate Charity Fundraiser award, run with the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group. Past winners include: Cameron’s Brewery, Stonegate Pub Company, JD Wetherspoon, Greene King and Joseph Holt.
Chris Soley chief executive at Camerons Brewery (left) collecting the award from Mike Wood MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group
Case Studies
PubAid Charity Pub 2019
The Rose of Mossley, Liverpool
Landlady Mari Woods has been at the Rose of Mossley, a Greene King tenancy in Liverpool, for 30 years, raising an estimated £250,000 in that time for many local charities and good causes, and offering hands-on help to individuals in need in the community.
Mari is supported by the Friends of the Rose of Mossley, a group of regulars who help organise fundraising events including an annual summer fete. Beneficiary charities are selected based on nominations from the local community, via the pub's Facebook page.
Mari is particularly concerned with customers who come into the pub on their own, making sure they are looked after, especially if they don’t have families. The Rose hosts a Christmas Dinner for some of these customers, with a free buffet and a full turkey dinner plated up to take home.
The Thursday Club is an organisation that is run solely by volunteers and is a social club for adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. Twice a year Mari invites all of the club members for a buffet, and makes sure that the volunteers get a free drink on her.
Individuals have also been recipients of Mari’s care. One customer was a Falklands War veteran with life-changing injuries who became homeless. Mari fed him, allowed him to wash in the pub disabled toilet, was instrumental in getting the support he needed to be rehomed.
PubAid Charity Fundraising Pub 2018
Pub: The Logan Rock, Treen
The winners of our first Charity Fundraising Pub Award were Anita & Peter George of the Logan Rock in Treen, near Penzance, who collected their trophy at a celebration in the House of Commons.
The Logan Rock has been supporting charities ever since Anita & Peter took over at the 16th century, St Austell pub 35 years ago. Sponsored cycle rides along the Cornish coast, regular quizzes and auctions have raised money for local charities and causes including St Levan Church and Sports Club, Cornwall Blood Bikes and Macmillan, to name just a few.
A welly boot throwing competition held at the Logan Rock every Boxing Day supports Sennen Cove lifeboat station, while the pub also hosts visits from underprivileged children from London, delivers newspapers to Treen’s elderly residents and organises a local litter pick.
Anita said, “We’re delighted to have won this award and grateful to our fantastic team of staff and customers, who have given whole-hearted support to our fundraising efforts over the years. As a community pub, we’ve always felt we have a duty to help our local community, and it’s wonderful to have our efforts recognised in this way.”
Fundraising Case Study: Blockheads at The Brewery
The Partridge Pub in Partridge Green took their standard music night to anew level, taking over the local brewery with a big gig to raise money for The Dark Star Foundation
Pub: The Partridge, Partridge Green
Event: Gig
Charity: Dark Star Foundation
Money Raised: Over £5,000
Effort & Cost to Organise: High
The pub is the Brewery Tap for the Sussex brewer and is well-known for the occasional music night, but this took the whole thing to a new level. They invited The Blockheads to play a gig at the Brewery, just around the corner from the pub. The event sold out in a matter of weeks (350 at £20 a ticket).
There was a lot of work preparing the brewery and putting a stage in and associated cost. The band also charged a feem though a redueced one. After expenses, the event, including ticket sales and food / bar take, raised £5000 for the Dark Star Foundation. www.darkstarbrewing.co.uk/foundation.
A few words from the organiser:
“This wasn’t an easy gig to organise and the related costs were pretty high. Thanksfully the entire brewing team gave their time for free to help. The positive impact of the event went way beyond th money raised, people really engaged with the pub and the brewery.”
We benefitted from some great local PR: : www.theargus.co.uk/news/13588834.Blockheads_team_up_with_Dark_Star_for_special_beer
Stephanie Chitty
Royal Oak
Friday Street
Rusper
W Sussex
RH12 4QA
Tel: 01293 871393
www.theroyaloakrusper.co.uk
To help inspire your fundraising, here are the finalists from last year’s BII Fundraiser of the Year Awards
Pub: Royal Oak, West Sussex
A small pub with a strong sense of community. The current owners moved into the pub seven years ago and have raised in excess of £26k for a local hospice, plus a further £8k for the air ambulance service in conjunction with another pub in Devon.
Fundraising event include:
- Snail and chicken races
- Pantomime Dame & Pantomime Horse racing, we have raced
- Annual Rusper Regatta with ‘boat’ racing (up the road!)
- Annual Weed Show
- R.O.A.D.S (Royal Oak amateur dramatic society) performances’ in the pub garden
- Festive plays at Christmas time
- Pantomime Horse Chariot Race, where regulars made and sponsored the chariots which were pulled by two pantomime horses each. The day also included sheep racing, Weed show and Barn Dance, with cricket and croquet. The weekend alone raised £3k.
