Charities have lost out during the pandemic and need a little love
A helping hand
With all that has happened over the last 18 months, it is not surprising that despite the isolation of a pandemic, there has been a mostly community feel.
Neighbours offered to do each other’s shopping for those shielding with underlying health conditions, volunteers flooded in to help with delivering prescriptions and medicines and notes of encouragement were left in random places.
We clapped for the deserving NHS and participated in a ridiculous number of online quizzes and video calls.
However, while people were still generous with their donations, the pandemic resulted in many a cancelled event and this hit one sector particularly hard – the charity sector.
Charities rely on fundraising events and generous donations, but with the Covid-19 pandemic taking away marathons, summer fetes, coffee mornings and other sponsored sporting events, charities suffered.
There are around 163,000 charities in the UK (nvco.org.uk)
Now more than ever, it is important to support those that need it – for whatever reason that may be. So, why is it so important for companies in the print industry to consider raising money or work with a charity?
Recently, Apogee Corporation raised money for Teens Unite, a charity that helps teenagers fight cancer. Apogee is a managed workplace services (MWS) provider, and its employees took part in an ‘around the world’ fundraising challenge. There were 34 teams made up of a mixture of Apogee workers, friends and family members that had to complete a distance of 40,075 km before the deadline of June 21st.
To complete the mileage, the teams could walk, run, cycle or swim. At the time of writing, the challenge helped to raise over £7,000 for Teens Unite.
The Apogee offices; the team raised over £7,000 for Teens Unite
Mark Smyth is the chief operating officer of Apogee and explains why it is important businesses to get involved with charities. He says: “I believe it’s incredibly important for businesses to consider their communities and local and national charities and take steps to positively enable change and provide essential support wherever they can.”
He continues: “We’ve always been keen to support not-for-profit organisations at Apogee, having previously raised money for several charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital and homeless charity, Crisis. We know our employees really value Apogee’s commitment to making a difference in support for charitable causes that often enables them to come together and bond for a far greater cause.
I believe it’s incredibly important for businesses to consider their communities and local and national charities”
“Our most recent fundraising was in support of Teens Unite – we took the bonding element to the next level by encouraging colleagues to create teams around the country and get outdoors to complete the ‘around the world’ challenge.”
Danielle of the Antalis key accounts team with her son Josh, took part in the challenge. Together they walked 462 miles
Smyth goes on to explain that charities are always in need of additional funds, but it’s not just the money side of things that people can help with. “The best way to connect with charities is by developing partnerships, meaning you can find out what they need and how best you can support them,” he says.
“Once you start raising money for a cause, you build a rapport with the charity’s staff and volunteers, and through this you can look at engaging more actively in their work. We’re really keen to do this, and we’re working with Teens Unite to create a volunteering scheme for our teams and employees to be part of.”
Most people will choose a charity to support because the subject is close to their heart, and it is no different for businesses. “At Apogee, we look for charities with strong links to our employees and communities,” says Smyth. “It might be a member of our team – or a loved one – that has been impacted in some way or they feel passionately about a specific cause.
“Teens Unite is a special charity to me personally and really close to my heart that makes such a difference to those aged between 13 and 24 with life limiting illnesses. I am extremely grateful and so proud of all the Apogee team that’s recently supported this great cause and I am truly inspired by the tremendous efforts and fundraising we provided in support of Teens Unite.”
It does not matter how much is raised for a charity, because supporting in any way is only going to be a good thing.
Annual support
Technoprint, which supplies patient information leaflets for the pharmaceutical industry, raised almost £500 for its 2020 charity of the year, Homeless Hounds. Based in Lancashire, the charity houses stray and abandoned dogs in kennels until they can be found a loving home. Some of the donations also go towards vets’ fees if there are injured dogs that require treatment.
Technoprint raised almost £500 for Homeless Hounds by walking, running and cycling
In a similar fashion to Apogee, friends and family sponsored Technoprint staff to walk, run or cycle the equivalent distance between London and Paris. This equated to 275 miles in total. The team also ran a Premier League prediction competition, which was £5 to enter with half the proceeds going to Homeless Hounds and the other half to the winner.
The Winsford-based company has nominated CALM: Campaign Against Living Miserably for its 2021 charity, which is a charity that helps to prevent suicide and allows people to have an outlet for their worries.
Alan Ryan is the manager of Technoprint, and comments: “At Technoprint, we’re all a bunch of dog lovers, so Homeless Hounds was the perfect charity choice for us all to get fundraising last year. We’re proud to have raised nearly £500 for this worthy cause, as it is not only going to help out the day-to-day activities of the charity, but also brings us together as a business too and keeps us fit.”
