At Essex Director, we are passionate about championing the work of local businesses and highlighting the charity organisations providing support to our communities.
In our chat with Paul Gates, he told us about the rich, 50-year history of the charity while exploring the challenges of building crucial awareness and raising funds.
SAVING LIVES
“BASICS (British Association for Immediate Care) Essex is an emergency medical charity made up of experienced, volunteer doctors and paramedics. Working at the request of the East of England’s Ambulance Service NHS Trust – we are tasked by the Trust’s call handlers in the same way as an ambulance. Our volunteers can arrive at an incident scene in minutes – across Essex, day or night – to provide pre-hospital clinical care to those most in need.
“In the last five years, we have responded to 500 incident calls, with key calls including cardiac arrests and road traffic collisions, with a 79% increase in calls from 2022 to 2023.”
FUNDING CHALLENGES
“As a small but growing charity in Essex, BASICS relies purely on grant applications and public funding to maintain its work and day-to-day operations, and to continue to develop new projects.
“At current levels, operations cost roughly £60k per annum, with the vast majority of this going on running the charity. It’s much easier for the public to justify donating to specific projects because they can see exactly where their money is going, but we also require a stream of funding to maintain day-to-day operations such as rent, marketing costs, etc. – this sort of unrestricted funding can be difficult to obtain.
“I am incredibly proud of our volunteers who continue to meet this challenge.”
BUILDING AWARENESS
“You might not hear about us until you need us, and that presents a unique challenge from an awareness and fundraising perspective. The charity boasts a group of proud and highly skilled volunteers who save lives daily, but they are perhaps not recognised in the same way as the air ambulance that is seen on your local TV news programme.
“That is largely due to having the budget of a small charity, but this very article is a step in the right direction in building our awareness and reputation.”
GIVING BACK
“While any public donation is kindly accepted, we also have several activities for the public to get involved with, including 2025 London Marathon spaces!
“We are also looking to work with more local businesses, introducing our ‘sponsor a clinician’ – where companies can support a volunteer pre-hospital critical care lifesaver in the scheme with several sponsorship benefits.”
FUTURE THINKING
“The charity’s year strategy is to ensure our financial stabilisation, enabling us to grow. As a charity that is 98% run by volunteers, there is a need to look at how some of the fundraising and operational load can be undertaken by professionals employed by the charity.
“In return, this frees up the clinical volunteers to provide greater clinical shifts and ensures the scheme can take on clinical developments and continue to be at the forefront of pre-hospital critical care.”
