Lesbian and Gay Foundation wins £30,000 top campaign award
The Lesbian and Gay Foundation has been awarded £30,000 for winning a top prize for its campaigning work.
The GSK IMPACT Awards, run in partnership with The King’s Fund, and now in their seventeenth year, are seen as a mark of achievement in the healthcare charity sector.
From over 400 charities nationwide who applied to be part of GSK’s UK community investment programme, LGF stood out for successfully campaigning for NHS England to collect sexual orientation data from patients.
In addition to the £30,000 LGF will receive in unrestricted funding, winning organisations are able to access training, development, and networking opportunities through a dedicated programme organised by The King’s Fund, one of Britain’s leading healthcare think tanks.
LGF will be recognised, along with other award winners, at a ceremony to be held at the Science Museum in London on Thursday 15 May. An overall winner, who will receive a further £10,000 in funding, will also be announced at the ceremony.
LGF Chief Executive Paul Martin said: “Myself, and indeed everyone at the Lesbian & Gay Foundation is thrilled at this fantastic award. Particularly because it gives national recognition to the huge importance of gathering sexual orientation data across public sector organisations. Over the last few years the LGF have actively campaigned around this issue.
“Lesbian, gay and bisexual people count, so why aren’t we counted? The LGB community contributes over £40 billion a year to the budget for public services, so it is absolutely vital that those services – like education, housing, health and policing – are designed to meet our needs, and LGB people feel confident in using them or working within them.”
Mr Martin added: “This generous award will go a long way towards helping the LGF continue to work on behalf of the LGB community, ensuring that lives are improved, voices are heard, and policies are changed.”
