Connect Dacorum
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Presented by
Jeoff Colls
• Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire
• Includes Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and
villages
• Population 141,000
• 6,500 Businesses
• 800 Charities
Community
Wheels
Shopmobility
Herts
Interpreting
Service
Cultural
Learning
Project
Paradise
Furniture and
Training
Radio
Dacorum
Connect
Dacorum
National
Careers Service
How to get support from businesses
An Introduction to Corporate
Social Responsibility
What is Corporate Social Responsibility
CSR, Corporate Citizenship, responsible
business practice – whatever the definition
consumers, investors, the community, staff,
government and the media are becomingly
increasingly concerned with the accountability
of the corporate world and its effect on society
CSR is nothing new
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Businesses have supported
community activity and wellbeing
for many years
Cadbury Bourneville
 Supporting School Summer Fetes
 Providing Raffle Prizes
 Sponsorship
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Tips on how to best benefit
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Parallel thought process to preparing to
apply to a funder – for example
What do we want support for
How can we demonstrate the case
What are the costs we need to cover
Prove we are fit to deliver
Tips on how to best benefit
But also you need to consider
Why should the business support you over
other competing good causes
Is there a fit in terms of client group
Tips on how to best benefit
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Do you have a contact within the business
you are approaching – cold calling equals
low success
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Does a member of your organisation work
with the business you are approaching – use
their knowledge to prepare your case e.g.
research their business – operation, ethos
and values – what have they supported in the
past.
Tips on how to best benefit
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But most importantly…..
What can you offer the business?
You need a win – win scenario
to increase your chance of
success
Tips on how to best benefit
Examples of what you could offer….
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1. Advertising in a programme
2. Acknowledgement on letter heading,
newsletters etc
3. If they have supported a physical
product a plaque or notice
4. Employee Volunteering opportunities
Tips on how to best benefit
REMEMBER
Any approach to business is built upon using
common sense and maintaining an
awareness of how to best use opportunity
And most importantly – look to turn one-off
support into an to ongoing relationship
The Connect Way
Ways You Can Help
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Giving a Gift
Giving a Financial Donation
Volunteering
Employment of Disadvantaged Persons
Environment
Technical Help
Giving a Gift
Raffle prizes, redundant office equipment and
furniture, use of meeting rooms, company
product or service, etc.
Blue Sheild Fire / Hospice of St Francis
DBC / Apollo / Y.O.T.
BAM Construcy / Woodfield School
Total UK Ltd / Paradise Furniture
& Community Wheels
More Examples of giving
a gift
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Renewable Energy Systems gave four brand new
colour laser printers & 24 PC’s to local charities.
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Premier Inn donated a weekend for two as a raffle
prize for Woodfield School PSA and also gave 70
duvets to DENS
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Grass Roots Group gave office chairs, tables
and environment saving devices to 3 local
charities and hosted delegates from Hungary,
Bulgaria, Latvia, Portugal and the UK.
More Examples of giving a gift
MBS Workplace Environments gave new office
furniture to Relate, Mind, and Paradise
Storax Racking Supplies gave a bottle of Port to each
of six local charities plus racking to Tring Air Cadets,
Iain Rennie Hospice and DENS.
DSGI gave new computer equipment to Homestart
Dacorum, six outdoor phones to Woodfield School,
and various new items to a further six local charities.
Many local companies donate fantastic raffle prizes for
Connect Dacorum and many other charities
In the Past year all of these companies
have given gifts of a huge variety of items
through Connect Dacorum.
Assi Transport Ltd,
Avalon flooring Ltd,
Cobham Consulting Ltd,
Demon Creative Ltd,
Equilibrium Holistic Health,
Grass Roots Group,
Esporta,
Hillier Hopkins,
Innergym Ltd, Journey Therapy Ltd,
Kodak Ltd,
Kris Gruber Photography,
MBS Workplace Environments,
Pictons Solicitors,
RES Ltd,
Snow Centre,
NFU Mutual,
Pickworths Solicitors,
Shendish Manor Hotel,
Stage Two Ltd,
The Hemel Gazette,
BAM Contruct UL Ltd,
Evidian Ltd ,
FFEI Ltd,
H.H.Community Church,
K M Design Ltd,
K K Law ,
Pendley Manor Hotel,
Real World Consulting,
Serene Beauty and Spa ,
Storax Racking Supplies,
Total UK Ltd ,
Viva Business Networking,
EIC Insurance Services,
U-Print Ltd,
SWR Ltd,
Urban Precinct ,
Watford FC Trust.
