Luke Ellerton usually spends his days working out corporate tax returns. But in late January, the 25-year-old tax associate at multinational accountancy firm PwC will swap his suit and tie for a frock and make-up as he takes to the boards to play the dame in Dick Whittington.
Around 200 PwC employees are helping to put on the firm’s annual pantomime, now in its 29th year, and PwC is offering 7,000 free tickets for local schools and charities to see the rags-to-riches tale.
PwC’s panto, which will be performed in London and then Manchester, is just one of a multitude of events that UK businesses put on over the festive period. From charity Christmas card campaigns to employee fundraisers, Christmas marks a peak in the corporate charity calendar.
That makes sense. For all but the most curmudgeonly Scrooge, Christmas marks a time for giving. Like turkey and mistletoe, charity appeals are fast becoming a fixed tradition. Indeed, recent research by the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) finds that online giving in November and December accounted for almost two-fifths (39%) of the average UK charity’s total incoming donations in 2013.
Put crudely, Christmas is a strategic time to ask folk to reach into their pockets. Daniel Fluskey, IoF’s head of policy and research, says: “People are thinking about others and those feelings of empathy can often lead to also thinking about causes and charities they care about.”
But charitable endeavours are not without risk. Get it wrong and your employees and customers might interpret your efforts as tokenistic or, worse still, cynical opportunism.
Tom Gater, sponsorship manager at corporate membership group Business in the Community, advises: “The best examples use Christmas to highlight a long-term relationship and to look back on what’s been achieved. If it’s a one-off campaign, it’s not as effective.”
A good example is Marks and Spencer, which has run a Christmas campaign for homeless charity Shelter every year since 2005. That’s sustained commitment, which customers recognise. Last year, the two-month campaign raised £1.5m, helping part-fund the charity’s 24-hour helpline.
The UK retailer also supports the cancer charities Macmillan and Breakthrough Breast Cancer through the annual sale of charity Christmas cards. Crucially, it runs fundraising campaigns for both charities at other times during the year as well.
Adam Elman, global head of delivery for the M&S sustainability programme, Plan A, acknowledges that charity partnerships are popular over Christmas, but says that they’re important to its customers all year round.
Such continued support can help dismiss charges of cynical opportunism. That said, M&S’s yuletide efforts are not free of commercial interest. One of its festive social marketing campaigns sees the company give Shelter 5% of the ticket price of selected sandwiches. Similarly, fast food chain Pret a Manger’s Share The Hope campaign donates 5p from the sale of its various “charity-enriched products”.
To don the Scrooge hat, that may mean more money for the charity, but it also means profits for the retailers. Klara Kozlov, head of corporate clients at the Charities Aid Foundation, says most people have no problem with that arrangement as long as the company is transparent about its motives and has a ‘fit’ with the charity. “When people see [a corporate Christmas campaign], then they have to think that it feels natural for that organisation to be doing it,” she says.
Topic area is certainly a key consideration. Companies support all manner of different charities throughout the year, yet two themes seem to dominate in Christmas initiatives: homelessness and children. According to Gater, these two issues seem to play into the general feeling around Christmas – a family time when people remember those without loved ones near.
As well as the broader public, companies place special emphasis on engaging their employees at Christmas. Again, initiatives that grow out of long-term charitable commitments and touch on social issues relevant to the season tend to gain most traction.
Nationwide Building Society provides a case in point. The UK mutual has partnered with Shelter since 2001. It makes it easy for staff to contribute to the charity’s Christmas appeal and provides various fundraising activities across its network of local branches. This dovetails with ongoing support through the year, such as volunteering opportunities for employees in Shelter’s retail outlets.
Sascha Chennell, senior citizenship manager at Nationwide, says: “Christmas is a great opportunity to raise awareness of our support for Shelter. But it’s very much part of what we do throughout the year.”
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