How KPMG chooses its charity of the year partnerships

With 11,000 bright and active staff, there is always huge enthusiasm within the firm to get involved in supporting a charity. Around 40% of our staff get involved in volunteering activities each year and the firm gives everyone six days a year paid time for that purpose. We recently came to the end of a two year partnership with Barnardo’s in the course of which we raised a superb £1.3 million.

 

For the next two years, we’ll be developing our relationship with Action for Literacy and Shelter, offering them pro-bono advice and raising as much money for them as we can. Fundraising is always important, but in these relationships we want to go further than ever before in the level of pro bono advice, volunteering and lobbying support that we offer the charities. We are looking to work with them to bring about transformational change, to unlock potential, and create a sustainable legacy which lasts beyond the term of our partnership.

 

 

You may also be interested in knowing how we as a firm go about selecting the charities that we work with.

 

This time around in fact marked a new departure for us. Any charity is open to apply to us and we usually receive around 50 applications or more. We have a charity steering group, drawn from the workforce at all levels across the firm, who meet and agree a shortlist from the applications received – usually five or six charities. In the past, we have then had a whole staff vote and quite simply whichever charity got the most votes would be chosen.

 

Whilst this has worked really well, this time around we wanted to be absolutely sure that the charities we work with share something of our own core interests and issues. That there is a strategic fit, in business speak. So rather than have a staff vote, the charity steering group invited the shortlist of half a dozen to come in and meet us. From that, the two charities that we have selected really stood out: literacy has been a longstanding focus for much of our community work, while homelessness links very well to our growing interest in social inclusion and social mobility – enabling people, from all walks of life, to unlock their own potential. So Action for Literacy and Shelter shone through and we’re really excited about the choices that we have made.

 

 

We’ll certainly be looking to build on the successes that we enjoyed with Barnardo’s. What are they?

 

First and foremost, if you want good engagement from your staff you really must focus on keeping them informed. More than that, you have to tell them the story of what you are doing, so that it fits into a relevant and coherent narrative. They also want to know specifics. So rather than just say, “we’ve raised X thousand pounds so far,” you need to say “and this will go on these services and provisions, helping this number of people, and having this impact in the community.” It’s about bringing the partnership to life and making it all real.

 

If you manage that, you will get people’s involvement and support. We’ve found that there is also great appetite amongst our people for them to give of their skills as well as just donate money. So if you can get people onside, there will be more appetite for supporting through offering pro-bono advice and mentoring and personal support – things that can really make a difference to any charity.

 

It’s also been interesting to see a rise in the number of charities applying to us that have joined forces with another charity in an alliance or partnership (like Action for Literacy). Rather than being a sign of weakness or hard times hitting the sector, I think we can look at this in a positive light. It shows that charities can be resourceful and adapt with the times. It shows that they are willing to consider new ideas and innovative models.

 

If so, I hope that the sector can look forward to the future – however challenging – with confidence.

 

Mona Bitar, partner at KPMG