Archive

December 2007
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Dr Frederick Mulder

Beacon Prize winner 2004 Dr Frederick Mulder has donated £1.25m to his charitable trust The Prairie Trust. In November 2007 Dr Mulder, an art dealer by profession, sold an impression of Picasso’s Minotauromachie, an etching made in 1935, at the New York Print Fair.  The etching was sold for over $3m, which makes it the most expensive object ever sold in the field of European printmaking covering the years 1460-1960. The £1.25m donation represents 75% of the proceeds. The funds will be used over a period of time, both in helping to sustain The Funding Network (TFN), the public giving circle Mulder helped to create, and to support other social change causes.

>> see full press release

Dr Mora Scott MBE

Dr Mora Scott MBE, Beacon Prize winner 2004 celebrated her 90th birthday in November with family fellow workers of Children 1st , formerly the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, where she has been a fundraiser, advocate and voluntary supporter of the cause for over 70 years. Congratulations to Dr. Scott.

Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher, Beacon Prize winner 2003, participated in an exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York entitled ‘Design for the other 90%’. The exhibit was created to showcase the increasing number of initiatives that designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the world are devising for cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them.

[http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/]

John Studzinski CBE

John Studzinski CBE, Beacon Prize winner 2004, was named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the 50 most influential Americans in Britain. Studzinski’s work helping set up the European arm of Human Rights Watch, establishing several charities, and his patronage of the arts as a trustee of Tate Modern, are cited as his important contributions to British society, in addition to his position as a board member of the Blackstone Group.

Claire Mackintosh and Matthew Orr

The Independent profiled Sharegift, founded by Beacon Prize winners 2005/6 Claire Mackintosh and Matthew Orr in a recent article entitled ‘How to Boost your Charity Donations’. Sharegift’s practice of helping people donate small shares to charity was credited as one of the most tax-efficient ways of giving by the newspaper.

September 2007
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John Bird

John Bird, Beacon Prize Winner for Creative Giving, 2005/6 and his Daughter Diana Bird, were recently profiled in the Financial Times for their Wedge Card Programme.

The Wedge Card gives discounts and special offers from hundreds of local shops and independent businesses in London for £20 a year. With an aim to re-vitalise local communities, the card also gives 25%-50% of the price of each card bought, to local charities.

Diana Bird is the co-founder and director of the wedge card, and began working with her father at a young age in social enterprise, also managing the start up of The Big Issue, USA.

David Constantine

Motivation, the brainchild of David Constantine, Beacon Prize Winner for Courage, 2003, was profiled this month in the prestigious Scientific American magazine. In its article about the prevalence of spinal injury death in poor countries, Motivation’s work in Zimbabwe is credited with helping to decrease death from spinal injury from 90% down to 20%. Motivation provides training, wheelchairs, cushions and prosthetic limbs, to the disabled in developing countries.

Sir Tom Hunter

Sir Tom Hunter, Beacon Prize Winner for Creative Giving 2003, has teamed up with Scottish minister Alex Salmond, to launch an enterprise scheme in three universities in Scotland. The Hunter Foundation and money from the Scottish Government will be used to recruit professors and support an enterprise education programme at the undergraduate level, as well as a Masters programme in entrepreneurship.

The Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Strathclyde will take part in the programme in conjunction with the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Niall Quinn

Niall Quinn, Sunderland Football Club chairman and Judge’s Special Beacon Prize Winner in 2003, is spearheading a new follow-up to the school dinners reform campaign originally started by another Beacon Fellow, Jamie Oliver. In an effort to promote a healthy diet and lifestyle for young kids, Quinn has volunteered the Sunderland FC for an advice session with parents at the launch, and will also appear on all of the new menus.

August 2007
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Bruce Crowther

Bruce Crowther, winner of the Beacon Prize for Creative Giving 2004, was profiled in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s new book, “Britain’s Everyday Heroes”, which tells the story of ordinary people whose dedication to a cause has inspired the Prime Minister.

Crowther founded the Garstang Oxfam Group, which propelled the National Fair Trade Town initiative leading to the creation of over 200 Fair Trade towns, partnering with farming communities in Ghana, in an effort to promote fair trade in the UK.

Dame Vivien Duffield

The Clore-Duffield foundation, founded by Dame Vivien Duffield, Beacon Special Prize Winner 2005/6, has recently donated over £100k to a dozen regional projects across the country, through it recently launched, The Clore Jewish Development Fund. Projects benefiting from the fund include Oxford Mosaic, which was awarded £4,350 towards a cultural and educational venture which will include Talmud classes, panel discussions and a film programme

Dame Vivien Duffield was also awarded an honorary degree from Imperial College London, the first of its kind, for her philanthropic work over the years. Other recipients include HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned of Qatar.

Sir Tom Hunter

Sir Tom Hunter, Beacon Prize Winner for Creative Giving 2003, recently pledged £1bn to give to charities in the UK and Africa over the next ten years. This donation marks the largest single donation made by any Briton.

Sir Tom, together with his wife Marion is also founder of The Hunter Foundation, which aims to support the development of a more enterprising and ultimately more entrepreneurial society in Scotland by funding educational projects of national importance.

Rita Patel

The Peepul Centre, a multicultural arts and community centre in Leicester, hosted Gordon Brown on his “listen and learn” tour in July.

The first of its kind, The Peepul centre promotes urban renewal and strives to be a catalyst for social change. The Centre was founded by Rita Patel, Beacon Prize winner for England 2005/6.

Leah Pattison

The University of Central Lancashire awarded Leah Pattison, Beacon Prize winner for New Initiatives 2005/6, an honorary fellowship for her work in alleviating Leprosy amongst women in India. Pattison was one of nine to receive this honorary award at the University’s annual Degree and Awards ceremony in July.