Reflecting on ACCT UK Fundraising 2023

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has chosen to support the Army Cadet Charitable Trust (ACCT UK) in 2023!

This year has been one of growth and development for the charity, with fundraising taking centre stage. We have developed new fundraising materials, a new corporate brochure and introduced the annual Cadet Challenge; a competition encouraging all cadets and adult volunteers to raise £10 for ACCT UK. This has led to three new awards for fundraising and we’re looking forward to announcing our first ever winners in the New Year.

We would like to thank everyone, individuals, detachments and larger units who did some amazing things to raise funds for their Cadet Challenge, from parties to parachute jumps, with bake sales, silly shirt nights, quizzes and silent drills in between. We are thrilled to have seen so many interesting fundraising ideas come to life.

This year also marks our first foray into Challenge Events with 3 riders taking part in Ride London for us and our first ever Great North Run. We already have a 5 rider team led by Brigadier Neville Holmes signed up for Ride London 2024 and 10 runners taking on the Great North Run in September.

We had individuals and groups take on a myriad of other challenges for us including the Edinburgh Marathon, Eden Half Marathon, Three Peaks Challenges, charity boxing matches, cycle events and the Great North Swim and we are so grateful for everyone who took the time to train and prepare for these physically demanding events. It was wonderful to receive pictures from the events and see our supporters wearing their ACCT UK vests and jerseys at the end of their challenges.

BAE continue to support us with their annual donation which we use to support our Excellence Awards, enabling us to acknowledge and recognise some of the most outstanding ACF cadets and adult volunteers across the UK. Without their support this wouldn’t be possible and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them in new and exciting ways in 2024.

Ammo & Co. have supported us in various ways over recent years and this year they made several generous donations which has enabled us to continue offering our Community Award and also support our grants programme. Rob Warner who is the Purchasing Director was one of our Ride London cyclists this year, so it was lovely to have the staff get more personally involved.

We continue to work closely with the Outward Bound Trust to deliver our Matthew Bacon Bursary and with the Cadet Vocational College to support cadets and adult volunteers to obtain important qualifications.

We would like to thank our corporate donor Cabot Watch Company who created a beautiful ACF watch with a percentage of the proceeds being donated to ACCT UK for our Duke of Edinburgh Award fund. This will help disadvantaged cadets access these life changing Awards. We would also like to thank Who Dares Gyms who have chosen us as one of their Charities of the Year and we look forward to seeing what exciting fundraising challenges they undertake.

2024 promises to be even more exciting for ACCT UK with conversations taking place with potential new partners, plans already being discussed across the UK by cadets and adult volunteers alike for Cadet Challenge 2024 and some exciting Challenge Events in the diary.

We are passionate about helping young people to achieve their full potential by offering them to access life changing adventures, courses and opportunities and it is wonderful to be supported by so many people.