A NEW corporate scheme which encourages businesses to support the Ipswich-based St Elizabeth Hospice in a drive to raise �100,000 is already proving popular.

The Pillars of the Community programme invites firms to pledge to earn a platinum, gold, silver or bronze “pillar” through a range of fund-raising activities suited to their size and circumstances.

Ipswich Building Society and the Ramada Encore Hotel, AV Unit, and Image Salon, also all based in Ipswich, together with Framlingham Business Centre are among those to have signed up ahead of the scheme’s official launch.

The fundraising targets which businesses are being invited to reach over the next 12 months are �1,000 (for a bronze pillar), �5,000 (silver), �10,000 (gold) and �50,000-plus (platinum).

Businesses can choose what sort of support they give the hospice to reach these targets, ranging from staff fundraising, pro bono work or sponsoring a hospice event to a one-off corporate donation or affinity fund-raising, with a percentage of sales going to the charity.

Alison Lanchester, St Elizabeth Hospice’s director of income generation and marketing, said: “We rely on the generosity of the local businesses to help us raise some of the �6.6million we need each year to provide hospice services throughout Suffolk free of charge. “

The official launch of the Pillars of the Community programme, at which the guest speaker will be Terry Hunt, editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, has been rearranged for Thursday, November 17, not Thursday, October 6 as previously announced.