A different way of looking at Corporate Social Responsibility

Little Hearts Matter

Currently there are nearly 168,000 registered charities in the UK who raised over 76 billion last year.

In their different ways, they are all working to fill gaps in statutory service or to create the opportunities for research that cannot be funded by state run organisations.

The sad thing is that the top 2,000 of them collected over 54 billion of the total amount donated to charities last year.

Don’t get me wrong, they all have a laudable focus and certainly the medically orientated organisations have helped support research that has forwarded the treatment and care of very sick people.

The downside is that the smaller charities, often working in the middle of deprivation, disability and discrimination, cannot attract the funding needed to support their vital work.

Big industry, banks and retailers now often choose to support one large charity, possibly attracted not only by their work but also their advertising ability or a link to a current political message.

But if your company really wants to be linked with visible change it might be better to support a smaller charity.

You see smaller charities prop up families, they provide a listening ear when people are distressed and they provide a shoulder when life becomes desperate.

Small charity teams know the people they work with personally and they can see the benefit that their support provides. Furthermore small charities tend to be very careful with their money.

They need to make a donation, gift or grant stretch to support as many people as possible.

They have to use their imagination to raise awareness because they can’t afford a film company or advertising team to raise awareness of their members needs or to spread the word about their work.

So my appeal to you is that next time you are looking for an organisation for your company to support perhaps choose more than one and share the funds available.

Link your staff closely with the charity's message and the outcomes that your funding could create.

Build a strong link with the charity so that your staff feel that their efforts are recognised and encourage the partnership by taking on a task or challenge that would really benefit the charity but also involve your company team.

Little Hearts Matter is a charity looking to build a relationship with organisations that can truly become a partner in our work. To learn more about what we do follow the link to our story here.

Thank you. Suzie