Optimist World charity awards winners announced
Last updated 27/01/2010 11:31:18
Optimist World charity awards winners announced
It's been an inspiring, humbling and very proud journey but finally after many months we can reveal the winners of the Optimist Charity Awards 2009/10.
From over 350 charities – doing what they do best and making life better for so many – we faced the challenge of selecting 75 worthy weekly winners.
As the definitive source for good news, we set out to honour the amazing work undertaken by UK fundraisers and more than 150,000 small to medium sized UK-registered charities. The Optimist Charity Awards offered all charities with a turnover of up to £1million, the opportunity to shine a light on the incredible work they do.
It was every bit as tough as we expected, but week by week we highlighted a wealth of good – no, excellent – causes that deserved every bit of recognition we could give them. Finally, we narrowed the contenders down to just five. But, as Optimistworld.com founder Achim Kram explained after the final judging, what has proved a very difficult task throughout the year, became an almost impossible one at the last, crucial hurdle – selecting an ultimate winner. So today, we can reveal not one, but five winners of the Optimist Charity Awards.
"Overall we are extremely pleased with the quality of the entrants and would love to support all these amazing causes," Achim said: "But we had to decide on five charities who stood out with that extra bit of clarity on their applications, showing the potential outcomes they could offer those who rely upon their support, even for relatively small funding - and the effectiveness of their operations."
So, without further ado, who are those all-important five collective winners? In no particular order, they are:
Achim continued: "All very worthy winners I am sure you'll agree. Sorry for those who didn't make the final, but thank you to everyone for being involved and helping us highlight the extraordinary work going on the UK's charitable sector today.
"Looking forward, we do have big plans for 2010 and we are currently in discussions with new investors to turn these plans into reality. If successful, we will give away cash prizes to small charities and their fundraisers each calendar month. And not only will charities will be able to upload significantly more content to Optimist World, such as video clips, photos, press releases and more, but they will be able to manage it all themselves.
"Individual fundraisers will be able to link themselves to their charity of choice and raise cash for their charity on the site each month. We want to be THE platform for charities to connect with their fundraisers and the public – and, most importantly - it will ALWAYS be free of charge for charities."
Achim concluded: "You are all doing an amazing job and deserve more support from the media. We will continue to work hard to be a voice particularly for small charities and inspiring stories and we hope that you will continue to support us until we will be able to afford to implement those changes."
Take a look at the awards shortlist and search for any of the Optimist UK Charities