2012’s been a winning year for Yorkshire, with 11 medals at the Olympics. And while Jessica Ennis and the Brownlee brothers were competing in London, employees and  members at Yorkshire, Chelsea and Barnsley Building Society branches around the UK embarked upon their own quest for gold – raising £100,000 for the RNLI.

We are their Charity of the Year for 2012, and the society reached its fundraising target a few months early.

Chief Executive Chris Pilling says: ‘I am absolutely thrilled that we have already been able to make a donation of £100,000 to the RNLI. Our people have worked hard throughout the year organising fundraising events from cycle rides, cake sales and raffles to skydives – and we’re not done yet!

‘We have another 3 months to keep going with our mission to raise as much money as possible for the RNLI and I hope customers and members of the public will continue to show us their support.’