Fundraising campaigns such as a tie in with Hovis bread and a sponsored sprint up a tower in London - and individual fundraisers who have risen swiftly through the ranks - have been given a massive vote of confidence.

At an awards ceremony as part of the Institute of Fundraising’s annual National Convention, many examples of excellent fundraising were recognised.

Taking place at the Hilton London Metropole, Edgware Road last night the ceremony was hosted by award winning BBC sports presenter John Inverdale.

A number of respected and influential fundraisers including Gill Raikes, director of Fundraising at the National Trust, and Louise Parkes, director of fundraising, Shelter
acted as judging panel for the high profile event.

Congratulations to each of the winners, who are as follows:

• Best Business-Charity Partnership (large charities) – The Royal British Legion;
In 2009, the Royal British Legion raised £130,654 through selling millions of special packs of Seed Sensations bread and rolls

• Best Business-Charity Partnership (small charities) – READ International; In May 2009 a partnership with Big Yellow Self Storage enabled READ International to ship 230,000 books to Tanzania

• Best Donor Development Campaign – ActionAid
£15,722 was raised from 392 donors who received a donation form and an open ask, as part of the charity’s Cambodia fundraising appeal

• Most Innovative Fundraising Campaign – ActionAid
During four weeks in 2009, ActionAid 'blitzed' Yorkshire using a variety of fundraising techniques, and achieved 636 new child sponsors paying £15 a month

• Best Use of Direct Mail – WWF-UK
Over two separate mailings, WWF's Tiger Appeal 2009 raised £343,247 and £108,631 respectively, making the first appeal the most successful WWF-UK has ever run

• Best Use of E-Media – Merlin
An interactive, video email was sent to supporters as a response to the Haiti earthquake, with £13,597 raised from the email and £116,903 from associated donations to the charity’s website

• Best Use of Events – Shelter
Shelter’s Vertical Rush 2009 was the UK's first ever tower running event that saw hundreds of runners racing up 920 steps to the top of London’s Tower 42, giving an income of £164,000

• Best Use of Face-to-Face – Send a Cow
Send a Cow recruited 767 donors via door to door fundraising, with an average gift value of £120

• Best Use of Legacy Fundraising – The Association for International Cancer Research;
Conversations were the cornerstone to this emotional legacy campaign, which has elicited 114 pledges, worth over £2.2m

• Best Use of Payroll Giving – Workplace Giving
Workplace Giving teamed up with ASOS to create an 'Everyone Loves a Giver' campaign, which achieved a signup of 14.5% employees; in total the scheme will raise more than £10,000 this year

• Best use of the Telephone – ActionAid
An integrated telephone campaign forming ActionAid’s Pakistan emergency appeal meant 63,000 people were helped through ActionAid's intervention in the Buner region of the country

• Fundraising Team of the Year – War Child
The music and entertainment team at War Child, a team of three, compiled a top 10 album in 12 months, released a single and obtained other pro bono support for the charity to the value of £1.89m

• Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year – Scott Cunningham
Guide dog owner Scott and his dog Travis have walked over 1000 miles to raise approaching £100,000 for Guide Dogs

• Best Fundraising Charity to Work For – National Trust
The fundraising team at National Trust is small, yet contains highly motivated, ambitious and talented fundraising professionals who stress that fundraising is part of everyone's role at the charity

• Best Up and Coming Fundraiser – David Milton
David Milton has raised more than £1,388,000 for Childreach International, through the management of 34 team leaders across eight UK universities and more than 600 fundraisers

• The Gill Astarita Fundraiser of the Year Award – Sally Eastcott
Sally Eastcott joined AfriKids when the charity's income was around £100k; she rose to the level of director by 2008, and in 2009 the organisation employed nine full time staff, numerous volunteers and had an annual income of £1.49m

• Lifetime Contribution Award – Russell Thompson OBE
This director of fundraising has held senior positions in some of the hugely influential and prestigious charities, including British Red Cross and Royal British Legion.

He is chair of the Institute’s Convention Board and amongst numerous other achievements has dramatically increased the number of supporters on the British Legion’s data base from 10,000 to 800,000

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