Recruitment entrepreneur Alec Reed awarded charity 'Nobel Prize'

Alec Reed CBE, founder of recruitment group Reed, has been awarded the overall Beacon Prize 2010 – the top honour for philanthropists in the UK and described as ‘the Nobel Prize of the charity world’.

The award was made to Alec Reed for his longstanding work supporting hundreds of charities, including his latest project theBigGive.org.uk.  This innovative match-funding website showcases over 7,000 charities from all over the world, helps donors find charities in their field of interest, and has raised £20m in its first four years.

The 2010 overall award-winner was chosen from a pool of nine category winners, including Robert Wilson, founder of the charity READ International, and John and Alex Timpson, the family behind Timpson Locksmiths, who have fostered over 90 children.  Alec Reed now joins the ranks of previous Beacon winners such as Sir Bob Geldof, Jamie Oliver and environmentalist Zac Goldsmith.

Alec Reed has been a volunteer with charities for over 40 years, and began working with drug addicts in the West End of London in the early 1970s.  Helping them find jobs led Reed to create AREA (the Addict Rehabilitation Employment Agency),  the first of many registered charities he has founded, including  international ones such as Ethiopiaid and Womankind Worldwide.

The Beacon judges presented Alec Reed with the overall prize of £30,000 to donate to the charitable cause of his choice.. Reed plans to use the money as the catalyst for a £200,000 matched funding challenge on theBigGive.org.uk, to benefit the charities of the other Beacon Prize winners.

Alec Reed said:  "I am delighted to be recognised for something in which I take so much pleasure. You cannot do anything about the length of your life, but philanthropy definitely increases its breadth.

"I’m also very pleased about the spotlight this will shine on philanthropy. It’s not as easy as it seems to give money away intelligently. The Big Give is introducing intelligence into giving.”

Broadcaster Martin Lewis, former Chariman of Beacon, who hosted the Prize Ceremony, said:  “Our judges were especially impressed by Alec’s long history of generosity and entrepreneurial spirit.  Bringing his own business skills into helping those who are disadvantaged has had a phenomenal effect in leveraging millions of pounds worth of charitable assistance.”

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For further information about Alec Reed and the award, please contact Katy Nicholson on 0207 616 2360, mobile 07712 873780, e-mail katy.nicholson@reedglobal.com or  katynicholson88@gmail.com 

Notes for Editors on The Beacon Fellowship

The Beacon Fellowship is a charitable organisation set up to encourage individual contributions to charitable and social causes and to celebrate and showcase best practice in giving.  Beacon awards annual prizes to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to charitable causes or to organisations that benefit the public.

An overall winner is selected every year, and given a cash award of £30,000, to be invested in an innovative way by the winner in a charity of their choice.  Beacon believes that by highlighting the achievements of the prize winners and showcasing innovation and best practice in philanthropy, others will be inspired and encouraged to make their own contribution.

The wide range of nomination categories means that the Beacon Prize programme is truly unique – it brings together a remarkable blend of individuals of different socio-economic and professional backgrounds. The fact that a grass-roots activist is as well represented as an individual who donates millions of pounds each year is in itself a great achievement, and one of the many components of a process that makes the Beacon Prize such a powerful tool for changing the culture of giving in the U.K.

Since 1st April 2009, The Beacon Fellowship Charitable Trust has been incorporated with the Community Foundation Network, a registered charity committed to developing philanthropy particularly at a local community level, representing 57 Community Foundations who last year supported 1400 significant clients who invested £70m into 20,000 philanthropic projects.

If you’d like to learn more about the Beacon Prize 2010, please visit www.beaconfellowship.org.uk

For press details call Neil Wates on 020 7713 9326 or email nwates@communityfoundations.org.uk 

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