Danske Bank raise over £75,000 for charity during pandemic

The money was raised during a year-long partnership with Extern NI which also included in-kind support such as the donation of essential items to support local families, the donation of advertising space to promote the charity’s hardship appeal and the sale of old IT equipment. The total raised includes a £20,000 contribution from the bank.

The money will support two areas of the charity’s work: its coronavirus hardship appeal, helping to provide both immediate and longer term support to those impacted by coronavirus; and the renovation of the charity’s respite centre at Kinnahalla in county Down.

The work will provide a more welcoming place for children and young people to stay and better meet the needs of children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Gavin Adams, Business Development Director with Extern said: “Our partnership with Danske Bank has been a vital support to Extern across the last year, particularly around the challenges presented by coronavirus. The fantastic fundraising efforts of Danske staff enabled us to quite literally save lives, and to make a real difference to families and people in our society who otherwise would have found things very difficult as a result of the pandemic.

“In addition, the funds raised by Danske in support of our Kinnahalla Family Respite Centre in the Mourne Mountains are ensuring it can become an even more welcoming safe haven for children who need to come to us in a time of crisis. We are delighted to have been able to provide training for Danske staff in relation to key challenges being faced in our communities, and we are proud that our partnership has been a very tangible example of the positive impacts which can be had in our communities when the voluntary and business sectors work together for the betterment of society.”

Aisling Press, MD of Personal Banking at Danske Bank added: “2020 was a year like no other. We began our partnership with Extern just before the pandemic hit and could never have anticipated just how needed our support would be. The support we have been able to provide is truly down to our colleagues, who have been 100% behind the partnership since day one. Despite increased pressures supporting our own customers and adapting to radically new ways of working, our colleagues recognised they could still play a part in giving back to society, get creative and came up with lots of innovative ways to raise money to help support Extern’s work, from a virtual marathon to TikTok and singing challenges, to quizzes and head shaves. We are so proud of the commitment they have shown, a real team effort across the bank.

“For us, a successful charity partnership is one which is about more than fundraising. We are delighted to have been able to help raise awareness of Extern’s work and to share specific expertise from within our business. In turn, our colleagues benefited from the partnership, with Extern delivering a number of wellbeing sessions and customer service training and support on challenging issues like suicide awareness, drug abuse and domestic abuse. We know there is more to do and will continue to work closely with the voluntary sector throughout 2021 to continue to make a positive impact on society.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you