Community Investment Portfolio
The Community Investment Portfolio is part of a Westminster City Council (WCC) initiative that’s been run in collaboration with One Westminster since autumn 2022. It aims to align community need with the corporate social responsibilities and social value agendas of member companies of the WCC’s Responsible Business Network.
This network is made up of contractors, property and real estate companies, construction developers and organisations from the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors.
Currently the priority is supporting community need through projects focussing on the cost of living crisis.
TYPES OF PROJECT SUPPORT OFFERED
Ways in which companies can assist charities include:
Funding financial contribution for project funding.
Sponsorship for community events to cover cost of venue hire, refreshments, etc.
Volunteers providing professional support for charity operations, management, HR, IT solutions and so on.
Building renovations from office repairs to refurbishments.
Office space providing regular hot-desking space, or meeting rooms for occasional charity training or team away-days.
Donations of food, fuel vouchers, digital devices, clothes, warm winter clothing toiletries, children’s toys, books, festive hampers and so on.
Browse charity projects seeking support that were recently profiled in the Community Investment Portfolio recent bulletin:
Spring 2024: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF6JA_yrpU/JKrZjts4QXfHRIZxEuVr-Q/view
How to apply to the Community Investment Portfolio
Charities: If you are a charity that would benefit from corporate support, please contact One Westminster to discuss your needs. We can suggest potential partnerships from the businesses we are already liaising with. If we cannot find you a match, we can help profile your projects in the Community Investment Portfolio to attract corporate interest.
Businesses: If you are a company that has CSR/social value commitments, contact us for a free consultation that will help match your social value offering to community need.
For all enquiries please email Paola Pagliarin, Corporate Partnerships Manager.
RECENT PROJECT SUCCESSES
Funding
Last year we saw the direct impact of our corporate service that promotes charity projects and matches them to business support.
Mental health charity MIND Brent, Wandsworth & Westminster launched Unfolding Minds, a film-making project in collaboration with community interest company Wondering Minds thanks to funding assistance from property company Bentall Green Oak.
Amongst the 12 participants, a few Westminster residents assisted by the One Westminster Social Prescription service took part in the project and had their short films shown at the community screening in the Autumn 2023.
This was a life changing experience for all participants, that touched residents and sponsors alike: a wonderful example of what corporate social value contribution can truly achieve in the community. Read more about the Unfolding Minds project here.
Sponsorship
Champions of the unpaid carer, Carers’ Network successfully ran a belated New Year’s party in February thanks to sponsorship from software company Intuit. The event was attended by 70 local carers and everyone enjoyed the celebrations. Ten Intuit employees volunteered to help out and made sure that everything ran smoothly.
Volunteering
This spring and summer, several responsible businesses engaged in corporate volunteering in the borough. The Big Garden Clean Up project was a popular outdoor team day, where employee volunteers helped sprucing up local gardens and provided much needed corporate sponsorship in support of the neighbourhood regeneration programme.
Buildings renovation
This spring, we supported 4 responsible businesses in the building/construction sector to deliver 4 pro-bono refurb projects, for a total social value of £17k. Thank you to the great works run by:
-Lukas UK for Open Age community centre redecorating
-Cousins Group for Woman’s Trust hub refurbishment
-Lindner Prater for Westminster Boating Base roof leak repairs
-Oakrays Limited for Citizen Advice office painting
Donations
This year again, we have received donations of 25 digital devices from Shaftesbury Capital that we distributed to 5 community organisations and benefited 25 residents, for a total value of £5,200.
Meeting room space
One Westminster’s staff away day was kindly hosted at real estate organisation LandSec’s fantastic offices in Victoria last November.
Regular match-making events
One Westminster, together with Westminster City Council, runs yearly networking events where charities and businesses can meet and discuss potential partnerships. The 2023 Meet the Charity event was held at Portland Hall, University of Westminster, and it was kindly sponsored by Grosvenor. The networking event was a success as some 33 community organisations and 110 business representatives made new connections and initiated partnerships.
Our next match-making event will take place in Autumn 2024 and we hope to see you there.
For more information, please email Paola Pagliarin, Corporate Partnerships Manager.
Thanks to all the businesses that have been involved with our projects so far. They are listed below.
