• Yorkshire organisations collaborate to help provide essential funding for carers charity

The hidden talent of a local charity employee has generated much needed funds, thanks to the brainwave of Huddersfield based IT provider Probado and the generosity of one of its clients, Wayland Additive.

The current uncertain times have made fundraising challenging for many charities, but Gordon Maclean, co-founder of Probado saw an opportunity to support local charity and client, Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire and fulfil the needs of another client, local 3D printing manufacturer, Wayland Additive.

Gordon Maclean said: “We’d just completed installing a new phone system at Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire and Victoria did an amazing job recording the voice prompts, so when Wayland approached us to install a phone system with voice prompts, I immediately knew that Victoria would do another great job.

“It was an absolute pleasure to facilitate this collaboration between Wayland Additive and Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire. Both organisations do fantastic work for the local communities and it is vital that we are able to collaborate to better Yorkshire’s businesses and charities. It is now more important than ever that we help each other out by sharing skills, resources, and expertise.”

Speaking of the project, Victoria Stratford, Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire’s locality manager, said: “I have never done any voice recording before, until I was asked to provide them for our own system that Probado fitted, where I was asked merely on the premise of being ‘a bit posh’.

“We are a charity, so any money raised goes towards helping provide care services to local families that need it. Being able to lend a hand and help bring in additional funds is a wonderful bonus, and an enjoyable experience for myself personally!”

In these difficult times, many charities are diversifying their fundraising methods to help bring in additional funds, Victoria added: “There are charities out there doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things to generate financial support. Wherever there are ways to help support charitable income it is so important to grab hold of those opportunities.”

In return for Victoria's voice skills, Wayland Additive donated to Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire, helping to support them during these challenging times. Will Richardson, co-founder and CEO of Wayland Additive, continued: “First impressions are vital in business, so having a professional voice at the end of our new phone system was important for us.

“Collaboration, dedication and integrity are the core values of Wayland Additive, so when Gordon pointed us in the direction of Victoria at Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire, it was a perfect fit. We like to work with local partners as much as possible, and the idea of supporting a worthy cause at the same time made it even better.

“The new system which features Victoria’s voice offers a presentable front-end to our system, providing a professional output to our customers, suppliers and collaborators.”

Probado Ltd manages the phone systems for Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire and all IT system support, servers, and phone systems for Wayland Additive.