BTs sponsorship of Sport Relief 2012

BT has supported Sport Relief and Red Nose Day since the charity was founded in 1985. As well as providing the complex and innovative network infrastructure that enables the charity phone number to be routed across the country to the participating call centres, hundreds of BT employees volunteer thousands of hours to take donation calls and to fundraise for Sport Relief and Comic Relief on alternate years. For Sport Relief 2012 (Sept 2011 April 2012) BT also sponsored a series of celebrity challenges including David Walliams swimming the length of The Thames and John Bishops triathlon from Paris to London. To top it all, for 2012 BT pledged to raise 1 million for the charity. From board members performing Zumba to fundraising teams baking cakes and cycling the length of the country to BT people lining the route and supporting the celebrities on every step of their challenges, BT maximised this sponsorship to drive employee engagement and pride more than ever before. We also smashed our target and raised 1.2m (243% up on the previous year).

Post Sport Relief 2012, the BT Employee Engagement Index revealed: A 6% increase in the number of people who are proud of the contribution BT makes in society.

Sport Relief 2012 was without doubt our best employee engagement campaign to date
Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive BT Retail and BTs sponsor of CSR

The challenge The challenge this year was to keep the external sponsorship fresh and new in order to inspire and motivate employees to get involved fundraising/volunteering for this amazing charity. The challenge was made greater still for 2012, as BT pledged to raise 1million for the charity (186% increase on the 350,000 raised the previous year).

Employee engagement objectives  Drive employee pride and engagement  Create a unifying campaign that encompassed all parts of BT  Use the external sponsorship to inspire our people Drive volunteering participation.

Strategic approach
Inspired Personal connection Permission to do own thing

2012 model:

Sponsorship

BT people/ partners

Resources/ tools

Leadership authenticity

Opportunity to get involved

We designed a unifying pan-BT campaign constructed around a core theme of whats your BT Sport Relief challenge? that people could connect with personally. The engagement model focused on: Leadership involvement to inspire and give permission to get involved  A Sport Relief ambassador network with centrally provided tools and resources to make fundraising and volunteering easy and accessible to all. The BT leadership team led from the front The leadership team put themselves in unlikely situations to inspire their peers to raise initial awareness. They supported and encouraged their teams in their fundraising efforts and undertook personal BT Sport Relief challenges chosen by their people. They filmed a spoof keep fit video which quickly went viral across BT. Senior managers travelled the length and breadth of BTs UK operations in a single day undertaking as many fundraising challenges as possible from washing cars, cleaning windows, taking part in egg and spoon races and performing Zumba fitness dances.

Innovate and Design CEO Clive Selly wearing a football shirt of hurt as part of his BT Sport Relief Day of Hell, accompanied by senior colleagues John Cummings, Daryl Szbesta and Howard Watson.

BT Wholesale Managing Directors Mick Wayman and Angus Flett put their best foot forward

BTs senior leadership team spoof video

Richard Cameron, CFO BT Retail, and his Finance team pictured warming up for their upcoming London Bridge Walk challenge with specially created celebrity puppets to motivate the team

Sport Relief Ambassadors programme BT people were invited to volunteer to bring the campaign to life locally. Over 360 people came forward to create a Sport Relief Ambassador network. They project-managed, communicated, problem solved, led, influenced and motivated their teams to get involved, using their BT Sport Relief toolkit. They formed a tightly knitted team in constant communication, sharing ideas and feedback.

Aside from raising over 2.5k for a fantastic charity and touching the lives of people I will never meet, I met some really fabulous BT people that I wouldnt have met. BT Ambassador

Ways to participate To make it accessible and appealing to all, employees were offered five core ways to get involved from: Buying a raffle ticket Taking calls on the night Lining the route Working or performing at the BT ball and Individual / team fundraising. Manning the telethon The BT network with its volunteers in London, Leicester, Enniskillen, Oswestry, Newcastle and Glasgow handled 260,000 calls, helping Sport Relief 2012 reach a record breaking total of 50 million by 1:30am on the night.

Supporting the celebrities by Lining the Route BT people were invited to line the celebrity challenge routes, becoming a volunteer force that galvanised the crowd and acted as a fundraising collection team. Over 150 people came together as small teams taking a variety of roles from team leader, to banker, to photographer to public entertainer and braved appalling weather and difficult terrain to cover over 430 miles alongside David Walliams and John Bishop.

Over 38,000 was collected from the public over the two challenges, an unprecedented sum, but the impacts on the BT people and the celebrities themselves were far more impressive. According to a BT survey, 100% said that David Walliams taking part in the Lining the Route Sport Relief challenge made them feel proud to work for BT and 97% said that as a result of Line the Route, they will get more involved with other activities to support BTs 1m Sport Relief challenge. David Walliams was so inspired he took time to visit BT offices and do an audience with the BT team which was video David Walliams conferenced across the company. wife tweeted:

 Every time I got in or out of the water I saw a BT employee cheering me on,

 It was a great feeling to think that BT was really doing its bit. Members of the public really appreciated that we were there  Putting something back which is recognised by the public and the fantastic comments given, made me feel proud to work for BT.

@MrsLS just been rescued by the boat that sponsors BT have on the water. Go BT!

Individual & team fundraising 158 BT teams set up fundraising pages on MyDonate. Fundraising ranged from tiddliwink challenges, fancy dress and personal achievements such as sky dives to the 19 strong BT Geordie Shore2-Shore team cycling 150 miles over three days along some of the highest and steepest roads in the UK, raising over 6,000. Not to mention the hundreds of BT employees who ran the Sport Relief mile.
See video and supporting information for further BT fundraising examples.

Supporting the BT ball The BT Sport Relief ball raised over 450,000 for Sport Relief. It was supported on the night by over 200 BT volunteers who, before enjoying the evening as guests, stuffed goody bags and did all manner of jobs to bring the event to life.
BT employee and Britians Got Talent finalist Steven Hall delayed his retirement to perform at the BT ball.

The Results Survey of BT employees who supported Sport Relief 2012 revealed:

Post Sport Relief 2012 The BT Employee Engagement Index revealed a 6% increase in the number of people who are proud of the contribution BT makes in society With the help of its people BT smashed its fundraising target and raised 1, 285,148.59 for Sport Relief 2012.