Charities and Volunteering

We believe in making a positive and lasting difference to people and the communities in which we live, work and support. We partner with charities and support community projects that are aligned to our goals and share our desire to make an impact on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

In FY2024/25, we donated over £278,000 to 65 charities and our colleagues participated in 2,060 hours of volunteering across 30 different charities.

Fundraising Highlights

Donated £10,000 to Macmillan Cancer Support, enough to fund 486 phone calls from Cancer Information Nurse Specialists, who provide a listening ear for those in need during life's toughest moments.
Raised over £4,000 for My Name’5 Doddie, an organisation focused on improving the lives of those affected by MND, through a sponsored bike ride from London to Paris and a ‘Pink and Punk’ fancy dress day.
Built on our long-standing partnership with The Wildlife Trusts, which has seen us donate £125,000 towards projects which support nature, wellbeing and community engagement.
Local Christmas fundraising events raising more than £8,700 across four different charities, including £4,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital, £1,000 for Sarah’s Pink Events, £2,000 for Sands and £1,700 for Cancer Research UK.
As part of our end-of-year charity donations, over 600 colleagues came forward to vote for their preferred charities, resulting in £21,000 being donated to six national charities: Refuge, Macmillan Cancer Support, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, The Eve Appeal, Wiltshire Air Ambulance, My Name’5 Doddie and Alzheimer’s Society.

Key Charity Partners

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The Wildlife Trusts

With over 2,300 nature reserves across the UK, The Wildlife Trusts serve to protect wildlife and habitats. Through our partnership now in its fifth year, we undertake volunteering activities, ranging from clearing woodland and planting trees to building paths and restoration works.

Communities Wildlife Trusts © Adam Cormack

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Young Enterprise

We are passionate about developing the talent of tomorrow. Young Enterprise reach over 250,000 young people every year. Through this partnership we are helping young people build important skills including communication, confidence, financial capability, initiative, organisation, problem-solving, teamwork and resilience.

Recently, we expanded our charity partnership programme to allow each of our five ‘Colleague Communities’ to donate £10,000 to a charity of their choice, reflecting the objectives of the community and helping to signpost volunteering opportunities for colleagues.

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Unseen

We are working with Unseen, an anti-slavery charity with a vision to end modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK. The charity provides safehouse and outreach services for survivors, runs a 24/7 modern slavery and exploitation hotline, delivers education and training for businesses on the signs of modern slavery and signposts survivors to external support services.

Unseen is supporting us in delivering our Environmental Social Governance Strategy by ensuring that we have the appropriate levels of governance and control in place to mitigate the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking occurring within our business or in our supply chains.

Volunteering

We encourage all colleagues to take one paid volunteering day a year, to support a cause close to their hearts and can gift their own volunteering day to other colleagues, to allow for greater focus and involvement on specific projects.

For a more detailed report on our recent charitable activities, read our latest ESG Report.

Read our ESG Report