Community
We actively encourage all employees to participate in the community and in civic and charitable causes.
Employee involvement is not only valuable to the community, but also increases employee awareness and skills, assisting in personal development which can then be applied in the business context.
Charitable giving
Our charitable giving has historically focused on employee choice, with the Group 'matching' employee donations and sponsorship. In 2007, the Board agreed to increase our charitable giving to include discretionary donations, reflecting the improvement in profitability, doubling our donations to £1.25 million for the year.
A new Charity Committee was established to receive nominations from employees for potential donations, targeted at specific projects in the areas of education, development and health. Fifty-two applications were considered before five donations of between £50,000 and £100,000 were made to the following charities:
- Child's Dream: to build schools in rural Laos;
- Farleigh Hospice: to buy the UK's first mobile hospice;
- Muscular Dystrophy Campaign: to build a new website for children and young people;
- Western Parishes Youth and Community: to complete the surround to their centre in Guernsey; and
- Whizz-Kidz: to buy ten powered wheelchairs and provide two training courses for disabled children.
These were one-off donations focused on providing a sustainable benefit for the charity concerned and, in some cases, will provide opportunities for our employees to get involved personally by volunteering for the charities.
A number of our offices operate payroll giving schemes, of which the UK scheme is the largest. At the end of 2007, nearly 16 per cent. (2006: 16 per cent.) of UK employees were participating. Schroders received the Payroll Giving Quality Mark Gold Award in 2007, in recognition that over 10% of employees give money to charity via the payroll.
Individual teams occasionally focus on supporting one charity to make full use of our matching scheme. Some examples of the schemes supported by our employees included:
- In the UK, The Rainbow Trust benefited from our property team supporting them by organising various events which raised over £70,000;
- The Charity Investment team ran 10km in aid of National Children's Homes and the London Marathon in aid of the Snowdon Trust and the Spinal Association;
- To mark the opening of the newly refurbished reception, auditorium and client meeting facilities in Schroders' head office building, the area was used to host a two-week charity photograph exhibition during October;
- Twenty-eight photographs were displayed in conjunction with PhotoVoice, an award-winning international charity and the only development organisation of its kind in Europe. The charity's projects empower some of the most disadvantaged groups in the world with photographic skills to help them transform their lives. Through donations and sales of photographs, more than £9,000 was raised for PhotoVoice as well as raising awareness of the charity's work;
- In May, more than 50 employees from Schroders' Singapore office participated in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. A donation was made on behalf of each runner to the Asian Civilisations Museum's 'Touching The World' program, which will provide activities and materials to increase access to the museum for children with special needs. The donation will launch a two year initiative that will ultimately benefit children with intellectual disabilities, visually and aurally impaired children, and young patients in long term hospital care; and
- In the US, Schroders supports the Delaware Financial Literacy Institute, which helps people of low to moderate income obtain the tools necessary to get their financial lives in order so that they can become self-sufficient and enjoy financial well-being over time.
Volunteering
As well as making financial donations, employees are encouraged to spend time working in the community. Since June 2005, employees in the UK have been able to take up to 15 hours paid leave per year to provide volunteer services and this was made available to all offices globally in 2007. A wide variety of charities are supported this way as individuals give their 'Schroders time' to charities with which they have a personal connection.
Private Banking employees in Guernsey took advantage of their volunteer leave to spend time helping with the construction of the new Guernsey Bereavement Centre in Les Basses Capelles, St Sampson's.
In London, Schroders is one of the largest corporate supporters of the Hackney Schools Mentoring Programme (HSMP), established in 1996 by the East London Business Alliance and Hackney Learning Partnerships. Our employees continue to help mentor 14 and 15 year old students in the London Borough of Hackney with the aim of increasing students' self confidence and improving their academic performance. The intention is to allow them to gain experience of the working world and raise their aspirations. A number of employees also help secondary school children in London with literacy skills.
During 2007, Schroders employees have continued to volunteer to help Habitat for Humanity, a global charity dedicated to eliminating sub-standard housing and homelessness. Investing time to help build homes with their colleagues enables employees to build strong team relationships and develop their communication skills, whilst making a positive and lasting contribution to the communities they help.
Following volunteering trips in previous years to Sri Lanka and South Africa, in September 2007, twenty volunteers travelled from London to Bangalore in India to help build homes for families in need. Schroders contributed 50 per cent. of the cost of participating, with employees meeting the remainder, as well as raising almost £40,000 for the charity.
During 2008, forty employees from around the globe will be participating in a similar project in China.