ANDREW & CO CARES
Introducing Corporate Social Responsibility

What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

As a business, we have an impact on society and the environment through our operations, our services and through interaction with employees, clients, local communities, suppliers and others.

CSR means managing this impact so as to add value to the company and to increase wider economic and social well being, now and in the future.

Research commissioned by Business In The Community (BITC*) has shown that business leaders realise more than ever, that responsible business practice enhances creativity and could significantly improve profitability, [Setting The New Agenda For Business, June 2002].

On a practical level, this means that we should be more aware of our impact on our local communities and seek to enhance the economic and social environment on our doorsteps.

The Partners have agreed to embrace CSR and the Practice Director will be responsible for managing its introduction and development. Please read on to see what you, the Practice and the community can gain from your involvement; see what we have been involved in so far; and how you can be involved in this development.

Benefits to you

• Generating staff commitment and goodwill.
• Developing stronger team working skills.
• Providing opportunities for staff to develop their other skills, by working with different communities and cultures, sometimes in unfamiliar situations, with people from diverse backgrounds.
• Support from the Practice for the causes you want to support.
• Enabling staff to make donations to charity, directly through the payroll (see payroll giving below).

Benefits to Andrew & Co

• Demonstrating and communicating a commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.
• Generating goodwill with our business partners, many of whom, already have similar CSR programmes
• Generating staff commitment and goodwill.
• Providing networking opportunities.
• Generating public goodwill; good stories in the press that enable Andrew & Co to create a good impression and which provide strong marketing opportunities.
• Enabling Andrew & Co to target its investment to the most deserving causes.
• Providing opportunities for staff to develop their skills, which they will transfer to the Practice.

Benefits to the community

• Community organisations can harness motivated teams to perform tasks that would otherwise not happen.
• Sums raised for local charities are boosted by “matched” funds.
• Organisations are able to quantify the time given to them in kind, in monetary sums and use this to lever more money from their funding bodies.

Current activity at Andrew & Co

At the moment, the firm is involved with a number of initiatives:

ProHelp is a national network of professional firms each of which have offered to provide professional and strategic support, free of charge, to voluntary and community groups in their local areas.

The firms undertake one-off projects, which can include feasibility studies, surveying, architect advice, marketing, I.T advice, business plans and legal and accountancy advice. Peter Bateson is the Lincoln ProHelp Deputy Chair and he with other ProHelp members meet on a quarterly basis with the BiTC ProHelp Manager and most firms commit up to 50 hours of free professional time per annum. Membership is free.

Catriona Wheeler is the fee earner who has undertaken this work to date but we are keen that other fee earners should also be able to contribute.

Charitable support has always been an aim of Andrew & Co and local charities benefit from this.

Getting involved:

PAYROLL GIVING

If you would like to support a local charity through payroll giving, then please let the Practice Director know. This is an extremely tax efficient method of supporting charities as the Chancellor will not only refund to charities the tax deducted from you, but will also offer a further 10% to worthy causes. Staff could consider electing a charity as the annual charity, in order to pool together the funds raised.

CHRISTMAS CARD DONATIONS

We decline to send cards in favour of making a donation to a charity. If you would like to nominate a charity for your office this year then please let your staff forum representative know.

The firm is keen to embrace CSR and make it part of everyday life. We intend to brand all of our activities under the “Andrew & Co Cares” heading and staff interested in acting as “Cares” champions for the firm should contact the Practice Director. The Cares activity will appear on the website, be featured as part of our general marketing and in our communications with clients and work referrers.

* BiTC is a registered charity whose purpose is “To inspire Businesses to increase the quality and extent of their contribution to social and economic regeneration by making corporate social responsibility an essential part of business excellence”.

Andrew & Co LLP