Sustainability

Samaritans’ supporters make our work possible; they keep us listening. We’re building strong, lasting relationships with our supporters and partners to ensure that we can be here to listen for years to come.

Break the Silence

This winter, we spoke out and let people everywhere know that it’s time to Break the Silence on suicide. Far too many of us struggle to even say the word suicide out loud but staying silent costs lives. Every 90 minutes someone in the UK or Ireland dies by suicide. Our Break the Silence campaign set out to remind people that they don’t need to struggle alone. We also encouraged people to donate to Samaritans so we can always be here to listen when people need us. We’ve worked on how we attract new supporters and build loyal, long-term relationships with people who believe in a world where fewer people die by suicide. Our communications to supporters are focused on showing their impact, so they feel inspired to give.

A STEP forward for workplace training

Samaritans Training and Engagement Programmes (STEP) have elevated our workplace training to support our continued growth and the expectations of our new customers. This year we delivered 537 courses to 5,764 people from over 150 organisations. We achieved the highest-ever income derived from our training courses this year, bringing in over £800,000. We have a diverse range of clients from public sector bodies, local councils and blue light services, as well as corporate organisations. We have also helped large customer-facing organisations deal with specific challenges during the cost of living crisis and delivered specialist training courses designed to increase confidence and resilience amongst staff.

Partnership in action

We raised over £2.7 million with the support of our corporate partners. We develop a range of partnership activity including brand associations, communications, staff and customer fundraising and sponsorship. We also form partnerships with strategic goals, to reduce the risk of suicide with companies in industries more affected such as construction, energy, highways, finance, and transport. We secured several new charity partnerships this year with organisations including Unbiased, Price Bailey LLP, AIB UK, and First Bus. Highlights from the last year include:

• Phoenix Group raised an incredible £350,000 and our partnership now includes Standard Life who supported Samaritans Training School with funding of £200,000.
• British housebuilding firm Cala Homes raised over £115,000 for Samaritans through corporate donations and fundraising efforts of staff, suppliers, and sub-contractors.
• Barclays displayed Samaritans’ helpline number on ATMs for several months, promoting our helpline on around 1,650 ATMs and 280 Barclays branches.
• Samaritans’ partnership with Three won multiple awards, including at the Corporate Engagement Awards 2022, securing Best Collaborative Approach, Best PR and External Communications and Best Alignment of Brand Values through a Sponsorship Activity for our Better Phone Friend campaign.

We are grateful to many generous supporters who give unrestricted donations, which has been critical in this tough financial climate. We are especially thankful for the support of the Pears Foundation, who gave their largest grant to Samaritans yet, including funding to help a number of our branches.

Costain Group Plc set themselves the ambitious target to raise £247,000 in recognition of Samaritans’ 24/7 service.