12 minute read
Welfare at work
Welfare at work
Via a zoom call back in May Sally Duckett catches up with Nicki Strong, Racing Welfare’s Head of Communications and Marketing to hear how the charity has dealt with the past year’s events and of its plans for the future
Sally Duckett: Nicki, thanks for taking the time to chat about the latest Racing Welfare news.
Just to start off, could you give us a recap of the last year – difficult for so many of us as well I am sure for Racing Welfare itself?
Nicki Strong: Understandably, it was a really busy year for Racing Welfare, but we were able to respond to the challenges faced by COVID and lockdown by being quite agile in response.
Obviously, the charity was never needed more than last year, but we were quickly able to take a lot of our support services and community events online, which made a massive difference.
We certainly saw growth in the support that we’re providing for people having more people getting in touch. We issued COVID-related grants, totalling over £242,000, and around 45 per cent of the people we supported were reaching out to us for the first time.
And we saw a total number of interventions for 2020 at almost 20,000, that was a 59 per cent increase, year on year. The number of views of our self-help support pages increased by 49 per cent, as well. So we really did experience a great kind of need and demand for our services. And, thankfully, we were able to respond. Obviously, a number of events weren’t able to go ahead and that impacted on our ability to fund-raise in the normal way.
But again, we were able to take our events online, we launched an emergency COVID appeal, which was successful.
We were very much an early adopter of online events, and launched the phenomenally successful Furlong Factor in April. There was a really big appetite for it and we had about 70 applications. It was trending on Twitter and Instagram, it captured everybody’s imagination and brought everybody together. It wasn’t designed as a fund-raising event, more of a community event, but it did raise £50,000 towards our COVID appeal.
And we also started up a Facebook group called Racing Conversations and that helped fill the void created by the cancellations of regular coffee mornings and social events. The group now has 463 members. We’ve had talks and Q and As with the likes of Mick Fitzgerald and Oisin Murphy, Annamarie Phelps, Richard Johnson, Ed Chamberlin, Hollie Doyle as well – some really good people.
But everybody is very much looking forward to getting back out into the yards, getting back out onto racecourses. Our welfare officers have had to do so much of their support via checking-in chats and zoom calls, whereas they’d normally be getting out there and speaking to people face to face.
The team has got a really busy schedule for the rest of this year, which fingers crossed and all being well, can also go ahead.
We’ve got the Great Racing Welfare Cycle event, which is taking place in August. I have to say, you’ve got to be a pretty elite as a cyclist to be able to take part in that! But I think we’ve got about 30 people signed up at the moment. They include a couple of racing presenters, stable staff, and even one of our own team members is planning to take part, which is really exciting. It’s over the course of five days over 100 miles per day. It starts at Carlisle racecourse and finishes at Newton Abbot racecourse.
We had a lot of people saying to us that during lockdown they had really got into cycling, and they wanted something challenging to do. So I think this event really fits the bill! We’re still hoping that we can get some more people on board – entries close in mid-July.
Sally: You are looking for as many people as possible to take part?
Nicki: We’ve got enough numbers already to guarantee that it can take place, but, obviously, the more the merrier!
Sally: As it is an event over four or five days and over a large geographical area, I guess you are hoping it will get Racing Welfare lots of exposure rather than just a one day? It will be covering a lot of ground and see lots of different people in different locations?
Nicki: And because it’s over the course of a few days, there should be that kind of camaraderie, and a feeling that the cyclists are really part of a team, which I think will be great.
We’re hoping that we can get some really good videos and that we can speak to people Understandably, it was a really busy year for Racing Welfare, but we were able to respond to the challenges faced by COVID and lockdown by being quite agile in response beforehand about their training and how that’s going so that we can share some of that content as well.
And, hopefully, there will be onward sharing of it, too. I’ve seen one or two already out there with Just Giving pages set up and asking for sponsorship, and I will certainly be supporting them.
I could not do the challenge in a million years, but I will be supporting all their endeavours. It should be a fantastic event, it is so good for people to have something to focus on after the last year.
Sally: I remember listening to Dawn’s interview after the Furlong Factor last year and she quoted an horrendously large sum of money that has to be raised every year in order for the charity to continue. How did 2020 finish off for Racing Welfare?
Nicki: Racing Welfare’s finances were threatened in 2020 by the pandemic; investment income that usually provides an essential dividend income to provide for running costs dropped to £238,000, and with almost a full calendar of fund-raising events cancelled it looked likely the charity would lose a further large sum in event income.
Our quick change of tactics to virtual events, the Great Racing Welfare auction, as well as donations from loyal and new supporters, saw us raise £500,000 under the umbrella of our emergency appeal.
That coupled with two significant donations meant that funding in 2020 was higher than ever before. These funds will support the charity through its ambitious growth strategy over the next three years, enabling the charity to provide both proactive and reactive support, and help more people than ever before.
Sally: The Charities Commission website shows Racing Welfare’s income over the five years and, after two recent really positive years, things were looking financially encouraging for the charity...
Nicki: We were able to be there when people needed us, but we did also raise our profile exponentially.
As I said about the Furlong Factor, it wasn’t a fund-raising event by any means, but it still was able to raise £50,000 for the emergency COVID appeal.