Giving Financial Donations
Sponsorship, events, social evenings,
employee and company donations.
DCT will even take over your annual
company donation workload.
Vinci Park / Bike Doctor
Grass Roots Group /
Paradise Furniture &
Training
Epson / Community Wheels
William Sutton Homes / Stags
Barclays / British Red Cross
Pizza Express / Dacorum
Community Trust
Barclays / Volunteer
Centre Dacorum
More Examples of
Financial Donations
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Grass Roots Group, Hillier Hopkins LLP, Pendley
Manor Hotel, Shendish Manor Hotel, DBC, NGK Spark
Plugs, BP and the Hemel Gazette have all sponsored
the Connect Dacorum / Dacorum Community Trust’s
Christmas Lunch.
Epson UK have sponsored one of the Shopmobility
wheelchairs.
The Dacorum Dragons Apprentice Challenge has five
schools turning £100 into £1000+ for local charities
supported by local businesses.
Volunteering
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Volunteering – Individual and company
based volunteering opportunities.
Team Building Challenges
Holiday Inn / Woodfield
HSBC/ Iain Rennie
Speed Volunteering
Wicks / Chaulden CC
Eckoh Ltd / Woodfield School
BAM Construct / Boxmoor Trust
Keystone Distribution
/ Bovingdon Scouts
More Examples of
Volunteering
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Adeyfield School have completed five
challenges from local charities for their
Citizenship programme for three years running.
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Several Dacorum companies give their staff 1
to 5 days off per year to volunteer.
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Senior employees of local companies have
become trustees of local charities.
Employ a Disabled or
Disadvantaged Person
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Employ a disabled or disadvantaged person
either full time , part time or on work
experience.
Freshbins Ltd / Drug Link / JC+
More Examples of Employment
of Disadvantaged persons
Kings Langley School gave
Barry the opportunity of a 15 day
work trial in their Premises
Department. They were so
pleased with his work that Barry
was offered a 30 hrs a week
paid position.
More Examples of Employment
of Disadvantaged persons
20 local companies have offered one day work
trials to Passport To Go clients. Many have
already completed a very successful day and
some have led on to bigger things.
AFCC Ltd in Queensway have employed a full
time Office Administrator and a part time
cleaner, both through Connect Dacorum.
Become More
Environmentally Friendly
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Recycle your office paper through
the Apsley Paper Trail.
Be aware of savings to your
companies utility bills and the
environment.
More Environmental
Opportunities
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RES in Kings Langley promotes the ultimate
in environmental efficiency.
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Several Dacorum companies have achieved
ISO14001 status.
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Keystone Distribution fuel all their large fleet
of lorries with used chip fat from
MacDonald's restaurants.
Offer Technical Support
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Be proud of your excellence, offer your
expertise in Marketing, IT, Law, Finance, etc to
a start up company or to a local charity.
Vertical Limit Ltd /
Age Concern
More Technical Support.
Michael Leach of Leadership Management UK Ltd
gave a half day talk on Personal Effectiveness to
staff at Age Concern, Homestart, Groundwork
Herts, RBLI and Gaddesden Place RDA.
The British Red Cross gave a First Aid Course to
the staff and volunteers of several local charities.
Many employees from local companies have
added their names to a Skill Bank register to give
free assistance to local charities in Marketing,
Finance, Law, IT and many more subjects when
needed.
What’s in it for You
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Invitations to 3 free networking conferences per year plus a
special Christmas Lunch.
4 Newsletters per year.
Free promotion of your CSR activities.
Possible financial help for employing disadvantaged
persons.
Improved staff moral, enhanced reputation and positive PR.
Regular list of CSR opportunities within the community.
An opportunity to offer gifts and services to local charities.
Savings on Environmental issues.
Your logo and website featured on the Connect Dacorum
website.
Membership
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The first year is free
The second and subsequent years are based
on the number of full time employees that the
company has working in the Dacorum and
surrounding area.
Subscriptions are paid to Community Action
Dacorum (formerly DCVS)
Example:
A company with 1 to 10 full time employees
would pay just £100 per year for the second year
onwards.
A company with 11 to 50 full time employees
would pay just £250 per year for the second year
onwards.
Finally
Think about your social contribution
 Would you like to do more ?
If the answer is yes, then join Connect Dacorum
Contact
Jeoff Colls
on 01442 228216 or 07933 021115
or e-mail him on
jeoff.colls@dacorum.gov.uk
or join on line at www.connectdacorum.org.uk
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