[ Question time: Val Austin ]
Making a difference
EEIBA general manager, Val Austin, talks to Frankie Snobel about the electrical industry’s time-honoured charity and why it’s no longer a ‘best-kept secret’
D
Supporting the EEIBA is a reciprocal relationship, though, as we can help raise a company’s profile and awareness of its work
ating back to 1905, at a time where UK charities were in their infancy, a group of pioneering industry leaders formed the Electrical and Electronics Industries Benevolent Association (EEIBA). Set up to support those who work, or have worked, in the industry through hardship, the charity has helped more than 50,000 individuals and raises more than £2m a year in funding for its beneficiaries. The EEIBA relaunched itself last year, refocused and refreshed, with a modern vision suited for the times. Shedding its tag as the industry’s ‘best-kept secret’, the new EEIBA wants the industry to know it is here. During this period of economic struggle, throughout which the electrical industry has felt a tremendous impact, it is important to both support and understand what help is at hand.
ECA Today: The EEIBA relaunched last year to become ‘a charity fit for the 21st century’. How has it changed, and what makes it relevant to today’s electrical industry? Val Austin: The biggest change we have made is that we are now using multiple channels to efficiently communicate with our beneficiaries and supporters, including our new website, newsletters and social media. Our new and improved website provides visitors with more easily accessible information, providing the functionality to sign up to our newsletters, the lottery and also to make enquiries online. If you need support from the EEIBA, you can now quickly fill in your details via the website, as well as by phone and email. This industry is a very sociable one, so it is important that we provide people with current information about upcoming events so that they can come along and contribute to their industry charity, enjoy themselves socially, and do some valuable networking for their business. However, we are now not just communicating about
news of forthcoming events, but are also giving details about past events, such as raffles and auctions that have taken place. We are interacting with a broad range of organisations in the industry, whether it is just a one-man-band electrical contractor or big distributors and manufacturers. What is important is that we are exchanging information about what is going on. At last year’s relaunch we also announced that we had
restructured. We now outsource our finance function, and we’ve managed to save somewhere in the region of 40 or 50 per cent, in terms of our administrative costs, through this change. We’ve also introduced a more cost-effective welfare system that is easier, allowing us more improved reporting and information on the beneficiaries that we are serving – so we can keep track of which regions we are helping out the most, what kinds of grants we are giving out and what type of help we are providing, so we can start looking at trends. The EEIBA can, therefore, tailor the service it provides, to respond to the increasing social and economic trends as they are happening. Through these changes, we’ve managed to save a significant amount of money in our back-office processes, and we are now looking at welfare and fundraising development as a consequence.
ECA Today: What services do you provide for the industry? Val Austin: Predominantly, it has been financial grants, which can include helping someone who is assessed as having an immediate need to pay their rent arrears or a fuel bill. There are also projects that we get involved in where
we work with other charities, for example, to make alterations to somebody’s home for disability access. We apply for grants from other charities, we pool the money together, we organise with the beneficiary to get the builders involved and see that all through until completion. We also now offer a fast-track service, so that we can get people help very quickly, particularly in tragic circumstances. An example would be helping someone who is terminally ill, or helping an individual who needs to go into emergency surgery – something on those grounds, where going through the ordinary eligibility process takes too much time.
March 2012 ECA Today 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72