Join Global and you'll be joining a company with a huge heart - and we're not talking about our biggest station either.
We’re passionate about engaging our listeners with much more than just great entertainment and our Global Charities & Communities team is committed to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and young people.
We’ve been doing it for years. In 1975, Lord Attenborough founded Global’s first charity - Help a Capital Child - which was ambitious enough to try and give every child in the UK access to the very best opportunities. Since then, things have moved on. In fact, they’ve moved on pretty far. We’ve raised over £46 million and awarded £30 million in grants to all kinds of fantastic charities and organisations. Last year alone, we awarded £2.3 million to 497 charitable groups, helping 627,000 disadvantaged people in the process. In real terms, our work has changed the lives of over 2.5 million kids, young people and adults across the UK.
Right now, we run four charity appeals - Help a Capital Child, Help a London Child, Have a Heart and The Classic FM Foundation. We’ve also created a number of brilliant social action projects and community programmes such as I Have a Choice - Music Potential, which helps 16-25 year olds gain experience in the music industry.
Think you’ve got a big enough heart to do the same? Check out these stories from some of our people who do:
“When Have a Heart launched, we immediately wanted to take part and raise money. Trek China gave us something really challenging to aim for, and as well as raising a lot of money for our charity, it was one of those experiences that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.” Arianne Merry (Station Producer, Heart Four Counties), Fiona Taylor (Senior Creative Account Manager, Heart Four Counties), Anna Vitiello (Heart Angel Co-Ordinator, Heart Four Counties) & Sara Hashem (Creative Producer, Global Radio Manchester) and three of their family and friends, after raising over £22,000 for Have a Heart for a ten day trek to China in 2010.
“I set myself a personal challenge and at the same time wanting to raise much needed funds for Help a Capital Child, I saw the Trek to Nepal as a fantastic opportunity to achieve both. Thanks to my amazing, family, friends and colleagues I raised over £4800. It was an amazing experience, a once in a lifetime trip that I will never forget. I met some fabulous people and whilst I was well out of my comfort zone, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” Amanda Parry (PA to Programming Director & Station Administrator for Capital FM), after taking part in Trek Nepal for Help a Capital Child in 2010.
“Having heard all about Have a Heart on the radio station I really wanted to do my bit, and so I set myself a challenge of running the Brighton Marathon. The training was really difficult, but I’m so proud I did it, even though it was one of the hottest days of the year on race day!”
Heart’s Senior S&P Producer, Katherine Kerr after raising over £491 as part of the Have a Heart team for the 2011 Brighton Marathon.
Dave Walters took on the personal challenge of cycling from London to Paris. “This had been on my mind for a while. When the opportunity to do it for The Classic FM Foundation came along, it was an easy choice. After months of training, the ride itself was amazing and really hard work. Riding round the Arc de Triumph and down to the Eiffel Tower after several days of effort was hugely rewarding. For the fundraising, I set up a Justgiving account, wrote a blog and used Facebook. My fantastic friends and family donated via the internet and helped me raise £750. To this day, the words "could you sponsor me" have never passed my lips...... they have been typed a few times though.”
Dave Walters (Broadcast Technology Operations Manager, London). His efforts contributed to The Classic FM Foundation providing 4,000 music therapy sessions to disadvantaged children, through its partnership with Nordoff Robbins and a grant of £100,000
Global Radio is a socially responsible company and strives to make a positive difference to all of the communities in which its stations broadcast. As part of Global Radio’s community investment, we launched in 2010 I Have a Choice – a youth focused project giving those aged 16 -25 opportunities in events, sports and community radio.
In January 2011, I Have a Choice evolved and – Music Potential was launched in partnership with
Barclaycard, which gave those not in education, employment or training (NEETs) the chance to have access to free music workshops and accredited courses. Over 500 young people have been engaged with Music Potential over 6 months with 36 of these gaining an OCN Level 1 or 2 accreditation in radio or music production. A further five have also been granted work experience placements within Global Radio.