The Branch Charity is chosen in late Spring each year, with a local charity being given the opportunity to raise funds, anything up to £10,000, at the Norwich Beer Festival in October.
The 2023 charity is Brave Futures, a support service for children and young people in Norfolk and Suffolk up to the age of 18 years who have experienced sexual abuse.
As the main reason for selecting a Branch Charity is to allow them to raise funds at the Norwich Beer Festival, and this will probably not be held in 2024, we will not be selecting a charity in 2024.
For 2025, nominations will open in January of that year. We prefer to work with smaller, locally-based charities, and as there is usually a long list of nominations, we will usually choose a charity we haven’t worked with before. The chosen charity would need to provide their own staff to cover the opening hours of the Festival, essentially Monday evening and all day Tuesday to Saturday, in order to maximise donations. The nomination process will be announced towards the end of 2024.
Previous year’s charities
Charities we have worked with previously are:
2022 Nelson’s Journey supporting children and young people in Norfolk who’ve experienced the death of a significant person.
2021 Norfolk SEN Network helping parents of children with special educational needs (0 to 16) and young people themselves with special educational needs (16 to 25) to find the right educational placement or provision to meet their needs.
2020 No Festival.
2019 NANSA is the Norfolk and Norwich SEND Association – SEND stands for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Nansa aims to be a catalyst for real change, across the region, for those living with, or caring for others with, special educational needs and/or disabilities.
2018 Headway exists to promote understanding of all aspects of brain injury and provide information, support and services to survivors, their families and carers.
2017 Leeway providing support to adults, young people and children experiencing domestic abuse in Norfolk and Suffolk.
2016 Build provide social, leisure and learning opportunities for people with disabilities.
2015 St Edmunds Society are a Norwich-based charity, offering vocational training and employability skills training to young people aged 16-18
2014 The Hamlet provide recreational, educational and social opportunities for children and adults under 30 with profound disabilities and complex health needs.
2013 Norfolk & Norwich Association for the Blind (now Vision Norfolk) are Norfolk’s charity for people living with sight loss and visual impairment.
2012 Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue is a Lowland Rescue team, that fills the gap between Mountain Rescue Teams and HM Coast Guard, offering the Police and emergency services a specially trained team to assist with the search for vulnerable missing persons throughout Norfolk.
2011 Priscilla Bacon Hospice was set up to raise funding for, and build a new Hospice near the N&NUH, to provide places for those suffering life-limiting or terminal illness.
2010 Norwich Door to Door provide a friendly and reliable door to door community transport service to residents of Norwich and its districts with limited mobility, giving them the opportunity to remain independent and involved within the community.
2009 Norfolk Accident Rescue Service (NARS) have been operating since 1970, providing additional support to the ambulance service in Norfolk, improving the level of care provided.