Link winners revealed

The 2003-04 Link Award has been won by First Trust Bank for its generous and productive relationship with ChildLine Northern Ireland .

First Trust nominated Childline as its ‘Charity of the Year’ for 2003 and went on to raise significant funds and publicity for them.

Instead of meeting their fundraising target of £52,000 - the amount of money it costs to run a helpline for children in Northern Ireland – the Bank raised over double the amount. Two new Childline helplines were created with the £110, 000 funds, which has enabled Childline to offer support and counselling to an extra 2,000 children in Northern Ireland.

ChildLine estimated that they also saved £20,000 in marketing costs because the partnership raised their profile.

Julie Peasgood, television personality and actress, presented the new Link trophy to First Trust, a bronze cast of the Link logo, designed by local artist, Kate Oram.

The ceremony took place at the Ramada Hotel, Belfast and was hosted by UTV’s Paul Clark, with entertainment by Omagh comedian, Kevin McAleer.

Eighteen years of Link

The NICVA Link Awards have established themselves over 18 years as the longest running and most successful awards in Northern Ireland. They are supported by BT Mobile and the Belfast Telegraph.

Three new categories were awarded this year, in recognition of the fact that businesses are not the only organisations that support charities:

• Award for Innovation
• Award for Challenge
• Award for Clubs, Societies and Schools.

1. Gerry Burns
2. Maeve Bell
3. Jim Flanagan
4. Jeremy Harbison
5. Peter Johnston
6. Ann Shaw
7. Dave Wall Link Judges "Many businesses have long been making a very valuable contribution to charity, not just in the form of money but also by offering their expertise and advice, said NICVA Chief Executive, Seamus McAleavey. "We are very grateful to all of them, whether they won awards or not ”.

Marnie O'Neill, Head of Corporate Relations at BT Northern Ireland, said: “We are delighted to support Link and to celebrate the outstanding work being carried out between charities and their business partners. This reflects the considered approach BT adopts in running our extensive social responsibility programme .”

Link Nominations

Read the full list of nominations for each Link category and see the photographs from the nominations ceremony, held earlier this month More »