HEY Smile Foundation: The charity that supports charities

We spoke with Helen Binnie-Wise, Head of Marketing and Events, to discover more about their inspiring work.

Hi, Helen. Can you tell us a little bit about HEY Smile Foundation?

Sure! We help a wide range of local charities across the region by providing them with support on almost every aspect of running a charity, from financial to legal requirements and even marketing and sales.

Our Charity Surgery is a perfect example of this. Basically, organisations can give us a call and book an appointment as if they were visiting their doctor. We advise them on charity law, how to fundraise and any other problems or challenges they may face.

Meanwhile, Smile Launchpad enables us to work a lot more intensely with selected charities each year. We usually pick at least three organisations and help them to develop a full plan, whether this is a closer look at HR, legal issues or communications. Of course, we briefly touch on these topics in the Surgery sessions, but the Launchpad is a deeper dive into the organisation and its needs.

On top of this, we run free workshops that focus on key topics, such as GDPR, digital skills and raising awareness of your cause.

Sounds fantastic! We also heard that you provide local groups with resources to help fundraise and organise events.

Yes, we certainly do. The Vault is a library of free equipment that can be booked out and borrowed by individuals and community groups. All they need to do is register and then they can hire resources, such as projectors, giant games and microphones free of charge.

So it’s a great solution if you’re a small charity with a limited budget and only need this type of expensive equipment once or twice a year?

Exactly. We also offer free room space at our North Hull-based Smile Community Hub, where they can hold meetings.

How can people get involved in helping you guys out?

Well, we run a number of fundraisers throughout the year, such as Devil’s Kitchen, the Humber Bridge Half Marathon and the Soap Box Derby. This year, we’ve actually organised an Alice in Wonderland themed cycle ride. This takes place in November and will mark our tenth birthday.

In the meantime, we work closely with a lot of local businesses to gather resources and provide additional support for our charities.

Our year-long programme, Smile365, is a fabulous example of this. Companies can pay as little as £365 to be involved. It could be as simple as a monetary donation to employee volunteering opportunities and bespoke community engagement packages.

Many businesses help us out by giving their time. For example, supporting some of our renovations for charity spaces, building charity websites and doing accounts and financing. We are based at Gosschalks and we’re very lucky to be able to use their space and amenities to help HEY Smile Foundation continue to grow and expand.

Visit the HEY Smile Foundation website to find out how you can contribute to this worthy cause.