The Answer is NO!

If I had a pound for every time I received an email asking me if a company’s team could ‘give back’ to our local charities by digging the local allotment, renovating a park whilst wearing blindfolds as part of a team building exercise, or repainting a fence covered in graffiti to evidence team cohesion and social impact, I’d be a very wealthy woman.

I have worked in the land of charity and social impact for some time now so can let you in on a little secret. You have it all wrong.

Charities don’t need a giant comedy cheque for local press each year.

Charities don’t need to provide organisations with yet another team building opportunity to make them look good.

Charities don’t need to watch you collectively build a giant Jenga tower in a park to evidence that your amazing team, can ‘build community’ and therefore help them survive with simply their jolly and willing presence.

Charities are tired of seeing you and your colleagues walk out of giant and costly team building days feeling proud because you have added a brick to a memorial wall, repaired a bus shelter, educated yourself on the needs of children with profound and multiple learning disabilities and yes, painted that fence.

This is one day of 365

It is one fence

One brick in a wall of many

It is superficial

Your ‘help’ doesn’t make a long lasting impact

Your organisation has it wrong

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Charities need sustainable options. They need support that will see them through difficult times and then some.

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They need a skills base that is high standard and robust. They need stable foundations that will allow them to grow, develop and support local communities effectively where governments currently don’t.

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They need alternative and ongoing revenue streams outside of that central pot of funds.

They need you to think outside of the box

They need you to share

They need your help

They need it now more than ever.

So please, if you are a business with an organisation of skilled workers and you want to make a long term impact, don’t contact me asking to a paint a fence, please don’t offer to throw your giant plastic cheque into the ring as a community quick fix. Instead, look at how you can make real, long term community impact, look at how you can use the skills of your team to help charities thrive, open your eyes up to this archaic and tick box approach to charitable giving.

See the alternative and then we can talk

#wrongturn

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hello@thesocialsociety.org.uk