From the Nominator

"In January 2021, as the COVID-19 vaccine programme in the UK was starting to roll out at scale, the story elsewhere was very different. LSTM colleagues in Malawi were dealing with a second wave of COVID-19, where a dramatically under-resourced health system was starting to buckle under pressure. Health workers were off work sick; some of them died. There were major shortages of PPE and equipment, and the cases were continuing to rise.   

In response, LSTM's fundraising team created the Bump It Forward campaign, which asked the UK public to give the equivalent of their vaccines (c£25/ $33) to protect health workers in African countries until the vaccine reached them. The campaign was conceived and launched in 72 hours, capturing the public mood and offering a means to show a gesture of solidarity at a time when inequity and privilege was most keenly felt by donors.  

Bump It Forward was initially assumed to be a six-week campaign with a target of c£25,000 (£33,000), but has actually run for over 12 months, raising £285,989  (c$389,000) from nearly 5,000 donors (from UK and overseas), increasing LSTM's donor numbers more than five-fold. The campaign was so successful so quickly that a new process for fund disbursement via existing partners had to be implemented to ensure donations were spent and impact reported quickly.   

To date, 1,323,017 items of PPE have been purchased through Bump It Forward, supporting health workers in seven countries, significantly enhancing LSTM's profile and strengthening internal and external partnerships."

From the Judges

What an amazing campaign! The details provided were very clear. The judges enjoyed the breakdown of how the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine maximized your resources and came back with an amazing return and impact on the community.