A 145-year-old charity has changed its name to remove barriers between the organisation and its beneficiaries.
Oxfordshire Association for the Blind has rebranded as MyVision Oxfordshire following a consultation with its members and supporters, who told the charity they wanted a name that was more “modern, positive and friendly”.
The charity works with people living with visual impairments, but said that some people who have limited vision but are not blind did not approach the organisation for help because of its name.
It is the fourth name-change since the charity was founded in 1877.
In a statement on its website, MyVision Oxfordshire said that its previous name was “outdated, [and] doesn’t reflect a positive image or reflect the work we do and the impact we have in the community.
“Many people do not access our services or are put off by them because they are not blind. We don’t want our name to be a barrier for people accessing the support they may need”.
Mark Upton, chief executive of MyVision Oxfordshire, told Third Sector that the charity had kept the cost of the rebrand to less than £15,000, largely because much of the work has been conducted in-house by current staff.
The cost has been covered by a generous one-off legacy donation, which means funding for frontline services is not affected, he said.
Upton said in a statement: “I’m so pleased we have a name we can be proud of, that doesn’t put people off at the point of diagnosis, when our support is needed the most.”
Guy Lawfull, chair of trustees at the charity, said it had been considering a change of names for several years, and that the rebrand “will enable us to remove the barriers that were felt to be in place by many individuals who need our support”.
The charity has more than doubled in size in the last five years, according to the most recent filings with the Charity Commission, with income growing from £150,000 in 2016/17 to £322,000 last year.