Aberdeen Asset Management awards £240,000 to local charities & selects new emerging market partner
Melanie May | 4 January 2017 | News
Aberdeen Asset Management’s Charitable Foundation has awarded £240,000 during 2016 to a range of charities and trusts in the UK, including Auditory Verbal UK, Enfield Citizens Advice, and Doctors of the World UK’s Bethnal Green Clinic.
Aberdeen Asset Management donated £5,000 to Enfield Citizens Advice, which has enabled it to continue running a home and hospital visiting service. The advice facility for people who are too ill, disabled or frail to attend the Enfield Citizens Advice office will continue to operate for another year thanks to the funding.
Doctors of the World UK received £10,000, to help the charity extend the opening hours of its fortnightly family clinic in Bethnal Green, which is aimed at aiding women and children in need by providing easy access to specialists who can provide vital healthcare services.
Auditory Verbal UK has also received £6,000, which will enable the charity to increase its provision of services in its Bermondsey centre, while staff from the company are also encouraged to volunteer with the charity.
Anita Grover, chief executive of Auditory Verbal UK, said:
“Thanks to Aberdeen Asset Management’s donation, more deaf children and their families are able to access Auditory Verbal UK’s early intervention programme at our London centre. That means more children getting the support that they need to learn to listen and talk, and to achieve their full potential.”
Other organisations to have received support in the past year include Resurgo’s Spear programme where the foundation’s support enabled two young people to undergo a year’s training, Redhall School where a donation allowed primary seven schoolchildren with special needs to take part in a four-day activity camp, and Gorgie City Farm.
The Aberdeen Asset Management Charitable Foundation also selects an emerging market each year, and employees have the opportunity to vote for a project in that country which will receive support for a three-year period. This year the foundation selected the Karen Hilltribes Trust (pictured) as its fifth emerging markets charity partner, and will make a six-figure donation to the charity over a three-year commitment.
Each Aberdeen office around the world establishes its own charity committee, whose remit is to manage local giving activities and promote volunteering. Charities can apply for local community funding on its site at any time of the year and must meet the following criteria:
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- Be a registered charity
- Clear connection to a community local to one of Aberdeen’s offices
- The investment should be capable of having a clear and meaningful impact, for example:
– Small charities where the contribution amount is significant relative to the charity’s size
– Larger charities with identifiable project opportunities that Aberdeen could put its name to
– Projects which include the opportunity for Aberdeen employee involvement through volunteering
– Local organisations where Aberdeen can have a visible impact
- A governance structure in place to allow Aberdeen to monitor the impact of the investment.
Lynda Affleck of Aberdeen’s Charitable Foundation said:
“It is incredibly important to us to support the communities in which our staff live and work. With over 1,700 staff in the UK, we are delighted to have been able to support a wide variety of causes across the country this year, both with financial donations and with voluntary effort, and look forward to continuing to do so in 2017.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.