St Luke’s Hospice in Basildon has seen an 80 per cent saving in its phone bill by working with Support Telecom, a partner programme set up by a local entrepreneur to reduce charities’ phone bills.

In the first instance, the company saved money for the hospice by re-routing the organisation’s outbound calls to more competitive network providers.

It is now working with St Luke’s to encourage local businesses to reduce their phone bills in the same way, with an agreed share of the profits being donated to the hospice.

“With every business that comes on board, Support Telecom shares its profits with St Luke’s,” says Support Telecom founder Mike Allison (pictured). “The businesses win because they save money on their phone bills – and they know every time they pick up the phone they’re making a donation to St Luke’s.”

The savings will help the hospice tackle a recent decrease in legacy income of £509,000 on the previous year.

“We are now paying considerably less than we were when we started working with Support Telecom, which makes a huge difference to a charity of our size”, says head of corporate services Chris Cox.

“The exciting part will come when the monthly profit share we have with them actually exceeds our phone bill.”

The scheme currently has three other civil society organisations on board, including the Essex and Hertfordshire Air Ambulance.