4 May

City Giving Day - will you be joining us?

The planning has already begun for City Giving Day 2021 and with over 80 attendees joining us for our second Engagement Breakfast we are hopeful that this year we will see many businesses, both old and new signing up to take part in this brilliant and fun event.

City Giving Day celebrates volunteering and philanthropy in the City of London and this year takes place on Tuesday 21^st September 2021. A simple initiative which helps to raise important funds for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s four charity partners (Place2Be, OnSide Youth Zones, Samaritans and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award), alongside individual businesses’ own chosen organisations.

Our engagement breakfasts aim to give an overview into the day and allow any attendees the opportunity to gain insight and helpful advice on how to make the most of this uplifting day. The session began with a welcome from Alderman William Russell, The Lord Mayor of the City of London, who talked about the benefits of the day, not just for the charities but the companies taking part and urged businesses to help us reach more people this year by encouraging others to get involved on the day.

City Giving Day Programme Manager Jan Foster gave an overview of the 2020 City Giving Day which obviously saw a change to the usual format with 72% of activity taking place online, and an estimated £300,000 raised for good causes by 465 companies. Jan explained how businesses can get involved in the day both through their own activities, or by simply joining one of our own on the day events like the adrenaline-fueled Tour de City or Tour de Wharf or unique City treasure hunt.

Euroclear’s Corporate Responsibility Manager Charlotte Shaw gave an insightful overview of their activity around City Giving Day. This is the sixth year Euroclear have been involved, with six global locations taking part each year and Charlotte commented on how they have now used the day to expand the scope. In 2019 they had a whole week of celebration and a whole month of virtual events in 2020!

Success in simplicity was the message from Hind Naciri, Standard Chartered Bank’s Senior Sustainability Manager Europe, who talked through some of the activities they have taken part in and what they have learnt from the day. One important element she raised was the fact that not having a budget to use for fundraising wasn’t a barrier to take part. As mentioned previously there are many activities, we run which can be joined for free, or you can simply wear red on the day, making a small donation to share your support.

We were then thrilled to be joined by Julie Bentley, CEO of Samaritans, one of our four supported charities. She gave a quick overview of their recent work, especially throughout the pandemic before explaining how important days like City Giving Day are to them and how the funds raised really do help to save lives.

Year on year City Giving Day is growing and we want you to join us this year and make this the biggest one yet – 692 is our target, can you help us get there?

It really is so simple to sign up and you can find all the details on our website here. Once you have registered to take part you will be able to benefit from a whole range of resources and support and are team are on hand to offer any advice that might be needed.

If you missed this Engagement Breakfast our next one will be taking place on Thursday 1^st July 2021