Recovery

Our strategy requires investment to reach our long-term ambition: for people in hospitals and care to enjoy a better quality of life and improved health outcomes. We need to recover and build sustainable income to move closer to our vision and ensure we don’t rely on one area of income.

This year we continued to focus on diversifying our income. We invested in new areas such as digital fundraising and matched funding campaigns. We also strengthened our partnerships and raised more from health and care partners.

However, the difficult fundraising landscape meant some areas did not perform as well as expected. We are applying our learnings and insights into donor motivations and emerging trends and are grateful for the support of everyone who donated or fundraised for us.

Kate’s story

In April 2024, team Music in Hospitals & Care once again took part in the London Marathon, running 26.2 miles and raising over £10,000 to help share the healing power of live music.

Kate Turner, based in Solihull in the West Midlands, joined our team for the 2025 marathon in June 2024 and immediately began working hard to train and fundraise. Kate shares why she chose to run for us and what music means to her.

“I think running is just a great way to kind of get away from things and do something for yourself and your own mental health. Around two or three years ago, I began running the occasional half marathon and I thought – I’m in my 40s, if I don’t run a marathon now I never will, and I’ve seen this amazing charity I’d like to raise money for. I was so pleased that I was chosen by Music in Hospitals & Care. To be given one of their places was a real privilege.

I run a Yamaha music school in Solihull, and I thought I could really raise some money through my work. I reached out to Yamaha and they were really supportive, providing prizes for a raffle such as a keyboard and a streaming kit, and they donated £200 directly to my fundraising, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I also got in touch with different companies to get prizes for spa days and a golf experience. The raffle raised around £700 so that was my main fundraising and since then it’s really just been the kindness of people who I’ve spoken to and have been made aware of it through my social media and the music school page, as well as just getting the message out there about the charity.

My advice for anybody else fundraising is getting the word out there about what the charity does and why you feel it’s a worthy cause, that’s really important.

“Learning a new piece of music is a lot like running – you’re constantly reaching new milestones. For me, it’s about escape. I think that’s what drew me to Music in Hospitals & Care in the first place. When you’re going through tough times, having moments where you can forget everything and simply enjoy the music is so important.”

I think that’s why I didn’t want to just apply to any charity – it had to be something that I believed in. I think in terms of working out how to fundraise, I would definitely get in touch with local businesses and tell them about what you’re doing. If people see how passionate you are about it, I think it makes it a really big difference.”

Kate Turner

“My advice for anybody else fundraising is getting the word out there about what the charity does and why you feel it’s a worthy cause, that’s really important.”

Highlights

Another fantastic day at Fletcher Moss Gardens in Greater Manchester for the annual Didsbury Guitar Trail. We are so grateful to the organising team for donating proceeds to Music in Hospitals & Care for the 15th year running, raising £1,300 to exceed their £600 target.

Other long-standing fundraisers such as Aberdeen Musical Medics and choirs from London, Cardiff and Warrington took to stages and shopping centres. A total of £48,822 was raised from community fundraising.

Funding from the Sir John Fisher Foundation enabled us to share regular live music with people in health and care spaces including care homes and hospital wards across Barrow-in-Furness, an area of significant health deprivation.

Hosted another successful Winter Warmer at Murrayfield Parish Church, Edinburgh in November raising £1,400.

The event featured performances from our musicians and stalls from local businesses.

In May 2024, we received a generous grant of £9,441 from The Waterloo Foundation to share live music in care homes across Wales. This grant particularly supported the development of new partnerships in North Wales, as well as musician recruitment to support our work in this area

Our Big Give Christmas appeal asked donors to imagine Christmas without music – raising £11,318. The campaign ran from 3 to 10 December and donations up to £3,500 were matched to reach our £7,000 target.