11:13am Monday 4th January 2010
By Mike Pryce
THE Average Joe would be well advised not to get into a name dropping contest with Claire Horton because the likelihood is she’d clean up everytime.
Jonathan Ross, Dame Kelly Holmes, Michael McIntyre, Jimmy Tarbuck and Alesha Dixon are just a few of the people in the contacts book of this supremely well connected lady from Alfrick, near Malvern.
For when she’s not at home with her family, horses and dogs, Claire is the driving force behind the Variety Club showbusiness charity. Most of the week she spends in London, masterminding a campaign to put this 60-year-old organisation back near the head of the queue. Why? Because although the Variety Club of Great Britain has raised more than £200 million and helped more than a million children since it was set up at a meeting in London’s Savoy Hotel in 1949, in recent years it has started to lose its place in the pecking order to a range of competitor charities.
So enter stage left Claire Horton.
With a background in business development, both in the commercial and not for profit sectors, she has been appointed the Variety Club’s first chief operating officer with the brief to haul it back up the public profile ladder.
She comes fresh from six years as chief executive of the University of Warwick Students’ Union, a £10 million business with 450 staff and, probably just as importantly, a working connection with young people, because fund-raising in the 21st century needs to look beyond the familiar hunting grounds.
She said: “It all changed with Live Aid in 1985. That really galvanised the way young people were thinking. It brought them into the market place as a source for charity fund-raising and they began to look at the world and the issues involved.
“Suddenly big charity events arrived. You had Comic Relief, Children in Need and others. Fundraising became a celebrity thing. It was the way to get publicity.”
The irony of this, of course, was that the Variety Club, the original celebrity charity with access to more household names than you can shake a collecting tin at, was losing out. Because it was old, it became uncool.
Claire said: “Most people under the age of 40 probably hadn’t heard of it and among those who had, many got it confused with the Royal Variety Show or thought it was an old actors’ club.”
Added to this was the fact the charity field is severely overcrowded. Currently there are more than 168,000 charities in the UK, all of them looking to pull from essentially the same well.
Claire said: “This situation cannot go on and some charities will inevitably close. But if they are sharp, they will amalgamate and I see a scenario when charities share services. It makes financial sense.
They might share a financial manager or a marketing manager to cut costs. Even so, even the top end charities today are shedding large numbers of jobs.”
Which makes the Variety Club’s decision to appoint it’s first professional head, a brave one indeed. Previously it had been led by its chief barker or chairman, on a one year voluntary basis. Last year it raised about £10 million but Claire is confident that within three years, this can be increased to £30 million.
So she has rolled up her sleeves and got stuck in: She said: “What immediately struck me was that the public was not very clear about what the Variety Club stood for, what it did and who it helped.”
In fact, the charity supplies and operates about 5,000 of the famous Sunshine Coaches to children’s hospitals, hospices and special schools throughout the UK. It provides wheelchairs, which can cost anything from £5,000 to £30,000 each, and other vital equipment to improve the quality of life for youngsters under the age of 19.
Claire has turbo-charged the organisation’s efforts by a whole series of initiatives designed to get it more involved with both businesses and individuals and of course her trump card is that on the end of her phone are a lot of big names ready to lend a hand.
Jonathan Ross and his wife Jane are always ready to help and so too is funny man Michael McIntyre.
Claire’s celebrity list goes on and on – lunching with impressionist Jon Culshaw, golf tournaments with Jimmy Tarbuck and Russ Abbott, giggling with Vanessa Phelps or planning gold heart badge campaigns with Alesha Dixon.
Then it’s home to her cottage in the country, husband Paul, son Timothy, the horses and dogs and another world.
ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP
AMONG the most prominent celebrities to come to the aid of the Variety Club of Great Britain is Jonathan Ross. He may not always be everyone’s cup of tea but he is someone who will answer a call to help.
Claire Horton said: “Jonathan and his wife Jane are tremendous supporters. They’ll often do things quietly and without publicity.
“On one occasion they visited a hospital where there were 298 severely disabled children and they made sure they spent time at every bed.
“They were there for more than three hours and wouldn’t go until they’d seen everyone.
They were superb.
“Jonathan has also bought a Sunshine Coach all on his own.
They cost about £30,000 and you might say on his salary he can afford it. But £30,000 is £30,000 and there aren’t many people who do it.”
Comedian Michael McIntyre is another always ready to help.
Claire said: “He’s hysterical. In real life he’s just like he is on stage. There is only one Michael McIntyre.”
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