Award nominee helping to create brighter futures

A manager for a charity has been praised for her fundraising work to help make futures brighter.

Jude Hanson, who has been nominated for the BBC Radio Jersey Make a Difference Awards, has raised millions of pounds for Brighter Futures over the last eight years in her role as trusts and grants manager.

Brighter Futures helps 150 families in Jersey through its support work and said it needed to raise more than £1m ayear to cover its costs.

Chief executive Fionna Brennan said: "Without the funding we can't operate. Jude is out there looking for every way that we can raise funds."

Brighter Futures was given a donation by the government this year to cover 8.7% of its annual funding, which means the rest of the costs have to be covered by fundraising and grants.

Brennan said: "The grants are the real hard work because Jude has to find all the information because lots of grant applications require so much data so it's a huge task."

"Then if we are blessed to get that grant, Jude has to do all the reporting, which is again an ongoing task throughout the year," she added.

"I think the word that describes Jude best is dedication because I know Jude will get on with the job and, without her, Brighter Futures wouldn't exist."

Hanson has been nominated for the BBC Radio Jersey Make a Difference Awards.

She said: "I was shocked, to be quite honest, to be nominated. I'm just a small part of what actually happens"."

She added: "There's a lot of things that actually go on here behind the scenes and obviously seeing the outcomes is just phenomenal."

The winner of the BBC Radio Jersey Make a Difference Awards will be announced in September.

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