Above: The Light Fund Team at the London fundraising quiz night

What's It All About?

The Light Fund is the industry's umbrella charitable body that raises funds for specific charity projects covering children, women and men.

Since its inception The Light Fund in 2004, it has raised well over £350,000 for a number of charities including The Children's Trust, Kidscape, Teenage Cancer Trust Hospital, Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre, Guide Dogs For The Blind, The Orchid Trust and Prostate Cancer Care.
The Light Fund was set up five years ago, spearheaded by Max Publishing directors Jakki Brown and Ian Hyder. Together with a group of like-minded people from the licensing and greeting card industry they set about raising funds for specific charity projects covering the children, women and men.

Everyone gives their time for nothing and there are no admin charges - meaning all the money we raise goes direct to the causes. Over the last year alone The Light Fund raised over £70,000 which is to fund some fantastic projects:

The funds are raised through organising impressive raffles and auctions at Max Publishing's industry awards events (The Henries, The Licensing Awards, The Retas and The Greats). These mega nights are attended by retailers, manufacturers and those from the licensing industry.
It also organises two annual, legendary Quiz Nights, one in Manchester (in the Spring) and another in London each Autumn.
In addition there are a number of other special fundraising events, some of which are spectacular 'one offs' (eg in May 2008 a foolhardy (but fit) team undertook to swim around Malta and its neighbouring islands raising over £30k in the process) as well as some which are becoming more regular - such as the Golf Day, the second of which takes place in May.
A new one takes place in March 2010 when a team of licensing daredevils are tackling the Innsbruck Olympic Bobsleigh Run to raise money.
For more information on The Light Fund contact either Ian Hyder or Jakki Brown at The Licensing Source Book (founders of The Light Fund) on 020 7700 6740 or ianh@max-publishing.co.uk or jw@max-publishing.co.uk, Trevor Jones of Danilo is the current Chairman of The Light Fund) on 01992 702900 or trevor@danilo.com
* The Light Fund is always open to individuals undertaking their own fund-raising efforts, such as Jane Kennedy (of DF) has done this year with her spectacular group Slimpickings Slimathon and Radders (of Roy Lowe) always has a fundraising wheeze up his sleeve!

The Light Fund 2009 Charity Beneficiaries

The Light Fund aims to fund specific charity projects, aimed at children, women and men. In 2009 we raised in the region of £70,000 and wanted to spread this money around to fund a number of different projects.

The Light Fund's 2009 Charitable Beneficiaries

£3,000	Kidscape - for a programme of Zap anti-bullying training
£5,000	Orchid - for an awareness week about testicular and prostate cancer
£2,500	Douglas Bader Foundation - for a flying day for disabled children
£6,895	MSRC - for lift access to a Vigrogym
£9,000	Guide Dogs For The Blind - to provide 2nd year training for Eddie, The Light Fund's Guide Dog puppy.
£7,000	Institute of Cancer Research - A cancer research incubator
£4,000	New Life - Two Optiflow machines for Swindon hospital for tiny babies
£7,850	Sparks - for some specific juvenile arthritis research
£5,000	Kids Company - For 6,000 meals for deprived children
£5,500	Nordoff Robbins - Music therapy training packs
£5,000	Lymphoma Association - Publication of an information booklet

Above: LSB's Ian Hyder (right) and Rainbow's David Scott tried out a soft play unit at The Children's Trust for the severely handicapped children which was paid for by The Light Fund

Above: The Light Fund has also paid for the publication of a number of Cancer Backup's booklets on various aspects of female cancers.

The Light Fund Events and Fundraising Activities 2010

There are a huge number of fundraising activities for The Light Fund in 2010. Here is a calendar of events:-

2 March 2010
The Light Fund Bobsleigh Challenge - Innsbruck Olympic Bobsleigh Run
For details contact Stephen Gould of Bear Conran
Tel: 07766 403222
Email: stephen.gould@bearconran.co.uk

18 March 2010
Northern Lights Quiz Night
Lowry Hotel
Manchester
For details/tickets contact Max Arguile of Gbeye
Email: max@gbeye.com

20 May 2010
The Greats Gift Retailer Awards
The Royal Lancaster Hotel
London
For details/tickets contact Ian Hyder of Max Publishing
Tel: 020 7700 6740
Email: max@gbeye.com
The proceeds of this event will be donated to The Light Fund.

21 May 2010
The Light Fund Golf Day 2010
Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club
For details/ tickets contact Andrew Levy of Licensing Pages
Email: admin@licensingpages.com
www.licensingpages.com/golfday

13 July 2010
The Retas Greeting Card Retailer Awards
The Dorchester Hotel
London
For details/tickets contact Ian Hyder of Max Publishing
Tel: 020 7700 6740
Email: ianh@max-publishing.co.uk
The proceeds of the raffle at this event will be donated to The Light Fund.

9 September 2010
The Licensing Awards
Royal Lancaster Hotel
London
For details/tickets contact Ian Hyder of Max Publishing
Tel: 020 7700 6740
Email: ianh@max-publishing.co.uk
The proceeds of the raffle at this event will be donated to The Light Fund.

7 October 2010
The Henries Greeting Card Publishers Awards
Royal Lancaster Hotel
London
For details/tickets contact Ian Hyder of Max Publishing
Tel: 020 7700 6740
Email: ianh@max-publishing.co.uk
The proceeds of the raffle at this event will be donated to The Light Fund.

November 2010
The London Light Fund Quiz Night
(exact date and location to be confirmed)
London
For details/tickets contact Ian Hyder of Max Publishing
Tel: 020 7700 6740
Email: ianh@max-publishing.co.uk

Above: Cancer Backup's TIC website, which is partly funded by The Light Fund, provides help, advice and social networking for teenage cancer sufferers.