Lantern, the debt purchase specialist which prides itself on a ‘human touch’, is to support not-for-profit membership organisation the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) by funding its member and stakeholder engagement activity.

The sponsorship will enable MALG to extend its long-standing contract with award winning marketing communications agency Engage Comms Ltd, which is based in Yorkshire just 10 miles from Lantern’s head office, until the end of 2020. This will provide much needed resource to deliver MALG’s aim of ‘working together to improve the lives of people in debt’ at a time when it is more important than ever.

MALG was established in 1987 and has professionalised and grown its national and regional membership in recent years, which now encompasses private, public and third sector organisations from across the UK’s financial services, debt and money advice landscape, including Lantern. It remains a much needed and relevant resource as a forum with no commercial, political or regulatory agenda that can share impartial information and encourage debate and collaboration in an open, non-judgement environment. Membership benefits include access to unique events which have been delivered virtually during the Coronavirus pandemic, with the introduction of a ‘Friday Forum’ to keep members updated on the latest developments as the economic impacts unfold.

Bob Winnington, Chief Executive of MALG, said: “As a not-for-profit, we try to be as lean and agile as possible and this has been of huge benefit to us as we’ve had to adapt to a ‘new normal’ at a time when continued collaborative working around money and debt advice is vital. However, we can’t continue to provide the unique collaborative opportunities that we do and sustainably grow our membership without a strong online presence. We’ve been working with Engage Comms for several years as an extension of the MALG team to ensure that we consistently and effectively communicate with our members and stakeholders across a range of communications channels. Lantern’s sponsorship of their fees will mean that we can continue to invest in this strategic consultancy while delivering on our promises to members and our organisational aims.”

Denise Crossley, Chief Executive of Lantern, said: “I’ve always believed that, even in the world of debt collection, and especially when you’re dealing with people facing difficult circumstances, there is only one way to behave: be empathetic, honest and relatable. Communications and engagement is at the heart of this and our membership of MALG has been a key part of our ethos. Being able to now extend our support of MALG to sponsoring the effective delivery of its marketing communications via a fellow Yorkshire-based company is an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”

Read more about our work with MALG here.