Financial Mail Women’s Forum has now raised an astonishing £3,200 for Refuge

Financial Mail Women’s Forum has now raised an astonishing £3,200 for Refuge, the charity which supports victims of domestic violence.

The glittering auction at the Financial Mail Women’s Forum Christmas party raised an amazing £2,700 for Refuge and now Associated Newspapers, which owns Financial Mail on Sunday, has given us £250.

Other generous donations have taken the total to an incredible £3,200.

On Tuesday, against the backdrop of the highly acclaimed London restaurant Frederick’s, the auction saw a fantastic array of gifts donated by FMWF members come under the expert hammer of Alison Earl Woessner, chief executive of the on-line auction house Auction Atrium.

Lively bidding saw the price achieved on some items rise way beyond expected levels – a course of five ‘Ultimate’ facials from Beautyworkswest (whose clients include Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow) – fetched a magnificent £700 while a two hour mentoring session with eminent business woman Sunny Crouch OBE was so popular it sold twice!

At one of the best attended FMWF gatherings of the year, senior women were updated on FMWF initiatives such as the publication – slated for early in the New Year – of Financial Freedom, a newsletter for women leaving prison.

The newsletter written by FMWF staff working closely with the Prison Reform Trust, the women of Downview prison in Sutton, Surrey, and those at the Birmingham women’s centre, Anawim, aims to provide basic financial advice to former offenders. It also offers help with housing, claiming benefits and finding a job.

To go along with the newsletter a free 0800 helpline number will be launched to help those prison leavers who have nowhere to turn. It is hoped the Financial Freedom helpline will be funded for the first year by donations from FMWF members.

You will soon be able to read Financial Freedom and other helpful information for disadvantaged women on a new section of the FMWF website, called Fresh Start.

Members of FMWF were full of praise for our new-look website and we are hoping many of them will take up the offer to share their views and experience with a wider audience by writing a column.

FMWF would like to say a big thank you to the forum members who so generously donated gifts in aid of Refuge. For more information about the Refuge Four Ways to Speak Out campaign click here. To see more pictures from the event go to the FMWF:Women in Business Facebook group.

The gifts for auction were:

Sanctuary Spa Holdings: A Champagne Day Voucher worth £130.00 and an Ultimate Indulgence Box worth £50.00 (donated by Helena Sampson)

OgilvieDavie Limited: Lunch or dinner at Marco for six people up to a value of £300.00 (donated by Rachael Wood)

Sunny Crouch OBE: Sunny achieved success as an executive director in business regeneration and tourism and now holds a number of non-executive board positions. An experienced mentor Sunny kindly offered one hour of valuable guidance.

City Cruises PLC: A London Showboat City Cruise for two worth £150.00 (donated by Rita Beckworth)

Rigby and Peller: A limited edition set of Rigby and Peller lingerie from the new Platinum Collection worth £200.00 and a goody bag and exclusive fitting with the Head of Buying worth £100.00 (donated by Liz Hawkes)

SpaceNK: An Eve Lom Ultimate Cleanse facial worth £90.00 (donated by Nicky Kinnaird)

Sara Murray, buddi: The serial entrepreneur, who founded Confused.com and now runs a GPS personal tracker company called buddi, kindly donated a couple of hours of her time to give advice to a business or someone who is looking to start-up.

Helene Martin-Gee, Chief Policy Adviser to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship: Helene generously offered to take up to six people on a private tour of the House of Commons.

Royal Bank of Scotland: A signed copy of Jackie Stewart’s autobiography, Winning is not Enough (donated by Sarah Deaves)

Lexi Cinema: Exlusive use of the Lexi Cinema’s VIP box for 12 with six bottles of bubbles (donated by Sally Wilton and Teresa Graham CBE)

Amy Green, Marsh: Amy donated her own home made premium gift basket (usually only reserved for family members!). It included home made mini Christmas cake, home made stollen bread, meat rub, preserved lemons and other home made delights.

Private Label Worldwide: A night of 5 star luxury in the world famous culinary village of Bray worth £350.00

Beautyworkswest: A gift certificate for a course of five Beautyworkswest Ling Ultimate Oxygen Plasma Facials worth £775.00 (donated by Susie Rogers)

 

 

Tags: domestic violence, Financial Freedom, FMWF fundraising, Prison Reform Trust, Refuge, Women in Prison

Posted by Lisa Buckingham on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 8:00 pm.

Filed under Equality, Fresh Start, News, Tagged as: , domestic violence, Financial Freedom, FMWF fundraising, Prison Reform Trust, Refuge, Women in Prison.