Turn £100 into £1,000 and make a real difference to local hospice care

A local charity is calling on businesses to unleash their creativity and turn £100 into £1,000 which will be used to care for people at the end of their lives.

Winchester Hospice is ready to hand over £100 in cash to any local business which takes part in their Venture 100 challenge in the hope they take it away and invest in ways to make the money grow.

The first business has already jumped on board and Market Measures, a market research company based in the city, is already well on their way to raising the four-figure sum as Research Director Kim Mason explains; “The team recently took part in a sponsored walk to kick start our fundraising and it was a great day out. Not only were we raising money through sponsorship from family and friends, but we got to know people in the team a little better than you do when working in the office. We’re now looking at other ways we can raise further money and we’re planning on investing some of the funds in ingredients for a cake sale at the office.”

Talking about why the company got involved, Kim said; “Venture 100 appealed to us for a number of reasons. We’d recently moved our head office to Winchester and wanted to do something to support the local community. Everyone could benefit from hospice care, either directly or indirectly, at some point so it felt like a charity that has the potential to help everyone locally. The challenge of turning £100 into £1,000 was also something we hadn’t seen before and we thought it would work really well at bonding the team and would give us all a side project to focus on. It’s also a manageable target for a small team although, of course, we hope to raise more than the £1,000 target.”

Jo Westerman, Fundraising Officer for Winchester Hospice, said; “We’re really excited to see how Market Measure has embraced our Venture 100 challenge and they’ve made a fantastic start to their fundraising for the hospice. We’re already talking to several other local businesses who would like to take part to help them plan their fundraising activity and we’re really looking forward to seeing what people come up with to raise the money.”

Each company or group that takes part is given a year to complete their fundraising but many are expected to reach their £1,000 ahead of this deadline.

Winchester Hospice opened in 2021 and cares for the people of Winchester and the surrounding area at the end of their lives. While proud to be part of the NHS, they also need to raise vital funds to ensure the hospice can be there for everyone who needs them and has recently cared for their 1,000th patient on its inpatient unit.

If you’d like to get involved with Winchester Hospice’s Venture 100 challenge, get in touch by emailing winchester.hospice@hhft.nhs.uk.