Caravan’s Central Committees provide a number of opportunities for your staff to get involved in Caravan.
The charity is governed by the Caravan board of trustees, has eight permanent members of staff based at its head office in Sandhurst, and is supported by six committees which are largely made up of volunteers from within the grocery sector.
The President’s Fund Raising Committee (PFRC) currently headed up by ASDA's Darren Blackhurst, is responsible for organising all the charity’s national fund raising activities. These include the hugely popular Annual Ball, as well as the Annual Luncheon. While the PFRC raises the money, the Welfare Committee, meanwhile, decides how best to spend it. As well as recording all new applications for assistance from the fund, the Welfare Committee also determines welfare policies and regularly reviews the level of financial and other assistance received by the growing number of Caravan beneficiaries, currently 1500.
The Welfare Strategy Group is our ‘think tank’ and this group looks to understand the role of the charity going forward and the provision that Caravan may be called upon to provide amongst future ex-grocery employees to help alleviate pensioner poverty.
Looking after the investments of the charity is the Investment Committee. This group regularly analyses the performance of the Fund’s various investments, oversees the charity’s financial accounting and reporting and makes recommendations to the Board of Trustees as to any changes on the investment strategy.
Getting the message across about Caravan to both supporters and potential beneficiaries is vital to the long term success of the charity, so the Corporate Communications Strategy Group which aims to increase awareness of Caravan via media coverage, advertising and PR has a vital role to play.
And last, but not least, is the Caravan Young Managers Committee, of which we have 2; Northern based in Leeds and Southern based in London, which enables younger members of the industry to network and hold their own fund raising events. Even more importantly, it attracts newer, younger members of the industry into the charity, its future lifeblood.
A company supporting any three of these committees will be on track to gain a Gold Achievement Award.