Elsewhere, and Antalis UK raised £3,214 for mental health charity MIND. The team did this by walking the distance from Dublin to each of the Antalis sites, totalling 1,614 miles altogether. For every mile that was completed, Antalis donated £2 to MIND. Mental Health week took place in May, and the Antalis challenge started on May 10th, and ran throughout the whole month.
The choice of charity was suggested by Gary Tilbrook, who is the regional director at Antalis, as the charity focuses on campaigning to improve mental health services and raise awareness.
Hayley James is the communications executive in human resources for Antalis, and comments: “A very big thank you to everyone who got involved in our walking challenge. Not only have you done something positive and proactive for your fitness and mental wellbeing, you have also raised valuable money for MIND.”
How to help
The print industry has its own charity for when times turn tough – The Printing Charity. Originally, it was founded as the Printers’ Charitable Organisation in 1827 by George and Charles Searle, and their employer John Kind, who was an independent printer. The charity received its Royal Charter, signed by Queen Victoria, in 1865 and is one of the oldest charities in the country.
The Printing Charity aims to help those that have been or are currently working within the print and related industries and associated family members. Not only this, but the charity helps younger people to get into the sector through its Rising Star awards. The charity helps through a mixture of support, financial help and practical assistance. There are also two sheltered homes supported by The Printing Charity, which are one-bedroom apartments with everything needed to live comfortably with some help. These apartments are available to print industry members or close family connections that have retired.
Another way in which The Printing Charity can help is through sheltered housing, where those that have been or are in the print industry can retire
Neil Lovell, chief executive of The Printing Charity explains how the charity can help printers: “What we want to do is get connected to more companies to offer their employees access to our free, confidential, 24/7 helpline. We have over 100 companies using the helpline already – that’s over 13,000 employees covered with practical and emotional support when they need it – but there is more to do in rolling it out to many more companies in the sector.”
Lovell says that companies that wish to help can do so by promoting the charity, so that more in the print industry can have access to the support on offer. He continues: “In terms of industry support, we want people to connect with us across our channels and share what we’re doing with their industry networks, so that we can talk to more companies and give helpline access to more people. We have a very simple message that we are ‘here to help’ which can be in practical ways, or through emotional and financial support.
“We are always looking for ways to encourage people in our sector to help us connect to a wider audience.”
With this in mind, Lovell says that many print companies, and indeed businesses in general, will choose a charity to support based on their personal passions. He says: “With so many good causes and personal connections to issues people feel passionate about, the challenge is not so much why companies should support charities, because that is already a part of our life, but how companies can show that they recognise and support what is being done by their employees.
The Printing Charity helps to bring young people into the sector through the Rising Star awards
“The amazing UK public are known for their charitable support; raising money in imaginative ways for issues that they have a personal connection to.”
Lovell also says that choosing a charity, and how to support it, is usually left down to the staff members. Some will have their chosen charity for the whole year, while some will develop a full-on partnership to include volunteering as well as fundraising. “Whichever route a company takes, it is all about employee engagement. Although companies often match fund, it’s people who inspire others to raise money or volunteer, so the best way to start is to know what your employees want to do and build a plan around that.
“For The Printing Charity, we look to build our presence in companies regardless of the other charitable activities taking place because, essentially, we are providing help to the sector driven in the first instance by our 24/7 helpline, which is not connected to a need for fundraising or volunteering.”
Now is more important than ever to support charities due to the pandemic – these charities can even surround providing relief after the pandemic. “Covid has been catastrophic for charities who rely on external fundraising,” says Lovell.
“Without funds, services can’t happen, and support is removed. It’s an issue for the charity sector as a whole, which is why getting back to some normality, returning to the workplace or opening up events for example, are so important but unfortunately, for some of the smaller charities it will be too late.”
He continues: “If you are thinking of supporting a charity, see why they need the support and how the funds you can raise, or time you can give, will help them meet their needs. We can be proud as a nation that so many people want to show their support – just look at the incredible achievement of Captain, Sir Tom Moore. Nobody could have predicted the scale of his fundraising but with so many cancelled events, from marathons to coffee mornings, there has been a massive impact on the charity sector.”
O Factoid: There are around 163,000 charities in the UK (nvco.org.uk) O
The Printing Charity’s Lovell concludes: “Thank you to all our supporters and everyone who has helped to get our message out there that we are ‘here to help’ or have given their time.”
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