Big business boosts local communities in economic downturn

Capital Shopping Centres, East Midlands Airport, Jaguar Land Rover and Prudential become CommunityMark achievers. Together they have:

• Invested £3,172,092 into local community initiatives
• Engaged 16% of their employees to volunteer their time amounting to £440,762
• Worked across 30 community partners to achieve their impact
• Supported 20,894 school children in 411 schools
  

CommunityMark is the premiership of corporate social responsibility, the best that a company can be.

The CommunityMark is a national standard of excellence in community investment, which was first launched in 2008 and is endorsed by HRH The Prince of Wales.  In three years, 38 organisations of all sizes across a variety of sectors have become exemplars of excellence in community investment.

Collectively, the new achievers of the CommunityMark have invested over £3 million in their communities over the past year through corporate giving and fundraising, pro bono and employee volunteering, in-kind support and commercial initiatives.

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive of Business in the Community said: “During a considerably tough year these four organisations have proved that continuing to listen, engage and respond to the needs of your community reinforces the fact that excellence in community investment not only has a positive and valuable impact on society, but translates to real business benefits.

“They have focussed on social issues such as education, training and anti-social behaviour and fostered strong reciprocal partnerships to help improve the knowledge and skills in their local communities to ensure that there are people to support the local economy and business”.

Matt Sparks, Global Community Investment Manager at Linklaters, a CommunityMark company, comments on the value of the CommunityMark. “The CommunityMark is a fresh and sensible approach to providing a deep clean on the management and delivery of corporate community investment. It provided a framework for Linklaters to consolidate and validate why it was doing what we were doing.

“Its strength lies in its thoroughness and rigour, and has helped Linklaters to develop a focus to its community investment and report on this publicly. CommunityMark is the premiership of corporate social responsibility, the best that a company can be, and it is great to hear that four more companies are joining this exclusive group displaying excellence in community investment”.

To achieve the CommunityMark, companies are assessed according to five principles of community investment through a rigorous process, validated an independent panel made up of the public, private and third sectors and assured externally by AD Little.

To find out more about what the new achievers have done to achieve the CommunityMark, click here.

Is your company ready to make its mark in the community? The next submission date for CommunityMark applications is 7 January 2011. For more information, click here.

For further information or an opportunity to interview one of the business leaders please contact Linda Considine on 0750 237 2774 or at Linda.considine@yahoo.co.uk