The #Franklins50 challenge smashes £100,000 raised for Northamptonshire charities

The Franklins Solicitors LLP team, together with the 24 teams taking part in this year’s #Franklins50 challenge, celebrated on Wednesday (June 21) as they saw the total raised by the challenge since 2018 smash their £100,000 target.

£20,000 was raised this year and will provide the following support to each charity:

• Northampton Hope Centre: feed 750 households by purchasing three pallets of food which provide 250 families each with a hot meal or choice of food.
• Cynthia Spencer Hospice: provide 14 days of care for one person in the Hospice.
• Willen Hospice: pay to run the In-Patient Unit and the ‘Willen-at-Home’ team for a whole day – for 9.3 hours to be precise.
• MK-Act: support 104 men, women and children in Milton Keynes who are suffering domestic abuse, including paying for a trip to the seaside for all the children in their refuge (coach travel, fish and chips, activities at the seaside for 28 families suffering from domestic abuse).

The small gathering, held at The Marriott Hotel in Northampton, brought together participating teams from across Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes, and the benefiting charities.

Awards were given out for a variety of achievements this year. They included:

• Top fundraiser for MK Act and overall: BWC Profiles – raised £3,000.
• Top fundraiser for Northampton Hope Centre: Louise from Miller & Chalk – raised ££562.
• Top fundraiser for Cynthia Spencer Hospice: Travis Perkins - raised £1,593.
• Top fundraiser for Willen Hospice: Team Bala from John Lewis - raised £2154.
• Small Business Superstar: Peter Bakare, Nutri Troops – raised £1,317.
• Best use of social media: Syncro for their launch video – raised £920.
• Most creative fundraising idea: dbfb communications who produced, printed and sold their own cookbook featuring the favourite recipes of their staff, along with printed branded aprons – raised £625.
• Best community initiative: OneFourSix digital marketing hosted a BBQ serving breakfast and lunch for the second year running, which was promoted to local businesses – raised £800.
• Best example of teamwork: John Lewis Teams – their four teams - Odney, Ambleside, Leckford and Bala – competed against each other to raise a grand total of £5,621.

The challenge required teams to take £50 seed funding from Franklins Solicitors LLP and turn it into as much money as possible over three months for their chosen charity – one of the local charities taking part across Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes this year.

Andrea Smith, Partner at Franklins Solicitors LLP, said: “It was a great evening to get everyone together to celebrate the achievements of the teams taking part this year but also exceeding the £100,000 raised since we began the challenge in 2018.

"This year we really want to help towards the current cost-of-living crisis and improving wellbeing. It’s great to see the difference the money raised will make to the local charities involved.

Louise Danielzuk from Northampton Hope Centre added: “In a nutshell this money will mean people in Northampton no longer need to go hungry and the money raised will feed 750 hungry families.”Every day we are hearing more stories of people unable to feed themselves, or families having to go without food because they simply cannot afford the food, or the fuel to cook it with. This money means that this no longer needs to be the story.”