White Ribbon Alliance
CAN Mezzanine Case Study
White Ribbon Alliance
The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is an international charity which unites individuals, organisations and communities who are working to increase public awareness about the needless loss of life from pregnancy-related complications and to promote safe motherhood worldwide.
The White Ribbon Alliance was launched in August 1999 with an initial 35 participants and today it has grown to include over 1,100 individual and organisational members in 91 countries and National Alliances established in 11.
With with their global secretariat in Washington DC, USA, Brigid McConville had been running the UK arm of White Ribbon from her kitchen table in Somerset for four years. But with an injection of funding, she finally had the money to extend the UK operations and find a workspace in London.
"CAN Mezzanine was recommended to me by a colleague" explains Brigid. "I had been offered the opportunity to share space with some of our contacts in London, but I was keen for us to have our own space and work more independently. CAN Mezzanine enabled me to have this, very cost effectively. It was an extra bonus that it was of a very high standard and in a great location."
Within two months, White Ribbon Alliance realised they needed more space, so quickly took another desk. "When I first moved into CAN Mezzanine, I was looking for a base to run our operations. I have found more than that. I now have somewhere professional to host meetings, the back office support by the CAN Mezzanine staff has been invaluable and the newly refurbished building and the location has meant I could quickly take on quality, experienced staff. As a result, we have been able to concentrate on the job at hand, to save women's lives and expand our operations quicker." Says Brigid.
Brigid says she would definitely recommend CAN Mezzanine, particularly to small charities. "CAN Mezzanine is more than cost effective sharing, it allows you to work professionally in a relaxed and familiar third sector environment with excellent support and communications from the support team. They are constantly passing on information on useful events and services available to charities like the donated online database for charities - Salesforce, which is about to change the way we work completely. We only wish we'd moved in earlier!"
For more information on White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, visit http://www.whiteribbonalliance.org/index.cfm