About the Roche Charity of the Year initiative

The Charity of the Year (COTY) initiative aims to provide a focus for fundraising activities by Roche UK employees in Welwyn Garden City.

Each year, Roche employees are asked to nominate a charity they would like to support in the coming year. These nominations are added to a list of charities who apply directly to Roche to become the COTY.

The nominations and applications are assessed, a shortlist is drawn up and all employees are then asked to vote for their favourite.

Unfortunately, charities where there is a conflict of interest with Roche’s business operations cannot be considered. This would include, for instance, cancer and mental health charities. We also cannot include charities that operate outside of the UK.

 What do we do to raise funds for the Charity of the Year (COTY)?

Each year, employees organise a series of activities to raise funds for the COTY. These events have included: quiz nights, book sales, entertainment evenings, ironman contests and fun runs.

Charity of the Year (COTY) history

COTY was first launched in 2002 and has helped to raise nearly £250,000 for the charities we have supported.

The amounts raised for our COTY in recent years, including Gift Aid, have been:

2009 – Herts Air Ambulance - £31,681.92

2010 – Keech Hospice Care for Children - £43,100.27

2011 – Isabel Hospice - £36,513.14

2012 – Age UK - £25,346.08

2013 – Winston’s Wish - £35,305.47

2014 - Medical Detection Dogs - £29,095.88