ScottishPower: 4 steps to £30m

As we celebrate our partnership with ScottishPower reaching a remarkable fundraising milestone, we take a look at the four fundamental steps that have taken the energy provider from a £5m target in 2012 to a staggering £30m raised for life-saving cancer research…

1. A terrific tariff

A significant element of our partnership’s success is ScottishPower’s ‘Help Beat Cancer’ energy tariff, which sees the energy provider make a donation to Cancer Research UK for every month a customer remains on the tariff. Currently, over 375,000 customers have chosen the Help Beat Cancer Tariff, which now delivers 100% renewable electricity.

2. Phenomenal fundraising

Any great partnership relies on the passion and drive of the people involved. ScottishPower employees have delivered some truly fantastic fundraising activities – from fashion shows and bake sales, to litter picking on Ben Nevis and touch rugby tournaments. They’ve also taken part in unique volunteering opportunities, such as helping out in our CRUK shops, while suppliers have generously supported ScottishPower’s annual golf day and various fundraising dinners.

3. Spectacular sponsorship

ScottishPower is an official Stand Up To Cancer partner and many employees have volunteered in the call centre to take donations from the public during our live show. Employees have also taken advantage of their free places in Race for Life, thanks to ScottishPower’s sponsorship of our annual event series.

Normally, ScottishPower employees would have been joining Race for Life events across the UK, but this year employees used their creativity to support Race for Life at Home when our events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ScottishPower employee Michelle Batho, who is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, walked 10km through her local town for our Race for Life at Home campaign. Michelle raised £3,250, which was added to fundraising by other employees and generously match-funded by ScottishPower to reach a total of £19,000 raised for Race for Life at Home 2020.

4. Raising awareness

It’s not just our fundraising initiatives that have helped cultivate such a successful partnership. We’re pleased to offer ScottishPower an integrated health and wellbeing programme for employees, where we share important health information and deliver workshops on cancer prevention and the significance of early diagnosis.

“In a year where so much has changed, we are incredibly grateful that, together with our customers, suppliers and employees, we have been able to say thank you to everyone who has made reaching this milestone possible,” says ScottishPower’s Chief Executive, Keith Anderson. “But our support doesn’t end here. We are going to continue to do everything we can to help Cancer Research UK as they continue their world-class research to beat cancer.”

The money we receive from our partnership is not restricted to a particular cancer type or project, which allows us to use it where it’s needed most. Over the past eight years, our researchers have used funds raised by ScottishPower to make some incredible discoveries and we’ve also launched some pioneering new initiatives in the fight against cancer. For example, in 2019 we launched CRUK RadNet – a network of specialist radiotherapy research centres, including our CRUK Glasgow Centre, which unites the UK’s radiotherapy research community to help speed up the clinical application of new technologies across the country.

It’s thanks to partnerships like these that we can continue our life saving work and bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. We want to say a huge thank you to ScottishPower and all their brilliant employees, suppliers and customers who support the partnership and have contributed to this magnificent milestone.   

Together we have the energy to help beat cancer sooner.

Edward Bowers is a philanthropy communications executive at Cancer Research UK

Find out more about our partnership with ScottishPower

Find out more about partnerships at Cancer Research UK