You Give We Give: the sustainable investment scheme that benefits you and Bobath Scotland

Bobath Scotland has partnered with Greenfinch, an innovative online investment platform which allows you to invest money and donate to charity via its You Give We Give (YGWG) scheme at the same time. Here’s how an investment with Greenfinch can help us provide much-needed services to support people living with cerebral palsy – and benefit you in turn. 

Greenfinch’s You Give We Give scheme allows your investment to earn dividends, while also generating a donation for Bobath Scotland. The video below explains how:

Be a philanthropist and an investor

Most investors consider a company’s social and environmental impact before investing with it. In fact, 62% of UK investors (anyone with money in ISAs, pensions and wealth management schemes) want to invest in ethical businesses. 

TAM Asset Management, an FCA regulated investment management company based in London, realised that wealth management could be used as an innovative way to raise funds for charities. Lots of charity donors have money in ISAs or general investment accounts. Linking profits that donors make from wealth management to charities they’re affiliated with makes sense – it satisfies the desire for social impact.

The launch of the YGWG donation scheme allows you to invest and donate at the same time; with up to 20%of your annual investment profits being donated to the charity of your choice via TAM’s non-advised investment platform Greenfinch.

A non-advised platform means that TAM doesn’t provide actual advice. As the company behind Greenfinch, they manage your investment portfolio – but won’t tell you what one to choose. The process is  straightforward and puts you in charge: you go to the website, review the various portfolios (which are made up of various assets like stocks, shares, bonds and cash – check them out here), assess the returns over the last five years and make your choice.

Our partnership with Greenfinch means that Bobath Scotland members can now choose from a range of ethical and mainstream wealth management products – while donating to us at the same time. What’s more, your donation is matched by TAM with an equal percentage from their annual management fee.

 

Feel-good money

Here’s a fictitious example to demonstrate how an investment with Greenfinch can benefit both you and Bobath Scotland:

Mrs Johnson’s portfolio was valued at £200,000 on 1 January. The portfolio did well, and its value increased by five percent to £210,000 by 31 December. As a current member of Bobath Scotland, Mrs Johnson chose to donate ten percent of her net gain to the charity. This means that £1,000 goes to Bobath Scotland, plus the matched ten percent from TAM’s annual fee.*

Mrs Johnson is in charge of how much she gives and who she gives to. She can increase or decrease her donation and change her choice of charity at any time. Each year, TAM sends Mrs Johnson an update outlining and confirming her investment, donation and calculation. If she agrees to provide some personal details like her address, we can claim Gift Aid and top up her donation even more.

 

Sustainable wealth management

In this new age of ethical investing, your long-term personal finance objectives can succeed in line with your social and environmental considerations. Simply put, this innovative approach to wealth management can provide you with a sustainable source of income while supporting Bobath Scotland, allowing us to continue offering our valuable services, helping those with cerebral palsy live well.

If you’d like to hear more about how Greenfinch can benefit you and Bobath Scotland, please get in touch with Greenfinch, or find out more on their FAQs page. 

*Past performance is not a guide to future returns and investors may get back less than their original investment.

AAC Children’s Group are super-communicators

In February, Bobath Scotland hosted our annual three-day holiday group for young users of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), supported by the Corra Foundation, Scotmid Community Fund and Tesco Bags of Help.

One in four people with cerebral palsy are unable to use their voice to speak, and use communication books or devices such as tablets or ‘eye gaze’ computers as their main form of communication.  

The seven children who came to the superhero-themed group had a blast with the therapy team, developing their communication skills and forging friendships with each other. 

The kids used their devices to choose a superhero identity, pick their super powers, and interact with each other during fun games. At the end of the group, the children got the chance to meet with a group of adult AAC users, who had a hoot dressing up in superhero costumes and telling the kids about their various superpowers!   

The AAC group was partly funded through support from the Corra Foundation after Bobath Scotland won a popular vote in their #LetsChangeThat video competition in December. Support was also contributed through Scotmid’s West Regional Committee Community Grant scheme, and Tesco Bags of Help. 

Commenting on the support received for the group, Virginia Anderson, Head of Fundraising at Bobath Scotland said, 

“Bobath Scotland needs to raise £8.50 of every £10 we spend to deliver our services and support to children and adults with cerebral palsy. 

“We are so grateful to the Corra Foundation, Scotmid and Tesco Bags of Help. Their combined support has enabled us to provide an important opportunity for young AAC users to meet each other, learn from adult AAC users, and develop their communication skills, whilst also having fun!”

Make your voice heard and improve CP services and support

Bobath Scotland is urging the cerebral palsy community to participate in the consultation on the first ever National Action Plan on Neurological Conditions.

