Corporate Social Responsibility
Our Charity of the Year
Each year several members of staff put forward a proposal to the business for their charity of choice and plan to meet their fundraising target. These proposals are reviewed by all staff who vote for their charity of choice for the next Charity of the Year.
Charity of the Year 2022/23: OpenPalm
Our Charity of the Year 2022/23 is Open Palm; their mission is to create fairer opportunities for people to thrive, regardless of their ethnic or socio-economic background.
Open Palm’s mission is to create fairer opportunities for people to thrive, regardless of their ethnic or socio-economic background. They do this through delivering free educational life-skills programmes to under-18s, improving learning environments and addressing racial inequality.
Our Charity of the Year Champion
Ralph works in our Finance Department as Business Partner in the London head office; having worked at Charles Stanley since 2018. Ralph and his wife are the co-founders and trustees of Open Palm, which was set up in July 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic.
Ralph sought to be our Charity of the Year Champion to raise at least £20k to allow the charity to widen its reach and to support its accredited programmes. Open Palm is considered a ‘micro-charity’ but with the planned fundraising support this would help bring Open Palm to the next level to become a ‘small-charity’.
Over and above donations, Ralph aims to utilise the wealth of knowledge available at Charles Stanley to provide some form of work experience for their beneficiaries and content contribution focusing on employability and financial literacy.
Fundraising plans for the year
Ralph sought to be our Charity of the Year Champion, to raise at least £20k to allow the charity to widen its reach and to support its accredited programmes. Here's what we have done so far:
Captain Tom 100 – Do it your way
The first initiative is the 'Captain Tom 100 – Do it your way’ campaign “Inspiring hope where it is needed most.”, in honour of the great achievements of the late Captain Sir Tom Moore last year. The challenge is open to all charities to take part in and involves people gaining sponsorship for doing ‘100’ of anything they choose e.g. 100 mile-cycle, 100 pancake flips, 100 kick-ups, 100 kind gestures.
City 5k Run
This year saw the return of the Standard Chartered Great City Race which took place on Tuesday, the 20th July 2021 from the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC). An absolutely barmy 27 degree heat awaited the 12 eager but slightly jittery, Charles Stanley runners lined up to do their part for charity and clinch the bragging rights to the quickest time around the 5km city course.
What’s next?
With the loosening restrictions over the coming months, we can do more socially and what better way to do so than for a good cause. Ralph is taking advantage of the help from all of his colleagues in the finance department to help plan and put into action some activities for the rest of the year. He will be setting aside his spreadsheets for a moment to share his plans very soon!