We’re so pleased to announce that our Company of the Month for February 2022 is Law Firm Business Intelligence Software company, Katchr! Katchr have supported Candlelighters since 2020 and have got involved with a wide range of fundraising activities to help our children and families.

Katchr said, ‘Our involvement with Candlelighters started two years ago when we conducted a staff poll to see where we would like to focus our corporate social responsibility efforts. We knew that we wanted to help a charity and we discovered Candlelighters through one of our team members and were inspired by the charity’s efforts to help children and their families at a time when they most need support and care.

Since then we have donated nearly £5,000 and taken part in a sponsored (virtual) Tour De Yorkshire – the office exercise bike got quite a hammering – and also held a charity auction.

The Bright Sparks challenge seemed an ideal opportunity for the whole team to get involved. We’re only a small team but we had lots of ideas. Fundraising was probably made a bit more difficult because of the impact of COVID and the fact there were still some restrictions, so we focused our efforts on organizing virtual, rather than in-person events.

Organising the auction was quite labour intensive as we initially received little response to the email communication we sent out requesting donations so we actioned Plan B which involved either telephoning businesses or calling in person. The success rate was higher but in hindsight would have worked much better as an in-person event.

The Tour de Yorkshire was a big success – 380.5 miles over four days (same as the real event) but all on an exercise bike. It was great fun, all the team were up for the challenge and we tried to create as much ‘buzz’ around the event as possible to raise awareness. We managed to secure an interview on a local BBC radio station which was something none of us had any prior experience in. We definitely picked up skills and experience along the journey, like how to use bitesize pieces of information when pitching an idea to local radio (and how to quell the nerves when being interviewed on live radio!).

It’s been great for the whole team to be involved in and feel bonded and have a shared commitment in something other than our work, particularly when we’re all working remotely for the majority of the time. The skills and experience we have learnt along the way will be put to good use in the future as our relationship with Candlelighters continues!

The one thing we all learnt is just how difficult fundraising is and we all have a new appreciation for the great work done by the team at Candlelighters. It can sometimes be a frustrating and lonely journey but the team at Candlelighters were so supportive and encouraging, checking on our progress with regular meetings and offering their expertise. Their enthusiasm is infectious.’

Katchr founder, Graham Moore says, ‘It is important for businesses to give back to their local communities and Candlelighters was a unanimous decision by the whole team here at Katchr. We can see we are helping to make a difference where it really matters and long may that continue. Most families have experience of cancer in some way so it made sense for us to focus on the children who have not yet had a fair share of life.’

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the team at Katchr, we really appreciate your effort in raising funds and awareness for Candlelighters, and we think you are all amazing!