John Spiers of Bestinvest read ‘The More You Give’ and got in touch. A man of action, he immediately saw the benefits of a focused charity policy and committed £100k from Bestinvest, with the aim of encouraging his staff to raise a similar amount.
Bestinvest is a dynamic and growing investment advice and financial planning company with about 100 employees (average age 35) and 30,000 private clients.
As for the staff, they describe themselves as ‘a friendly and sociable bunch of team players, with an enthusiastic, sunny and dedicated disposition and a work hard, play hard attitude!’
The process: management support – staff involvement – strategy – selection – launch
Management support
1. John led by example, announced the plan by email and invited people to volunteer for the charity committee.
Staff involvement
2. Informal but regular meetings were scheduled by the committee of six people from different operating parts of the business, under the guidance of The More You Give.
They didn’t want to go for an easy option and were looking for a cause that would challenge staff attitudes and appeal to their clients. After a long and sometimes difficult process, the focus was agreed: helping homeless young people. This was a visible issue they came across regularly. Most staff work in Mayfair, and Westminster has the highest percentage of rough sleepers in Britain. They were also conscious that they work in the affluent finance sector and the people they were aiming to help live in a very different world.
Strategy
3. Over the next few weeks key issues were discussed and debated. The partnership would last a year. How would the funds be raised? What would the target be? Ideas included sports days, client dinners, go-karting, wine tastings and quiz nights. What volunteering opportunities would be available and how much time would the Bestinvest management agree to allow each member of staff to take on such work? One paid day a year was agreed.
It would be easy to offer the chosen charity expertise in general management, IT, accounts and HR. Office experience and financial education for young homeless people could also be made available.
With all these points agreed it was straightforward to prepare a briefing document to circulate to potential charities – covering the company’s ethos and outlook and what they hoped to achieve during the year’s partnership.
Selection
4. Estimates are that half of all England’s rough sleepers are in London, and the rate of homelessness in the capital is twice as high as the rest of England, so there are numerous charities working in this area. As is often the case, some of the staff at Bestinvest were already involved with a couple and asked for these to be considered. At the same time The More You Give went about more formal research including getting under the skin of those that looked suitable by using a formidable number of contacts from their Support Network including experts in the homeless field, managers of grant-making trusts and a network of individual philanthropists. Six were short-listed, and the committee chose four from that list, adding another after a direct appeal to the charity committee from one of the Bestinvest staff.
5. Over the course of two days in June 2006, 5 charities presented their work to the Committee explaining how Bestinvest’s support would enable them to help more homeless people.
All the charities were involved in great and often humbling work but the charity committee’s final decision was unanimous. They chose to support Connections at St Martins.
The whole process had taken 3 months, but the charity committee were now enthusiastic, well informed and fired up to make the charity programme happen.
Launch
5. John Spiers, CEO of Bestinvest, spoke at the evening launch event and nearly every single member of the Bestinvest team were there. Inspired by a talk from Connection’s CEO the auction on the night raised an immediate £8,000!
Enthused by their decision and the success of the launch, it felt like they had an easy target. A year would be ample time to raise £200,000, wouldn’t it? All of a sudden, their task began to seem a little daunting, to say the least, so the committee structured a three prong approach with small staff projects, 3 large events involving their clients and a volunteering section - which 20% of the staff have signed up for.
The Result
The charity of the year partnership was launched in August 2006. Both parties felt that it was important to have clear goals and timescales so there is a Charity of the Year Partnership agreement to keep everyone on track. Bestinvest are specifically supporting Connection’s engagement and employability work with unemployed homeless young people aged 16-25. Bestinvest are on track to raise the £200k promised with a client race night the next major fundraiser.
