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Leeds Building Society announces partnership with parkrun UK

Leeds Building Society is partnering with parkrun UK to help bring people together, with events in 450 communities across the country, and more than a million runners now having taken part.

  • Leeds Building Society partners with parkrun UK, with plans to collaborate to increase community engagement across the UK
  • Leeds Building Society is UK’s 5th largest Building Society with over 750,000 members
  • parkrun now operating in over 450 communities across the UK, with over a million people now having taken part

 

Leeds Building Society has announced a new, three-year partnership with parkrun UK which continues its sustainable growth, with plans announced to collaborate around a shared goal of strengthening local communities.
Established in 1875, Leeds Building Society is the UK’s 5th largest building society, and has been helping people save and buy the home they want for over 140 years. As a mutual, it is fully owned by its members.

Established over a decade ago, parkrun is a volunteer-led, not-for-profit organisation providing weekly, free running events for people of all ages and abilities. With more than 450 events taking place every weekend, and over 140,000 participants running and volunteering each weekend, parkrun plays a huge role in helping people engage with their local communities throughout the UK.

The partnership was agreed with the support of Pitch Marketing Group, who worked with Leeds Building Society to identify the opportunity and will be delivering the ongoing activation campaign, and Female Sports Group, representing parkrun.

The new partnership was launched at Leeds’s Woodhouse Moor parkrun on Saturday, a milestone event location for parkrun, being the first ever parkrun outside of London when it was launched in 2007.

To help engage the parkrun community in the partnership, the launch was accompanied by an animated video explaining parkrun’s story and how it impacts on communities, and why Leeds Building Society is now partnering with the events.

Nick Pearson, parkrun CEO, said the new partnership with Leeds Building Society would help them continue to build on parkrun’s success and strengthen its impact across local communities:

“We are delighted to be working with Leeds Building Society, who we feel we have a real synergy with and the same dedication to supporting communities. They are owned by their members and put a huge amount of time and effort into good causes, particularly through volunteering. Working with such a well-established and nationwide organisation will help us reach out to more communities and help bring more people together, as well as ensuring parkrun stays free for everyone forever.”

Nikki Marsh, Leeds Building Society’s Director of Customer and Digital, said the partnership is a true collaboration between two like-minded organisations that will help deliver genuine benefits to communities:

“Our new research shows that across the UK there’s a real desire for people to meet and get to know others in their neighbourhood, but one in four of adults don’t feel close to anyone at all in their community.

“We believe parkrun, which offers free weekly runs and volunteering opportunities in over 450 locations across the UK, really helps bring communities together. It’s a brilliantly simple way for adults and families to join a local initiative whilst getting fit and active at the same time.

“Like us, parkrun was set up to improve the lives of its members and through our partnership, we’ll be helping more people get involved and supporting projects and programmes that we believe will bring a lasting benefit to those involved, our members and their wider communities, as well as helping ensure parkrun stays free to everyone.”

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