Corporate Volunteering and Community Engagement

Since 2018, we have assisted Fidelity Investments with ‘Fidelity Cares’ – a professional corporate volunteering campaign involving volunteer project teams done their skills to the charity sector (operating in Galway and Dublin 24 sites). With the shift to remote working during the pandemic, these projects could no longer be delivered in-person and had to be moved virtual.

We advised Fidelity on the changing needs of the charity and NGO during the Covid-19 pandemic. On behalf of Fidelity, we reached out to over 60 charities and voluntary/community organisations to establish their needs and shared these insights with Fidelity. From this process we brokered and established 20 projects. As part of the ‘Fidelity Cares’ campaign in Autumn 2020, teams of Fidelity volunteers were matched with over 20 different organisations in Galway and Tallaght on projects that have ranged from: Database Management, I.T. Systems Reviews, Training on Microsoft Office, Cyber-security, Strategy Development, Communications, Finance, Budgeting  and HR processes.

Our support to Fidelity Investments on this campaign provided charities and voluntary /community organisations with skills and expertise that they would not ordinarily be able to access, and helped them to maintain their service delivery to their own clients and service users in local communities.

For Fidelity staff, this campaign provided them with an engaging, meaningful volunteering experience that allowed them to utilise their skills for positive social impact. The cross-functional nature of the volunteer team projects meant that Fidelity staff could keep in touch with colleagues – or build new relationships across their organisation – at a time when they were working from home.

Boots Ireland became a member in 2009. Initially we provided support in the area of a strategic partnership with a charity partner and staff engagement. We examined what criteria the company prioritised when it came to the selection of a Charity of Choice. A key factor was Boots Ireland wanted the charity to reflect their core business. As a result, we sourced a number of charities in the area of health. We presented options to Boots Ireland management and then surveyed their employees to help make a final choice. The Irish Cancer Society was chosen and has been the Charity of Choice since 2012. Initially planned as a  three year partnership this has grown and evolved to become a core element of their CSR programme which includes fundraising, volunteering, raising awareness of cancer as well as early detection.

To date since partnering with The Irish Cancer Society, Boots Ireland has raised in excess of €1.3 million for their Night Nursing service, which is a nationwide service providing free end of life care allowing patients to remain in their own homes. This equates to over 3,800 nights of Night Nursing care and has been achieved through a programme of fundraising activities and events taking place across stores throughout the year culminating in the annual ‘Boots Night Walk for Night Nurses’ with over thirty 5km walks happening across the country in August each year. Over the course of the partnership they have been awarded Best Corporate Charity Partnership by National Fundraising Ireland as well as winning the Chambers Ireland CSR Multinational Company 2017 award for “Excellence in Community – Partnership with a Charity” in their work with the Irish Cancer Society. Boots Ireland appears in the top rankings in RepTrak’s annual reputational survey.