In 2014, the Government published the results of a call for views from UK businesses about corporate responsibility, and published it in a report, Good for Business & Society. In it, the authors describe corporate responsibility as a voluntary action that “creates shared value for business and society”.
Whilst many companies have defined their CSR policies, we feel that because all the fundraising we do as a team are activities we’d get involved with anyway, we don’t need to make it official, whether it’s for the benefit of charity fundraising, helping out in the local community, or giving local businesses a boost.
Charities
Our official charity of the year – as last year – is Teens Unite. Karen Chase, one of our directors, explains why she organises so many fundraising and awareness-raising activities for the charity. “It makes me sad when I think about the young people they help, so I not only wanted to raise money for them, but in doing so I also hope to encourage other companies to do the same. On a personal level, I organise lots of little events in the office throughout the year, such as dress down days, cake sales and a ‘tuck shop’. I also use networking events as an opportunity to talk about the work of Teens Unite which, let’s be honest, people are far more interested in than if I was talking about accounts! As a company, we run stalls at local events to help the charity sell goods that have been donated to them. So although our fundraising for Teens Unite can technically be described as CSR, it’s purely coincidental.”
Every year, the whole team come together to help organise a quiz night to raise funds for a good cause. In 2016 we raised £1,600 to help the Paralympian ambitions of Herts sportsman Shaun Whiter who had recently lost both legs in a traffic accident.
Community
Mark White runs Hoddesdon’s Give Your Town The Run Around initiative, which HB also sponsors. It was launched in 2014 as a way of encouraging the town to get fit, and gets the entire community to turn out for the race and to cheer on the runners. The number of runners taking part is rising year-on-year, and in 2016 there were 750 entrants. This year Mark will ensure that HB Accountants is involved: “Local businesses will enter teams for the run – whether we will find enough volunteer runners from the office this year remains to be seen, but we will encourage as many of our team as possible to come and help raise money for charity on the day”.
Business
The Love Hoddesdon initiative was launched by independent retailers in 2014 to attract shoppers to the town. Catherine and Charlotte have offered their support by being on the Love Hoddesdon committee to help promote the town and all the events that take place in it.
We are also a sponsor of the annual Ambition conferences in which sales and marketing experts give presentations to local small businesses and sole traders in Hertfordshire to help them succeed in business. Ambition 2017 will take place on Thursday 30 November in Hoddesdon – so save the date!
Networking
We get involved in a lot of local business networking groups which are a great way of connecting with and supporting the business community. We also run the administration for the Hoddesdon Networking Breakfast, an informal and well-attended ‘drop in, drop out’ event, which is held once a month so local business people have the opportunity to meet. Every other month, HNB is held in the Your Town hub which was set up as a business and community centre in 2015 for the benefit of community groups and start-up businesses.
If you would like more information about the Hoddesdon Networking Breakfast, or details of any of our charitable events, contact charlotte@hbaccountants.co.uk.
