Positioning the Red Cross more effectively

Throughout the year, we held numerous meetings with politicians and civil servants across the UK, gathering support for our aims. We also hosted an event in the Scottish Parliament, attended by senior Ministers, where we stressed the importance of first aid education for young people. And more than 6,500 people sent postcards supporting our campaign to their local MP.

	The Red Cross' Life. Live it. campaign will not only give young people the skills and confidence to deal with potentially life-threatening situations but also help build their sense of worth and respect for others, and contribute to the concept of good citizenship Andrew Freemantle MBE, chief executive, Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Influencing public policy
Information matters. That’s why we have expanded our regular parliamentary newsletter to include the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. This means that every politician in the UK now gets a quarterly update on our work helping vulnerable people.

Reflecting our expertise in dealing with crisis situations, we were recently asked togive evidence to two Westminster select committee inquiries. And one year on, our previous work around road safety brought concrete results – the Driving Standards Agency and Department for Transport asked for our help revising the first aid questions in the national driving test.

Getting the message across
Throughout 2006, we worked hard to motivate supporters and communicate our humanitarian message to the broadest possible audience. During Red Cross Week, our annual fund and awarenessraising drive, an estimated 49 million people were made aware of the Red Cross’ charitable work through media coverage.

When The Times chose us for their Christmas appeal, it brought the Red Cross to a whole new audience. The newspaper featured daily stories about the organisation throughout December and raised £150,000 in just a few weeks.

We also hosted a conference – in partnership with the Department for International Development, ITV News and The Times – to explore how charities and the media can work more closely together when responding to emergencies.