The Access Group is committed to making an impact to charities and Not for Profits, both through its software and services and personal contribution by our people. We’re passionate about giving back to society and this passion is shared throughout all levels and areas of our business.
To create the greatest possible engagement, our people vote for our charity of the year partner from a shortlist. Last year’s partner DEBRA and this year’s, The National Deaf Children’s Society were selected as there was a clear personal connection to both within our organisation.
Chris Bayne, CEO of Access: “I am incredibly proud of our fundraising activities for DEBRA last year. It is heartening to see the extraordinary efforts our staff have made to raise funds and awareness for a charity that has such a personal connection within our Access family.
At Access, everyone can make a difference, and that is evidenced in the tremendous over-achievement with regards to our fundraising goal.
We are passionate about giving back, from electing the company Charity of the Year, raising money in many different ways, to having a paid day to help a charity or good cause, everyone has the chance to give back to what's important to them.”
Throughout the financial year (June to June) our people (2000+ and growing) raised funds to support DEBRA through both company-wide initiatives and activities in local offices. Grueling physical challenges included two Access runners in the London Marathon, 49 team members taking on Tough Mudder races, and a team of five Access staff taking part in a ‘Steel Day’ that saw some complete seven 45-minute workouts in a single day.
Alongside this, two teams of The Access Group’s Board members went head to head in a retail challenge, seeing which team could raise the most money in one day working at one of the DEBRA charity shops. Healthy competition between the teams saw a total raised of £4,088.54.
The collective fundraising activities of our staff across the year raised a total of £140,744, which The Access Group then matched to bring the company’s total donation for DEBRA to £281,488.
To support the National Deaf Children’s society our charity champions have already planned a wide variety of exciting fundraising events across the company’s 30-plus regional offices, ranging from bake sales, wine tastings, vegan food tasting, cinema nights and golf days to physical challenges such as football tournaments, mountain climbs, bike rides, triathlons and marathons. Our designated 'charity of the year champions' keep people engaged using an internal microsite to share great fundraising ideas and results they're achieving.
In addition to the personal contribution our people make, The Access Group gives each employee a day out of work to volunteer their time to a great cause of their choosing. This is once again promoted well through our HR and internal comms team, particularly at new employee induction days to show our commitment to giving back.
The Access Group also plans to donate its expertise in business software solutions to our charity of the year on a pro bono basis. In return, the charity has agreed to deliver deaf awareness and British Sign Language workshops to the company’s staff.
We’re committed to giving back and we’ll continue to push ourselves to do more each year.... watch this space for the winner being announced in May and best of luck to our fellow nominees!