Scottish Charity Awards winners - 2013

Scottish SPCA scoops Charity of the Year 2013

Animal charity is also this year’s People’s Choice

Scotland's animal welfare society, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has been named 2013’s Charity of the Year.

The organisation, which rescues and re-homes animals across Scotland, had a hugely successful year in 2012.

It achieved a series of long-term goals, including the opening of a National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Clackmannanshire and the redevelopment of the Highlands and Islands Animal Rescue Centre.

The charity, which is the only charitable organisation in Scotland with power to investigate and present a case to the Procurator Fiscal, receives no government funding and last year raised more than £5m from public donations.

The Scottish Charity Awards judging panel was particularly impressed by the extent to which the organisation has developed over the last five years, culminating in its recent achievements.

In 2008, for example, its education programme reached just 27,000 children while in 2012 its Prevention through Education programme, linked to the Curriculum for Excellence, reached 260,000 children.

Scottish SPCA head of marketing and communications Michelle Grubb said: “This award is a wonderful achievement which recognises the tremendous progress we’ve made in recent years.

“This has included helping more animals than ever before, breaking our fundraising records and developing our free education programme for Scottish schools which we believe will make a vital difference in years to come by encouraging children to treat animals with the care and respect they deserve.

“Everything we achieve is thanks to our dedicated staff, volunteers and our supporters, without whom there simply wouldn’t be a Scottish SPCA.”

The award was presented at the Scottish Charity Awards annual dinner and ceremony at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on Thursday 13 June.

Charities were honoured in a total of six categories. The Scottish SPCA also picked up the People’s Choice Award, which was voted for by charity supporters and members of the public.

All of the organisations and individuals shortlisted for an award were automatically entered into the People’s Choice category, which saw 18,000 people vote over a four week period.

The Equality Network won the Campaign of the Year Award for what was probably Scotland’s most high-profile charity sector campaign of the last two years.

Its Equal Marriage campaign lead to Scotland becoming the first part of the UK to launch marriage equality legislation in December 2012 when a draft Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill was published for consultation. A final version will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament in summer 2013.

Tom French, policy coordinator for the Equality Network, said: “With the equal marriage bill set to be introduced in the Scottish Parliament within days, this award is a timely tribute to the efforts of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and their supporters, who have fought for equal rights over many decades and in the face of much adversity.
“As Scotland moves towards full equality for LGBT people, we are honoured that the judges in the Scottish Charity Awards have chosen to recognise this important and historic movement as their Campaign of the Year.”

The Scottish Refugee Council and Aberlour Child Care Trust celebrated winning the Partnership Award, for their jointly run Scottish Guardianship Service.

The service, which is the first of its kind in the UK, provides individual guardians to child refugees arriving in Scotland alone. It worked with 120 highly vulnerable young people between 2010 and 2012 and doubled their chances of
getting positive grants of asylum.

The awards also recognise an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to a cause or organisation. This year the Charity Champion Award went to Michael Pattie, who has worked with the Meningitis Research Foundation since 1999, when his 13-year-old son David died of the disease.

Michael has raised over £100,000 in the last 14 years through a variety of activities, including the creation of Strictly for Charity, an annual fundraising showcase in his native Dumfries, which has raised a total of £250,000 for nearly 20 different Scottish charities.

Finally, the Community Action Award went to Eighteen and Under, an organisation set up in 1994 by rape crisis volunteers who noticed that many women who experience abuse as adults had first been victims as children.

The organisation provides support and information to abused young people while they are still young in a bid to prevent their revictimisation and long-term problems.

Jane Leslie, director of Eighteen and Under, said: “We are surprised and delighted to win such an accolade. It is really inspiring and will raise our profile and spirits.”