And, as you mentioned, in terms of the funds that we need in order to provide the support that we give to the racing industry it’s £2.2 million annually – a phenomenal amount to raise each year.
And last year we provided more support than we’ve than we’ve ever done before, so hopefully that will that will continue to grow.
Sally: There is something called the Pattern Club listed on the website, is this new?
Nicki: It’s for people to become patrons, basically high level donors. It is one of the areas that we are certainly looking to progress and develop alongside our “Friends of Racing Welfare” as a way engaging with our regular donors.
Somebody might have given a oneoff donation, or they’ve taken a partner challenge for us, so we try to approach those people to see if they would like to become regular donors.
This then ensures that they feel part of something special, and that they’re rewarded for what they’ve donated. It’s certainly something which we are going to to look to grow this year.
Sally: It must be something to help take a little bit of that pressure off from raising that massive sum every year?
Nicki: I think like most charities, because of the impact of COVID, and the challenges of
COVID, we’ve had to look inwards and take a look at our income streams and see how we could diversify. When it comes to the pandemic, and you’re not able to run those big high-value events, you have to look at other methods and almost put those contingencies into place.
As I said, we were really fortunate in the success that we had with our online events, but it’s certainly something that makes you feel more aware as to where we are going forwards if this kind of thing were to happen again – are we agile, what else could we do?
Sally: A lot of our readers are stud managers and racing managers and trainers, possibly the sort of people who don’t perhaps feel Racing Welfare is necessarily for them. How
do you get that message out there to make sure that those sort of more “managerial” level of person knows that they too can get on the phone and speak to someone or make an approach?
Nicki: That’s something that we’re really conscious of doing, making sure that people know that we’re here for everybody working in racing.
We’ve got Racing Staff Week, which is taking place in October and that’s certainly a message that we want to get out there – we are not just about stable staff, Racing Welfare is for everybody. It’s for people working on the racecourses, it’s for people working in the media, it is for all. In May, ITV racing featured race day presenter Anthony Kemp, who talked about his own experiences. He said that he didn’t know that Racing Welfare was there for him, but he got in touch and found some help.
Sally: Racing Welfare must be quite unique in sport?
Nicki: I think it’s an incredible charity, and is unparalleled across other equestrian sports, there’s nothing else like it. Racing Welfare is a real jewel in the crown for racing.
We just want more people to know that we’re there and we want to reach and help more people. I think the more we can do to get the word out there about us, the better.
Interested in a regular donation? Join the Friends of Racing Welfare or the Pattern Club
RACING WELFARE has a number of ways in which individuals can regularly support the charity financially.
Those interested can join the Friends of Racing Welfare by setting up a monthly donation for as little as £5 a month, or by joining the Pattern Club through which larger sums of money can de dedicated on a regular basis.
There are three levels of Pattern Club involvement, based on the annual amount that an individual can gift each year: Listed Patron for those who could give £5,000 annually, Group Patron level is £15,000 or more, and Pattern class is for an annual donation of £50,000.
There is only a certain number of people allowed in each category, and at the top level that is limited to just ten individuals
James Schofield, Racing Welfare’s Head of Fundraising, says: “The Pattern Club was created three or four years ago now and launched with the idea of securing a commitment with the overall aim of raising a £1 million a year so giving the charity the security that these funds are coming in annually.
“We wanted to approach people, who may have been involved with financial support before via events or sponsorships, to become regular donors.
“If we know that we've got these donations coming, we can start to plan and build – as much as anything this money helps to give some certainty.”
People can donate via the Club in their own ways and to suit their circumstances, as Schofield outlines.
“Sometimes we get people to commit at the start to do multiple years, while for others they set up a rolling subscription.
“We’ve had some people who come on board and give support for three years – they may gift that whole amount up front, but they enjoy the benefits of the Club for those three years.”
In return for the donations, the Pattern Club members are given an exclusive personal insight to the Charity and racing, and will receive communications, annual reviews, and invitations to events; the higher the levels of membership the more exclusive these become.
“If we've got a presence at event, maybe a table at the McCoys or the ROI awards, wherever we get an opportunity, we try and get people involved, we will invite members along,” says Schofield.
“We want people to really feel that they're part of what we're doing, as well as showcasing where the money's going, they get visibility of that.”
If a business is considering involvement through a regular donation or help there are options, too.
“If a business is interested in corporate support that is possible too, under a differing banner.
“Again that can either via financial donations or sponsorships, but can also be done by helping with promotions, providing volunteers, time or expertise; there's a whole breadth of stuff that can be done beyond straight financial support.”
Racing Welfare’s plans
• Growing the numbers of people who the charity supports and ensuring everyone can access support whenever they need it.
• Being the leader in the provision of wellbeing services for all of racing’s people, ensuring those services are relevant, accessible, preventative and inclusive.
• Growing its housing portfolio – there are two large projects the charity is working on in Lambourn and Middleham.
• Leading on the development of an industry-wide wellbeing strategy which will be informed by the Racing Welfare survey.
• Commissioning and undertaking research into the needs of racing’s people that ensures that the development of all its services is evidence-based and effective.
• It is launching new services later this year including support services for industry employers, leaders and managers and the roll out of a TRiM (Trauma Risk incident Management) service in racing.
