UK-based ICMIF member Ecclesiastical has set itself a target of donating £100 million to good causes and the organisation says it is on track to hit this target by the end of 2020. In August 2019, the firm revealed that it had already donated £75 million of its £100 million target to good causes since 2016 and that it believed the £100 million figure was achievable by the end of 2020.
This month, Ecclesiastical has donated almost £5,000 to local good causes recently as it continues with its mission of creating a Movement for Good. The funds raised at the insurer’s annual charity carol concert held at Gloucester Cathedral in December were over £2,400 through ticket sales and donations on the night. As part of its commitment to a Movement for Good, the firm has doubled the donation meaning that four local charities and Gloucester Cathedral will each receive a share.
Speaking after the concert in December, Mark Hews, Chief Executive Officer at Ecclesiastical said: “2019 was a big year of giving for Ecclesiastical. The launch of our Movement for Good Awards enabled us to donate £1 million to good causes across the UK and, we will have given a further £120,000 to good causes through our Christmas giving campaign – 12 Days of Giving by the end of 2019.
“Our annual Christmas carol concert is a long-standing tradition that has allowed us to give tens of thousands of pounds to Gloucester-based charities over the years. I would personally like to thank our staff, brokers and partners for their continued support. Without them, we would not be in a position to give so much to support good causes right across the UK”.
Ecclesiastical says that charitable giving is at the heart of what the organisation does – and has been for over 130 years. The organisation says it is the only financial services group that exists to give all of its available profits to charity, and it is proud to do things differently. Ecclesiastical says its aim is to give back to the communities it serves and champion the issues that really matter to them – working together to build a Movement for Good.
Through the 12 Days of Giving campaign last year, Ecclesiastical donated £1,000 to each of 120 charities over 12 days during the run up to Christmas. This was to help provide vital funding to charities and help to change people’s lives for the better.
Not only does Ecclesiastical support charities through donations, it also offers a great deal of advice to charities across the UK. This includes the publication of their Charity Risk Barometer 2019 report in October last year. Ecclesiastical says the report was published because it believes charities today are exposed to one of the most volatile periods in modern history. With ongoing austerity, changes in social attitudes, fake news, invasive social media, and the political and economic uncertainty caused by Brexit, Ecclesiastical says it can be hard for charities to keep up.
To build the report, Ecclesiastical first needed to understand the issues the sector faces and so it held a panel event with 10 charities and sector bodies, working in a collaborative environment to openly discuss, share and learn from each other.
The organisation then went out to 200 senior charity leaders to get their input on a series of topics, with the aim of understanding the most pressing concerns in the short, medium and long-term. The resulting report gives expert commentary from leading thinkers in the charity sector, covering topics from stress-related burnout among staff to engaging with the next generation of supporters.
