GUS & the community:
ARG
Managing community activity in ARG
ARG has a full time Community Affairs Manager, who co-ordinates all community projects. The Company’s principal foci are its Charities of the Year, selected in two separate votes by Argos and Homebase employees. In fact, the Charity is selected for a two year period, and receives a direct cash donation. It also becomes the subject of a huge range of employee fundraising activity organised both centrally (by the Community Affairs Manager) and locally in stores and regions. Employees are also able to contribute their time as volunteers to the Charity. The Argos Charity of the Year is Help the Hospices; a partnership that will last until July 07. Homebase employees voted for Marie Curie Cancer Care as that company’s charity partner in a vote held in March 2006. The partnership with Marie Curie will run for two years from August.
A very exciting development during the year was the launch of ‘Tick to Give’ – a customer fundraising scheme in support of Help the Hospices. Argos customers are invited to tick a box on their product selection slips if they wish to make a donation to the charity. When the slip is taken to the till, 20p is added to the final total, which is then donated by ARG to the charity. In its first few months this very simple system has already raised £50,000, and seems likely to collect around £100,000 p.a. which will help to run the Hospice Information service providing access to information about care for people with terminal conditions. Every year, this service enables thousands of people to access the information they need about the care that they or their loved one can receive towards the end of their life. It also offers healthcare professionals access to the most up-to-date information to deliver the best possible support and care to people with a life-threatening condition. The service is provided via a variety of media so that people can get information in whichever way they find most accessible (see www.hospiceinformation.info, or call 0845 9033 903).
Whilst the Charities of the Year are the main focus of community partnerships in the company, they are not the whole story. Individual employees are able to receive part-matched funding for their own particular cause through ARG’s ‘Community Cashback’ scheme. Employees who raise money for the charities that they support can apply to the scheme for a top-up donation from the company. The scheme is in its early days, and has made 9 donations (total £1,000) to individuals who have between them raised over £6,000.
ARG has also introduced a Give as You Earn scheme, allowing employees to donate to charity from their wages in a tax-efficient way. The scheme in ARG is very successful and is used by 11% of employees. It has been recognised with a Charities Aid Foundation Gold Award for such a high employee participation rate. A similar scheme has just been launched in Homebase, where it is currently used by 4% of employees. In the year ahead ARG plans to promote the scheme heavily (as it did in Argos) to increase this participation rate to similar levels.
Case Study - Argos Hospice Catalogue
What was the need? The Argos charity partnership with Help the Hospices lasts for two years and involves the whole of the business. To really make the partnership work it is important to forge close links between Argos staff and the hospice in their community. Some mechanism was also needed to help individual staff members understand that their own contribution really makes a difference.
How did we help? Each Argos site has been twinned with its local hospice so that all fundraising by local people stays local. To highlight to employees the difference that they can make, Argos and Help the Hospices produced “The Hospice Catalogue”. A twist on the Argos Catalogue, the brochure includes a range of items that hospices regularly require and a guide to some of their running costs. For example, £120 could fund a homecare visit from a hospice nurse, while £265 could cover the cost of a patient’s full inpatient care for a day. Employees can then contact their hospice to find out more about what’s needed in their local area and to come up with a “wish list” to inspire them in their fundraising.
What is the social benefit? Crucially, the Catalogue not only encourages fundraising, but also increases staff awareness of the broad range of services offered by hospices to their patients and to patients’ families. Familiarising local people with the care available through their hospice and increasing their understanding of the hospice movement are key objectives of the partnership. It helps boost support and leaves a legacy of public and community awareness that continues after the partnership with Argos has finished.
What impact did the project have in the business? A great fit with the Argos Catalogue, the Hospice Catalogue has been an effective communication tool to engage staff to work with their hospice. It is also providing a real driver for fundraising helping ARG meet its targets. Moreover, as many of employees will probably be touched by hospice care at some point in their lives, it is a means to support staff on a personal level by ensuring they know about and understand the tremendous care and facilities that are available through hospices.
Case Study - Argos Champion Challenge
What was the need? The Help the Hospices partnership has a huge fundraising target: it has set itself the objective to raise £600,000 in two years. To meet this objective, fundraising has to be continuous and high-profile and the partnership must really start off with a bang.
How did we help? The “Champion Challenge” event took place in September 2005 to really launch the partnership in style, with the event being designed to help make a quick start on the partnerships goals. Members of staff were encouraged to nominate a Charity Champion from among their colleagues who could drive the local partnership. Once this nomination was agreed, employees were challenged to get their Charity Champion to the hospice in the most innovative way possible, without spending any money or using public transport. The event was a great success with innovative transport examples including journeys via moon-boots, on a carnival float, in a horse box and in a wheelie bin. To launch the event, Argos supplied each site with t-shirts, balloons, stickers and a sunflower headdress.
What is the social benefit? Employees took the opportunity to raise funds en route, and together managed to raise over £20,000 for local hospices, which was topped up by an additional £5000 from Argos. Perhaps more importantly, the Challenge provided an opportunity for staff to visit their local hospice and see its work first hand, helping support and raise awareness of the hospice movement.
What impact did the project have in the business? This Challenge met its objective, enabled Argos to begin working towards the partnership’s goals from the start. Fundraising is ahead of the £600,000 two-year target, and staff awareness and interest is high. The Challenge events were great fun too, with staff really enjoying them. In planning how they would tackle the Challenge, staff were encouraged to work together, come up with creative ideas, and implement them to achieve results. This was a great way to develop their skills and teamwork, while really making a difference to their community. Several members of the ARG board also volunteered to spend a day helping out at a local hospice.
Case Study - Homebase Mini pots of Care, Marie Curie Cancer Care
What was the need? Marie Curie Cancer Care provides home nursing services for terminally ill people, giving them the choice of dying at home surrounded by their families. The charity makes this service available free, and is therefore reliant on fundraising to be able to continue this important work. It approached Homebase for help.
How did we help? Marie Curie Cancer Care launched ‘Mini Pots of Care’, its new schools fundraising initiative, in 2005. The charity’s logo is a bright yellow daffodil, and the ‘Mini Pots of Care’ activity forms a part of its annual Great Daffodil Appeal. It focuses on nursery and primary school pupils, each of which is provided with a bulb, a pot and compost and encouraged to plant a daffodil. Pupils learn to plant their own daffodil bulb in the autumn and watch it bloom in the spring when they then decorate their pots and take them home to their families to sell. Homebase enabled the charity to provide each pupil with its own bulb, pot and compost.
What is the social benefit? In 2005, over 207,000 pupils took part from 2,500 schools across the country. The support from Homebase meant that the costs of planting materials were covered and more funds could go directly towards Marie Curie Cancer Care’s vital home nursing service. The children had fun and learned about growing and caring for plants, and the whole project took the Marie Curie name and logo into tens of thousands of homes, helping raise awareness of the charity.
What impact did the project have in the business? The project was enormously popular and helped build a strong relationship between Homebase staff and Marie Curie Cancer Care. The connection with Homebase’s business meant that it was able to provide materials at relatively low cost, but also helped staff and communities really grasp the link-up between the two organisations. So much so, in fact, that Homebase employees subsequently voted for the charity to become their Charity Partner for the next two years.
