St Luke’s Hospice in Basildon, Essex has seen a 80% saving in its phone bill by working with Support Telecom, a charity partner programme set up by local entrepreneur Mike Allison to reduce charities’ phone bills.
Mike, who has been in the telecoms business for over 20 years, came up with the idea for Support Telecom while cycling across Iceland raising funds for St Luke’s. He explains how it works: “The concept of the business is really simple, and everyone benefits. Firstly, we give charities a big discount on their phone services. We saved St Luke’s over 30% from day one.
“The next stage is that Support Telecom works in partnership with St Luke’s engaging with local businesses to reduce their phone bills also. With every business that comes on board, Support Telecom shares its profits with St Luke’s. The businesses win because they save money on their phone bills – and they know every time they pick up the phone they’re making a donation to St Luke’s. In turn, St Luke’s benefits from the profit share agreement with Support Telecom.”
Chris Cox of St Luke’s Hospice adds: “Support Telecom has been a great partner – we can’t thank Mike and his team enough. Our phone bill reduces on a monthly basis as more businesses join. We are now paying considerably less than we were when we started working with Support Telecom, which makes a huge difference to a charity of our size. The exciting part will come when the monthly profit share we have with them actually exceeds our phone bill and we start getting a monthly cheque. We are on target to reach that point in the next month or two.
“They give us a really good service, so we’re more than happy to recommend them to other organisations. The fact that we benefit from doing that as well is just the icing on the cake!”
St Luke’s Hospice was founded in 1983 to provide specialist palliative care for people who have an incurable disease, as well as those who love and care for them. Based in Basildon, Essex, the hospice serves the Basildon and Thurrock local authority districts, and costs around £1.8m a year to run.
Mayflower has been in the UK telecoms market since 1987, and offers savings through LCR (least cost routing), using alternative carriers to BT. The majority of its customer base now gets savings on landline and mobile calls. For further details, visit www.mayflowerplc.com
