The holidays are a time for celebration, for spending time with friends and family, while being grateful for what you have and giving to others. There’s no doubt that people are more generous at this time of year, because the festive period can be difficult for those less fortunate. Thankfully, there are plenty of companies that recognise this and do their part.
In this article I will go over some of the businesses and initiatives that are helping to give back to the community this Christmas. The holiday period can is a hard time for charities, but this year in particular was unprecedented. In 2020, charities are reporting a devasting loss of funds and, while COVID-19 charities are receiving huge amounts of money from the public, others have seen a big hit.
The Big Give
The Big Give initially started as a website with the goal of becoming a search engine for charities and to create a way for people to give online. While not technically a for-profit company like the others in this list, they run the UK’s biggest match funding campaign, The Christmas Challenge.
For seven days, it offers supporters of participating charities the opportunity to have their donation doubled. This allows the chance for partners, such as other charities, philanthropists, and corporations to really make their charitable gifts count.
The Christmas Challenge runs every year and has raised millions of pounds for thousands of charity projects since it launched on the Big Give in 2008. This drive is a great way for both the public and businesses to get involved and really amplify the effect of their giving.
Landmark Group
Property developer Landmark Group have started a new initiative this year. They are a founding partner of the Xmas Party Heroes campaign, which is an inventive way for other companies to give back. The aim of this campaign is to get other companies to donate the money they would have used on office Christmas parties to a good cause. Social enterprise Beam found that just 22% of companies were planning on going ahead with their Christmas parties this year, so it’s clear there is a lot of money left over!
Xmas Party Heroes have already got quite an extensive list of partner companies, which you can find on their website, with more companies set to follow suit.
The John Lewis Partnership
Two British retail brands, Waitrose and John Lewis, recently launched their ‘Give a little love’ campaign. They have partnered with the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, and family support charity Home-Start over the Christmas period.
Both charities have seen a huge increase in demand for their services over the course of the year, with FareShare in particular having to double the amount of food it distributes to keep up with the needs of the public. This campaign will see the two companies match customer donations up to the value of the £2 million.
Dominvs Group
The second real estate developer on our list, Dominvs Group has topped off a year of giving by partnering with Care Pack UK. They donated 100 care kits to homeless people across London, with each of the packs containing 50 essential items to assist rough sleepers over this difficult Christmas period. This includes not just items for survival but also for psychological wellbeing, such as deodorant or lip balm which can help lift the spirits of those going through a tough time.
Throughout the year the company have also donated over £100,000 to various charitable organisations such as Enactus UK, The Dame Maureen Thomas Foundation, the Serpentine Galleries and Cancer Research.
DF Capital
DF Capital is a specialist lending bank who have started a Christmas themed charity initiative of their own. The staff announced that as a company they are planning to walk, run or cycle the distance from their Manchester office all the way to Lapland over the month of December.
Each employee that is taking part will travel part of the 1,980 miles to raise money for Wood Street Mission. The charity is dedicated to improving the lives and life chances of children living in poverty in the company’s local area.
This holiday season, charities need our help more than ever. These companies are just a select few of those that do great work in their communities. While everyone is feeling the effect of the pandemic, charities have been hit harder than most. That’s why it’s essential for companies to keep up work like this if they can. Who knows, maybe this article has even given you some ideas to start a charity drive of your own.