Our three-year relationship with East Coast Trains delivered £200,000 through employee and customer engagement and fundraising.

The success of the partnership significantly raised the profile of the charity to ECT customers and employees and illustrated how important social responsibility is to the organisation.

Employee engagement with the charity grew significantly throughout the partnership through the development and delivery of a full calendar of activities which included individual sponsorship initiatives, activities which aligned with health and wellbeing objectives, participation in Railway Children events and the development of retail items.

Christmas Charter Train

To engage their customers in their charity partnership, East Coast used key touch points such as:

  • reward points donation
  • Christmas charter train
  • features in the first class magazine
  • social media posts
  • website information and newsletters
  • local PR

In order to a maintain momentum and manage the partnership effectively a strategic working group was created which consisted of a dedicated Railway Children account manager and representatives from each East Coast Trains business function.

The working group managed all aspects of the partnership and provided a team of focused individuals to manage and co-ordinate joint activities, giving greater focus to partnership objectives across the business.

Each member of the working group acted as the ‘go to’ person for advice and information about the partnership within their department and supported communications at a local level.

A fundraising target was agreed by the working group which was shared with both internal and external stakeholders, and progress against target was reported back at regular intervals.

Karen Boswell, Managing Director of East Coast Trains said of the partnership:

“The Railway Children team are enthusiastic, tenacious and very easy to work with. They are proactive and very responsive and we have jointly organised several in house fund raising events over the last few years, which have proved very successful. We have been privileged to see first hand how our funds are utilised, visiting key charities in the UK as well as working closely with the India team in Mumbai. Our partnership with the Railway Children has provided us with many opportunities to engage our people in creative fundraising activities and increased their awareness of how the money they raise is utilised in the UK and overseas.”