Earlier this year we sat down to review our fundraising and social value activity. “Social value” is a relatively new term that you’ve probably heard companies increasingly talk about.
What does social value mean?
Social Value refers to the wider financial and nonfinancial value created by an organisation through its day to day activities in terms of the wellbeing of individuals and communities, social capital created and the environment. Source: https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/financial-resilience-and-economic-growth/procurement/social-value-achieving-community
Whilst the term might be relatively new, we realised that there is a lot of social value built into ICS Accounting already including the work we do with local schools and colleges, supporting grassroots football and moving towards a paperless office but we acknowledge there is always more that can be done. Alongside social value, we’ve also fundraised for many local, and national charities over the years.
In 2016 we launched a fundraising bid to raise £5000 for Lancaster based Cancercare and Defying Dementia with the office taking part in a cross bay walk, quiz night, bake sale, spin-a- thon and the ‘It’s a Knockout’ challenge.
This year we plan to combine fundraising and social value activity for multiple charities. We’re doing this by dividing the office into smaller teams who will then choose a charity and plan the activities. It’s not something we’ve done before but the feedback we’ve received so far has been really positive.
The first team are supporting Lancaster and District Homeless Action Service by organising a clothing collection and walking the Derwentwater Trail (after the originally planned Colour Obstacle Dash was cancelled). The next team will be supporting St John’s Hospice, kicking off with a 50 (!!) mile walk from Grasmere to Garstang. We’ll be setting up separate JustGiving pages so all the money raised goes directly to the charities.
Lancaster & District Homeless Action Service – JustGiving page
St John’s Hospice – JustGiving page
We’ll be posting updates across our social media channels if you want to stay up to date.
Got an idea for a fundraising activity? You can let us know by completing the contact form on our website.
