April 4, 2019
Fundraising, volunteering and taking part in charity events are all part of a typical month at Morrison Freight. Here Darren Ryan explains why giving back to the community and supporting charitable organisations is such an important part of what they do as a business.
In September 2018, there were 168,168 registered charities in the UK. On average, there are 4.9 million businesses. So why is it that many companies are failing to support organisations in need?
Charity is, and always has been, a very important part of the company’s culture here at Morrison Freight.
As part of their contract, every employee is given two days out of the office to volunteer for their chosen charity. This was an initiative that Lee and I introduced to encourage employees to get involved in helping local charities. It’s our way of giving back to the community.
In the office we are also heavily involved in supporting charity initiatives. Over the last few years we have collected and donated Easter eggs, hosted bake-off competitions, fancy-dress days and BBQs and even participated in the Santa fun run in 2016. We regularly attend charity football matches and quiz nights, and we have participated in Ride-Fest in the office to raise money for St Elizabeth Hospice for the last two years.
We also celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2015 and as part of the celebrations, we arranged a silver ticket draw which enabled us to raise £250 for both Cancer Research UK and Sands.
But what many business owners don’t realise, is that investing time in supporting charities can also be beneficial to your business.
For example, from a recruitment perspective, it shows that you are invested in your local community which can make you more appealing to prospective employees.
It can also help improve staff retention. We have found that our employees are more invested in the company and are likely to get involved in more social events and activities because we are supporting causes that they are passionate about.
When we select a charity to support we like to encourage our staff to input ideas on how to raise money and show our support throughout the year. It is a great way of getting the team together outside of work and events such as the Santa fun run double-up as team-building opportunities.
If you are looking for charities to support, we would recommend consulting your team and asking for suggestions. Alternatively you can find the full list of UK charities on the CharityChoice website: https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/charities
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