Marked annually on 27th February, World NGO Day is an international day dedicated to recognising and celebrating all non-governmental and non-profit organisations. It also aims to educate individuals worldwide about NGOs and their impact by shining a light on the positive work such organisations do for society at a local, national and international level.
As a global company, we have a strong heritage of encouraging each of our global offices to select a charity to support that makes an impact close to home. We also encourage employees to play an active role in supporting their charities of choice, as well as K2’s chosen charities.
Executive Business Director, and lead for global fundraising, Richard Rutledge, commented on the importance of charities being chosen on local merit:
“We wanted to give the teams in each of our locations the autonomy to select a charity that they, as a team, could really get behind. The amount of money raised by each of the teams last year alone demonstrates how passionately they’ve thrown themselves into supporting their respective local charities.”
K2 provides all employees with two days of paid leave per annum, to support charitable causes and community activities.
In 2021 we donated over £30k to our global charities, find out more about each of them and the incredible work they do below:
Rainbow Trust – UK
The Rainbow Trust has been the UK office’s chosen charity since 2015, and UK employees have ‘clocked’ thousands of miles in sponsored walks for them, each year, as well as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 2017. They have also hosted multiple community and client-partnered events.
The Rainbow Trust provide bespoke support for families who have a child with a serious illness. They offer the whole family support, regardless of diagnosis and are there for as long as families need.
They offer practical and emotional support for families, for siblings, at home, at hospital and on the move.
Support is hugely varied and depends on the needs of the family.
It can include:
• Listening to a family’s fears and anxieties.
• Helping to explain illnesses, diagnoses and treatments.
• Keeping a seriously ill child company during hospital stays.
• Driving families to medical appointments to help save time and money.
• Organising fun activities to help sick children, their brothers and sisters.
• Support through bereavement and grief.
Barncancerfonden – Sweden
Barncancerfonden (The Childhood Cancer Foundation) works to prevent and combat childhood cancers. They also work to achieve better care and to improve quality of life for children with cancer and their families Their vision is to eradicate childhood cancer through the continued contribution to paediatric cancer research.
Breadline Africa – South Africa
Breadline Africa are a Cape Town based charity providing infrastructure and initiatives to support childhood development in Southern Africa. Their goal is to help 250,000 + children by 2023 through provision of practical items, feeding programmes and initiatives such as stationery drives and organised outings.
The Smith Family – Australia
An independent children’s charity, The Smith Family focuses on helping disadvantaged Australian children to get the most out of their education, so they can create better futures for themselves.
Club Rainbow – Singapore
Club Rainbow aims to support and empower children with chronic illnesses & their families by providing compassionate relevant services in their journey towards an enriching life. Many of their services are geared towards helping the entire family in a holistic way.
St Jude Children’s Research Hospital – USA
A paediatric treatment and research facility, the mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for paediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.
We are looking forward to further K2 global fundraising initiatives for all of these worthwhile causes through a variety of events in 2022.
Richard continues:
“In the UK we will once again be encouraging teams to take part in the ‘Race to the King’ ultra-marathon event to support the Rainbow Trust. We’re partnering with our valued client, Aon, for another year on this challenge and plan to invite a few other clients and service partners, numbers permitting. We’re always delighted with the level of uptake for this event and hope that this year will be no exception! A real test of stamina, participants in 2022 face a longer route than in previous years, so we hope to exceed historical fundraising totals for the event. Registration is now open and our first training walk will take place towards the end of March.”
But it’s not all about physical fundraising challenges; at K2 we always ensure there’s a broad spectrum of activities available to appeal to all employees. We understand the importance of making the companywide fundraising effort fully accessible, by inviting people to take part in as little or as much as they can. From bake sales and raffles, to marathons and mountaineering, there’s something that everyone can get involved in.
World NGO Day found that 80% of people surveyed globally agreed that NGOs make it easy to be involved in positive social change, something we are keen to support through our culture of collaboration and commitment to delivering our corporate social responsibility goals.
