Over the last six months the Deloitte National Charity Partnership has been at the forefront of every mind in our Corporate Responsibility Team. In January 2013 we launched the employee led process to select three new national charity partners from 1 June 2013 – 31 May 2016. The process resulted in 120 hugely worthy causes being nominated by our staff, over 50 volunteers from across the business taking part in the selection process, and more than 5,000 of our staff voting on a shortlist of charity nominations to select the final three charity partners.
So it is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Help for Heroes, Children with Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK. Over the last three years our staff have raised more than £2m, provided 3,000 hours of pro-bono support and over 5,000 volunteers have supported the charities through a number of skills based opportunities, corporate challenges and fundraising activities.
It
is extremely difficult to pick out highlights from such a
successful and rewarding partnership, which I hope has left a truly
sustainable legacy. I'm sure every individual across the firm
who has supported the partnership in some way has their own
personal stories to tell. For me, a particular highlight was a
short secondment to Help for Heroes in 2012, where I supported the
Communications team and had the opportunity to see first-hand the
impact of our work. Tedworth house, Help for Heroes' flagship
Personnel Recovery Centre, was converted in less than four months,
on time and to budget with the direct support of our people.
Deloitte worked at the heart of the project, utilising the full
resources of the firm to support, develop and build at a strategic
and operational level. The most tangible success of Tedworth House
is the legacy it will leave. The House has, to date, supported over
400 wounded soldiers and will remain in operation for at least the
next 99 years.
Goodbyes are always difficult but it is important to give other fantastic causes the chance to benefit from Deloitte support. Therefore I am delighted that Alzheimer's Society, Mind and Prostate Cancer have been announced as our new national charity partners until 31 May 2016.
The CR team and volunteers from across the business have been working closely with these charities to prepare impact targets for the three year partnership, and I'm really excited about what we are set up to achieve.
Our 'Care for today, cure for tomorrow' programme with Alzheimer's Society will harness the expertise of Deloitte people to support the Dementia Support Service, whilst fundraising will support the Deloitte Research Programme. Our work with Mind is aiming to help the charity to reach over 4 million people with mental health problems whilst empowering 2000 employers to develop mentally healthy workplaces. And through a pioneering programme with Prostate Cancer UK we will target the 1 in 8 men at high risk of prostate cancer and support employees to raise awareness of the disease.
So there's a huge amount to look forward to, more wonderful stories to create and legacies to leave through our national charity partnerships.
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