- No mobile phone policy in the pub, each time a phone rings £1 has to be put in the charity pot
Pub: The Sweet Olive at The Chequers, Oxfordshire
The pub is at the centre of our two communities, and during the past 10 years the owners have supported many charities including local organisations, schools, playgroups, cricket clubs, gardening clubs and Bonfire Night associations. Charity efforts include:
Fundraising event include:
- The team founded the village’s ASTONAHLON in 2010, a charity 10km run and 30 km cycle where each applicant raises a minimum of £50. The event has raised over £30k over the last three years for a children’s hospital, a cancer research charity and donated funds to a local children’s playground.
- Boules annual competition raiseing over £10k. Has a French theme with pub meal and prizes.
- ‘Olivier and The Henley Challenge’ Triathlon, which saw a local take on the challenge raising over £20k.
- Steak and Capon nights raising over £5k
Pub: The Swan, Bristol
The pub is a big part of the community, raised approximately £23k for charity last year, all of which are local organisationsl, including supporting a young gentleman who was struggling with carrying on running a family home after his wife passed away, through to local charities and community projects.
Regular events include:
- Weekly skittles tournament and card-making for people with learning difficulties
- Charity quiz every week , Thursday night we have charity
- Bingo
- Live music nights at weekends
- BBQ on the patio
- Hosts community events such as craft fairs, Christmas Lights, Royal British Legion meeting ‘lodge’ in the function room
Fundraising Tips
Social Media
Please share your fundraising stories with us on Facebook or Twitter (#pubaid) or follow us to be inspired by what others are doing as part of pubs raising over £100m for charity each year.
Contact Your MP
We believe that pubs play a vital role in the fabric of the community, yet all too often they are vilified by the press. If you’d like to share the message about how important the pub is to you and your community and share the fact that pubs raise over £100m for charity each year, then here’s a resource designed to help you contact your local MP:
Helpful Tips for Fundraising
Some Fundraising advice from 2014 Fundraiser of the Year, Sara Blunden from the Royal Oak, Rusper, West Sussex
A pub is nothing without it’s regulars, I say regulars not locals as many of them travel some distance to join us. You have to have a sense of community about your pub, an atmosphere where people look after each other, I think that if you genuinely care that rubs off. A pub has to be much more than a business venture but once you have that community spirit the rest falls easily into place. It does help, if like me, you can surround yourself with a lot of fun loving fools with big hearts!
Get creative. It is thinking of something different – we have had boat races without water, snail racing which is far more exciting than you might imagine, pantomime horse and pantomime dame racing, sheep and chicken racing and much more. We are about to host the ‘Tour de Rusper’ a fancy dress bike ride!
Most ideas come from jolly banter at the bar aided by a glass of beer! You only need the odd casual comment to plant the seed of an idea. Once the idea is coming together you need to try to plan it to get the most enjoyment for the most amount of people. The ‘Fun’ in fundraising is the key, people look at it as a great day out and the fact that we raise money for charity is almost a by product!
Most pubs will have a few key players who are happy to get on with tasks you may give them or just good at mobilising other people – ask them, they are good at it because they enjoy doing it. I know we could not have done so much without my handful of key players.
The easiest charities to support are local ones, we mainly support the local hospice, everyone knows about them and the great work they do, many of my locals will have had personal experience with family or friends they may have lost. Sometimes one of the locals may have benefited from a different charity so we may hold a little event for that but we mostly stick to the same one.
A few more thoughts…
Whatever your event, always put a raffle on – people love a raffle and you’ll be surprised how quickly you rack up a few extra quid.
Marketing – having a great idea for an event is useless if no one turns up. Make sure you email your local press a few weeks ahead of the event and get some posters out there (maybe ask for help creating these from a talented regular). If you’re into twitter and facebook, make sure you promote your event and invite friends and have friends invite their friends…soon becomes a big number.
Stay Legal. Think about the logistics – will you have larger numbers than usual coming to your pub, probably! So, what’s you plan for parking, crowd control and have you applied for a TEN? For more on TENs, see: www.popall.co.uk/licensingapplications/temporary.asp
Remember, this will be a lot of work, but as well as raising lots of money for great causes, this is an opportunity to impress lots of potential new customers as they may well be coming to your pub for the first time.
Share your event with the team at PubAid via twitter @PubAid or find them on:
Our Supporters
We are grateful to the following organisations for their support:
Patrons
Supporters
Friends
Supporting Trade Associations
We welcome support from industry organisations who want to help us promote the pub as a force for good in communities. We are a lean organisation run largely by volunteers, if you’d like to become a Patron, Supporter, or Friend, please contact des.oflanagan@pubaid.com.
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