Business Networking Club Announces New 2024 Charity Partner
A Scottish monthly business networking club, which has attracted more than 185 guest speakers including rugby legend Scott Hastings and 5th generation owner of Bon Accord Soft Drinks, Karen Knowles, has announced its new charity partnership for 2024 as Carers of East Lothian, (CoEL).
Love Your Business was founded by Michelle Brown, of the eponymous PR agency - which marks its 10th anniversary this year - to help start-ups and growth businesses to make connections, share contacts, exchange referrals and ideas, and also find new opportunities.
Speakers over the years who have shared their inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, business insights and learnings also include Marie Owen, founder of LS Productions, Alice Thompson, co-founder of Social Bite and Chris van der Kuyl, the chairman and cofounder of games developer 4J Studios.
The aim of the networking club, which started in Black Ivy in Bruntsfield in January 2018, and ran online during the pandemic, is also to support various charities and social enterprises to help raise awareness and donate a percentage of funds from tickets sales from the events. Organisations also receive PR and marketing support for a year.
These include Make 2nds Count, Support in Mind Scotland, Epilepsy Scotland, Invisible Cities and Fighting Against Cancer Edinburgh. This year Love Your Business is partnering with Carers of East Lothian, CoEL, which was founded 26 years ago to provide much-needed support for people who are caring for someone. The charity was chosen to highlight the role of carers and the support they need, as figures show that three out of five people will become carers at some stage in their lives and 1 in 10 is already fulfilling some sort of caring role, (Carers Trust).
Many aspects of caring can be rewarding, but caring can also have an impact on the health and wellbeing of the person providing the care. The free services CoEL offer include information and advice for carers, as well as peer support groups, grants to support carers to take breaks from caring, counselling, workshops, training and events.
Michelle said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Carers of East Lothian this year, which is a cause very close to our hearts. “The outstanding work they do to support people who are caring for loved ones including family members, friends and neighbours for over two decades is highly commendable.
“The charity is dedicated to making life a little bit easier for carers, whether it is supporting them to take a break or signposting them to grants and legal advice, which is why we are honoured to be helping them to raise even more awareness of the great work they are doing and raise funds too.”
Jessica Wade, chief executive officer of Carers of East Lothian, said: ‘‘This is a fantastic opportunity for us to raise much needed funds for our work with local carers, as well as benefitting from Michelle’s valuable expertise to help us reach every carer who needs our support across East Lothian.”
Tickets for the next networking event on Thursday (February 29) at Black Ivy in Bruntsfield are £20 with 10 per cent of all tickets going to Carers of East Lothian.
See https://bit.ly/42jaDmm for ticket information.