Michael Spencer

ICAP, founded by Beacon Fellow 2007 Michael Spencer, has raised £9.2m in its 15th annual Charity Day in December. The £9.2m figure marks a 29% increase from the previous year, and the sum will be donated to a variety of charities around the world. Michael Spencer was also short listed this year for the Morgan Stanley Great Briton Award. The award, whose past winners include Dame Helen Mirren and Sir David Attenborough, is selected from thousands of nominations from the public, and celebrates those who have made exceptional achievements to their field every year in a distinctly British way.

John Studzinski CBE

John Studzinski winner of the Beacon Prize in 2004 recently received a CBE in the New Year’s honours. He was recognized for his services to the arts and charity. Studzinski donated £5m to the Tate Modern last year and has supported and started several charities dealing with the arts, human rights and homelessness over the years.

Dame Vivien Duffield

Dame Vivien Duffield, winner of the Beacon Prize in 2006, was profiled by the Financial Times in January for her philanthropic work. Dame Vivien’s efforts in the £111m campaign to refurbish the Royal Festival Hall —including £5.5m contributed from her own Clore Duffield Foundation—just recently completed, is credited as one of her most notable contributions to the arts and charity. 

Bruce Crowther

Bruce Crowther, Beacon Fellow 2004 and Fairtrade towns co-ordinator at The Fairtrade Foundation, has helped to successfully create a new fair trade borough in Portsmouth after 18 months of campaigning was done there. In order to achieve accreditation, 16 are needed to sign up to become Fairtrade and Portsmouth recruited 30.

Crowther received the Beacon Prize for his extraordinary contribution to the sustainable development of farming in the developing world by creating a nationwide movement of Fairtrade Towns.

Sir Tom Hunter

Sir Tom Hunter, Beacon Fellow 2003, has teamed up with Children in Need and the BBC for a fundraiser in an effort to keep children on track after leaving school. BBC TV and the Hunter Foundation have launched a £2m joint programme called Positive Destinations, and it will support projects aimed at preventing children from becoming what is called “NEETs” (Not in Employment Education or Training)

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Beacon Fellow Bruce Crowther and Two Beacon Prize Finalists are featured in Gordon Brown's new book, 'Britain's Everyday Heroes'. Kate King (2006 Finalist Community Builder Category), Director Dreamscheme Network, Benita Refson (2006 Finalist Leadership Category), founder of The Place2Be, and Bruce Crowther (2004 Prize Winner Creative Giving Category), founder of Garstang Oxfam Group, are part of 33 'unsung heroes' - ordinary people doing exceptional things, acknowledged by the Prime Minister.

According to Gordon Brown, those listed are only some of the '60 million everyday heroes in Britain today, each making a difference in the world.' His book comes as part of his larger reform around honours. In a bid to restore public trust in the honours system, Brown had pledged that the 'unsung heroes' who are making a difference in local schools, youth clubs, hospitals, charities and faith groups will make up a 'significant majority' of those on the honours list. This will be a change from the present system, where only 40% of honours are given to members of local communities.

Bruce Crowther initiated the first Fairtrade Town campaign was established in 2000 in Garstang, Lancashire, by Bruce Crowther, a local Oxfam supporter. Since then, the campaign has caught the imagination of communities across the UK and is now spreading to Europe and beyond. The 242nd Fairtrade Town was recognised in March 2007.

Kate King developed the first Dreamscheme on Sheffield's Flower Estate between 1995 and 1998. Over three years, around one hundred young people were involved in community projects. A dreamscheme is community youth development based on a simple concept of work, points and trips. Young people are enabled to carry out community based work projects for which they earn points. These can then be exchanged for trips and activities of their choice.

Benita Refson in 1994 founded The Place2Be, a charity providing emotional and therapeutic support to 37,500 children in 112 schools. Benita’s work and The Place2Be have been described as a catalyst for change within schools. Most of The Place2Be schools are located in areas of high deprivation where children are particularly in need.

For more information see:

http://www.garstangoxfamgroup.org.uk/index.htm
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved_fairtrade_towns.htm
http://www.dreamscheme.org.uk/
http://www.dreamscheme.net/page-index.htm
http://www.theplace2be.org.uk/