An interview with Guide Dogs UK

Charity Link have been working with Guide Dogs for the Blind Association for 25 years which has enabled us to build a well-established relationship. It’s been delightful to be able to fire a few questions their way to gain further insight into the history and ongoing work this invaluable charity do, as well as the powerful impact that the regular donations our face to face fundraisers make.

Read on to hear more about the value we’re able to add and what it means for our life changing charity partner.

Can you tell us a little bit about the history behind Guide Dogs?

The Guide Dogs story started in 1931 with two amazing British pioneers, Muriel Crooke, and Rosamund Bond. These remarkable women organised the training of the first four British guide dogs from a humble lock up garage in Wallasey, Merseyside. We have come a long way since those early days. Today Guide Dogs is the world’s largest breeder and trainer of working dogs. And thanks to our dedicated staff and volunteers – and your vital donations – 36,000 lives have been transformed through a guide dog partnership since 1931.

Find out more about Guide Dogs story here

What would you say the charity culture of Guide Dogs is? 

We believe in creating an environment that allows people to flourish and achieve their full potential at Guide Dogs’ and our vision is of a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organisation where everyone feels valued and included.

We are proud to be experts in supporting people with sight loss, but we know we must always keep developing and learning so offer a positive learning culture and are always looking for opportunities to grow and learn within our daily roles.

What are Guide Dogs most immediate goals? 

We will be led by the needs of our customers and will deliver services and support tailored to their specific needs.

By introducing new services, embracing modern technologies, digitising some of the ways we provide services and collaborating with other charities and organisations, we will be able to support thousands more people living with sight loss than we do today

• Canine services including our guide dogs who help give people with sight loss the confidence to get out and about safely and our buddy dogs, who are a friendly canine friend to help build children’s confidence and be a beloved, well-trained family pet.

• In-person services including our sighted guide service which connects people with a visual impairment with a locally trained volunteer as well as My Life Skills where an expert works with someone with sight loss to develop a package of support that is right for them.

• Online and telephone service

• Influencing and campaigning

To achieve any of this, we rely heavily on the service and selfless dedication of volunteers, as well as our staff and all our amazing fundraisers working on our behalf.

Without our fundraisers, we would not be able to reach and support as many visually impaired people as we do.

We are thankful for every one of our fundraising representatives and their amazing dedication which helps us to continue to expand our Guide Dogs family to support more people. 

Which achievements are Guide Dogs most proud of? 

We are incredibly proud of our achievements over the years and have been able to support thousands of people through our wide range of services, both with and without dogs, to live actively, independently, and well.

We have supported over 36,000 people with our world-renowned guide dogs’ service since our inception in 1931.

In 2022 we also provided additional support to people on our Ready to Train Programme, and launched new initiatives to revitalise our operations with the objective of reducing the time it takes to be partnered with a guide dog which has increased due to the impact of Covid.

Our dogs have always been at the heart of what we do, but we continue to look for innovative ways to reach more people and in 2022 we were able to provide information and advice over 2.5 million times through our digital services.

We are also the number one service provider for children with sight loss in the UK. In 2022, across our CYP (Children & Young People) services our dedicated staff completed over 15,000 interventions with children with vision impairments and their families including providing over 2,500 iPads to children and young people as part of our digital assistance programme Tech for All.

There is an awful lot more that we proud to have achieved in such challenging times, none of which would have been possible without great fundraising efforts in particular for our Sponsor a Puppy Campaign.

What are the current challenges Guide Dogs is facing?

Despite the devastation caused by sight loss, 70% of adults receive no support within the first 12 months of diagnosis, and are likely to encounter poor education, high unemployment, depression, loneliness, and financial insecurity throughout their lifetime.

Sight loss can have a huge impact on a person’s mental health and on those around them in fact, 4 in 10 people with a vision impairment say they’ve had issues with anxiety or depression, and more than half of people feel their leisure and social life has been held back by their sight loss.

We’re also seeing the rise in the UK’s elderly population continuing to impact social care. With shortages in funding, local authorities have prioritised the services they provide, leaving the third sector under intense pressure to plug gaps.

Childhood sight loss is also on the increase. There are around 35,000 children and young people living with a vision impairment in the UK. Some 80% of a child’s learning takes place using vision, and every day they go without support can affect their development.

The services we deliver are life changing. But we must do more to help the growing number of people with sight loss.

Where does a donors money go when they support Guide Dogs? 

The UK’s first guide dog partnerships qualified in 1931. Since then, thanks to our dedicated staff, volunteers, and supporters we have partnered over 36,000 people with a guide dog and transformed the lives of thousands more through our other services.

• In 2021 we provided support 12,711 times for children with a vision impairment and their families

• It costs £81.6 million to deliver all our services

• It costs £34,600 to breed and train a single guide dog*

• It costs £54,800 to support a guide dog from birth to retirement*

*figures from 2019

How is Charity Link and our professional fundraisers making a difference to Guide Dogs? 

Guide dog owner Stuart Pearce at the Charity Link annual conference

We have been fortunate to have built a brilliant relationship with Charity Link over the past 20 years.

During which time we have worked collaboratively on new campaigns and propositions, maximising on fundraising opportunities and becoming valued partners. Charity Link have recruited hundreds of thousands of new regular donors for Guide Dogs; without this effective source of income, we would not be able to provide our life changing services for those living with sight loss.

Is there anything Charity Link could do better to help Guide Dogs? 

Keep doing what they are doing in providing us excellent quality, long term donors to support us in our ambitions to reach even more people living with sight loss! 

What would you say to other charities who might be considering using a professional fundraising agency? 

Face to face fundraising forms an integral part of our fundraising strategy and we would not be able live up to our promise to our service users without it.

Working with a professional fundraising agency such as Charity Link, has enabled us to reach so many more people who may otherwise not consider donating to us. The knowledge and expertise of working with a fundraising agency is invaluable and provides vital long-term income so that we can better plan and continue to support those living with sight loss live the life they choose.

Enjoyed this article? Read interviews with our other charity partners here

If you’ve been inspired to read about how Charity Link fundraisers are helping Guide Dogs and love the idea of making a difference through your work, why not hop over to our jobs page - we’re currently growing across the UK and love meeting anyone who is passionate, a great communicator and has a positive mindset!