Today at Bobath Scotland we welcomed Joe Fitzpatrick MSP, the Minister for Public Health Sport and Wellbeing, who visited the centre to launch the public consultation on the draft National Action Plan for Neurological Conditions and find out more about our work.

The draft National Action Plan aims to improve treatment and care for adults with neurological conditions – including CP – across Scotland.

Bobath Scotland hope that this National Action Plan will help to address two key issues:

• the lack of specialist services and support for adults with cerebral palsy, and
• the improvement of national data on the cerebral palsy population in Scotland.

Commenting on the launch of the draft Plan, Stephanie Fraser, Chief Executive at Bobath Scotland, said: 

“For too long people with cerebral palsy have been ignored and this is their opportunity to make their views known. 

“Cerebral palsy is seen as a childhood condition and adults are simply left to get on with things. As people with cerebral palsy age the effect of the condition on their lives is marked but there is simply not wide enough recognition of this, and there are few specialist services and health professionals to support them. 

“Collection of data at the national level on the cerebral palsy community is vital to the development of this specialist support. When it comes to providing health services, it’s a case of, ‘If you’re not counted, you don’t count.’  

“We therefore urge the cerebral palsy community across Scotland to get involved with this consultation. We very much appreciate the Scottish Government’s desire to consult with the wider neurological community and welcome the co-operative way in which they have produced the draft plan.”   

How you can get involved

Respond individually: Anyone living with neurological conditions, their families and those that support them can respond to the consultation. To see the draft Plan, and find out how to respond, visit the Scottish Government website.

Comment through Bobath Scotland: Bobath Scotland will be sending in an organisational response, so if you have an opinion or comment on the standard of care and support for adults with CP, or anything contained in the draft Action Plan, please get in touch and we will feed this into Bobath Scotland’s reponse. Please contact anna.hunter@bobath.scot

Bobath Buddies are our superheroes

A group of eight children came to our Bobath Buddies group over the October holiday week, transforming into superheroes, defending the galaxy, and generally having fun!

Bobath Buddies ran for five days over the October holiday, with five children aged 6-8 coming for morning sessions, and three children aged 7-9 attending in the afternoons.

Buddies is all about making friends, developing physical and communication skills, and – most importantly – having fun!

This year the kids – and of course Bobath staff! – variously donned their capes, masks and Wonder Woman tiaras to become superheroes for the week.

Everyone had a blast developing their superhero identities and secret ID cards, creating their own individual shields or wheel covers, making t-shirts, and doing daily Superhero Zumba sessions.

Super-smoothies were whizzed and super-cookies baked, and the Buddies also got a visit from real-life superheroes, with local firefighters showing the kids round a fire engine and teaching them how to put out fires.

If you are interested in your child taking part in next year’s Bobath Buddies group, you can register at any time of year by filling in the online form. 

Bobath Scotland’s Annual Review launched at Cerebral Palsy Scotland Conference

Bobath Scotland’s latest Annual Review was launched at the Cerebral Palsy Scotland Conference and Exhibition on 4 October and showcases the charity’s achievements over 2017/18.

The Review sets out how Bobath Scotland has worked to make the lives of those living with cerebral palsy (CP) better over the course of the last financial year, between 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018. This was achieved in three ways, by:

• providing lifelong support for people living with CP, through delivering therapy for children and adults, therapy-based groups for people of different ages, and therapy outreach;
• connecting and bringing the CP community together, both online and through events; and
• working for changes in policy that improve the lives of people with CP.

The Review also contains interviews with two families who talk about how they have benefitted from coming to Bobath Scotland, and what the charity means to them.

Commenting on the launch of the Annual Review, Stephanie Fraser, CEO of Bobath Scotland said:

“I am very proud of the achievements of Bobath Scotland over 2017/18. This Annual Review celebrates how the charity is working in different ways and at different levels, but unified by the sole purpose of helping people in Scotland who are living with CP.

“The Annual Review is also our opportunity to draw attention to the charitable trusts, foundations, fundraisers and donors who have supported the charity over the past year. Over 80% of our funding has to come from private sources. An increase in the amount of funds raised over 2017/18 compared to the previous 12 months has ensured greater access that ever before to our vital therapy services and we want to sincerely thank everyone who made this possible.  

“This year we identified the need to ensure more clinical specialist knowledge of the management of cerebral palsy is available throughout Scotland. Therefore we have committed to delivering the Bobath training course for Scotland-based therapists in 2019 and £50,000 (50% of the total cost) of our funds from 2017/18 has been earmarked for this purpose.

“We continue to be motivated by the many people who come to Bobath Scotland and who feel so passionately about the services we provide. We are determined to keep on improving those services, and to always ensure we are a lean and efficient organisation.”

Read Bobath Scotland Annual Review 2017/18.