Gloucestershire firm offering £1 million to charities

This is your chance to nominate a charity close to your heart and win that good cause a share of £1 million pledged by one of Gloucestershire’s biggest firms, the Benefact Group.

By Andrew Merrell | Published Wednesday 11 May 2022

Each one of the 4,500 hand-carved wooden tulips in the Garden of Gratitude bears a note from someone naming and thanking a charity close to their heart.

Ecclesiastical Insurance Group may have rebranded as the Benefact Group, but it is not changing its annual tradition of giving away £1 million to charities.

For the fourth year running, the Brockworth-headquartered firm is offering the cash as part of its Movement for Good Awards, funded by EIO plc, part of the Benefact Group.

To mark the start of the campaign, which is about thanking the public for supporting charitable causes, it has ‘planted’ thousands of tulips along the entrance to its headquarters, Benefact House.

Each of the 4,500 wooden flowers was hand-made in the UK and features a ‘thank you’ note to an individual charity previously nominated.

Mark Hews, group chief executive of Benefact Group, said: ‘We hope that our Garden of Gratitude reminds people that their nominations really do make a difference.

‘Thanking those who have chosen good causes they love, as well as celebrating the 1,500 charity beneficiaries over the last three years is, we think, a fitting way to start this year’s awards.’

Nominations are now open for this year’s campaign, which will see 500 of most popular charities win £1,000 each.

The first 250 winners will be announced in June, a further 250 in September and 120 more in December – with £500,000 in larger grants also awarded later in 2022.

To make a nomination, visit movementforgood.com.