Charities of the year

Our charities of the year

Our ‘charities of the year’ are individual charities that we support for a set period of two years. We highlight the work they do and help to raise funds for them.

We are currently supporting The Childhood Trust, Mental Health Innovations, (the charity that provides the service SHOUT), and The Trussell Trust until November 2025.

The Childhood Trust is London's child poverty charity, dedicated to providing a healthy, happy, and safe childhood, so that children are prepared for life, breaking the cycle of poverty.

Shout, powered by the charity Mental Health Innovations, is the UK’s free, confidential and 24/7 text messaging support service. It offers digital support for issues including suicide, depression, anxiety, relationships, loneliness, and self-harm.

The Trussell Trust will end hunger in the UK so no one needs a food bank to survive. They will not stop until everybody has enough money for the essentials. Until then, they will do everything they can to be here for people on the lowest incomes.

We are happy to support the important work that these charities do.

How we choose our charities 

We choose our charities of the year by inviting our colleagues to advocate for the causes they are passionate about. Then we create a shortlist and ask all our colleagues to vote on which three they want to raise funds for and support.

To make sure we are representative we support a wide range of causes and aim for:

• one charity that that aligns with our diversity and inclusion agenda 
• one smaller local charity with a regional focus
• one nationally or internationally recognised charity

Our previous charities of the year

In previous years, we chose the two charities that received the highest number of votes, regardless of the cause. Those two charities became our charitable partners for 12 months. 

One of the ways our colleagues have donated to our charities of the year for over 15 years is through the Pennies from Heaven scheme. In 2022 we received a Platinum Award from the scheme for continued high level of support. They have given us their top award for 10 years.

Our recent charities of the year with the amounts we’ve been pleased to donate are:

2021 / 2023
We raised over £225,000 for Carers UK, Demelza and WWF-UK.

2020 / 2021
We raised over £320,000 for Childline (a service provided by NSPCC) and Shelter. 

2019 / 2020 
We raised over £240,000 for Pancreatic Cancer UK and Young Minds. 

2018 / 2019
We raised over £180,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity and London’s Air Ambulance.

2017 / 2018 
We raised over £136,000 for Child Bereavement UK and Samaritans.