True Potential
hosts Great North ‘Car Park’ Run for Chronicle Sunshine Fund

September 2020: Employees at Newcastle financial and technology
firm True Potential have had their running shoes on and held their first Great North ‘Car Park’ Run, all to raise money for the Chronicle Sunshine Fund.  

Eleven members of True Potential’s head office team
had planned to join Team Sunshine and run this year’s 13.1 miles Great North Run.

But the event, which was due to be held this
weekend, had to be cancelled due to coronavirus.

Determined not to be beaten, all 300 employees at True Potential, based in Newburn, have been taking turns to run lengths of
their carpark. In total they have covered the equivalent 144.1 miles distance that their colleagues would have run in the half marathon, raising £2,500 so far.  

The firm also plans to double the money raised by its employees in their Great North ‘Car Park’ Run as well as any additional donations from Chronicle readers.

True Potential is the official 2020 sponsor of the Chronicle Sunshine Fund’s Team Sunshine and recently renewed the partnership
for 2021. In total, True Potential has already donated more than £10,000 to the Sunshine Fund this year. 

True Potential’s chief executive, Daniel Harrison, came up with the idea and says the Great North ‘Car Park’ Run fits with the firm’s ‘business as usual’ approach.

He said: “The Great North Run weekend always stands out in the calendar so like everyone we were disappointed when it had to be
cancelled. But we were also determined not to be beaten. We got together and decided we’d still try to raise as much as possible for the Chronicle Sunshine Fund. Then lots more of our colleagues asked if they could join in, so that’s how the Great North ‘Car Park’ Run was born. It’s been amazing to see all 300 people in their yellow t-shirts running the car park but even more impressive is the money we’ve raised for the Sunshine Fund and who knows, the run might
become an annual event for us!

“We’ve worked together with the Sunshine Fund for a while now and they do such an amazing job, supporting people with disabilities
and their families. We just didn’t want to let them down and our approach throughout this entire coronavirus period has been ‘business as usual’. It’s actually turned out to be our most successful year on record for the business and I’m pleased to say we’ve taken the exact same approach on our community work. It’s been one of the positive things to come out of an otherwise very difficult time for everyone.”

True Potential and its partner the Harrison Foundation have donated more than £200,000 to local hospices, charities and community groups providing emergency food parcels, throughout the coronavirus crisis.

Employees at True Potential, who include IT developers and specialists, investment managers, financial advisers and technical support, have organised monthly fund-raising activities. These have included sports days and competitions with True Potential matching the funds
raised by its employees.  

Through its army of over 4,000 financial advisers across the UK, True Potential supplied more than 14,000 food parcels directly to vulnerable people during lockdown. 

Meanwhile the group’s chairman, David Harrison, cofounded the national C-19 Business Pledge that has mobilised over 300 businesses, collectively employing 3 million people, to play their part in the national response. 

David Harrison also created an online Facebook community for isolated and vulnerable people to support each other with ideas, tips and advice. The ‘Un-Isolated Covid-19’ virtual community now has 10,000 followers across the UK and there have been hundreds of
thousands of engagements with the group.

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