In September 2008, Nomura, the global investment bank, acquired Lehman Brothers' European operations. Nomura's staff numbers jumped by 3,000 overnight. I was one of the 3,000. I found myself working for a different company, with a different corporate culture and a very different approach to community investment.
Having worked in the philanthropy team at Lehman Brothers, I was surprised at Nomura's limited involvement in local community and charitable activities. Most of the donations were ad hoc and didn't fit into a strategic approach to giving. I saw this as an opportunity.
Nomura at the time was facing external doubts about its ability to integrate the Lehman Brothers staff, and rumours of a mass walk-out were rife. We needed to create a new culture to inspire and unite all employees.
In my first few weeks I met the management team and expressed the need to create a new community investment programme to help boost staff morale. I explained that one of the quick ways of engaging employees from both organisations would be to focus fundraising activities on one cause. Giving the employees the option to vote for one charity and focus all fundraising efforts would provide a positive story internally and demonstrate Nomura's long-term commitment to supporting the local communities where we operate.
This convinced the management team to give me the mandate to establish an employee fundraising partnership. The idea was to create a two-year partnership with a charity chosen by Nomura employees that aimed to raise £100,000.
I knew that a collaborative staff fundraising platform needed to focus our efforts on a universal theme which appealed to everyone, so we decided on supporting disadvantaged young people.
We needed to find a charity that was small enough that our £100,000 fundraising target would make an impact, but also large enough to have the infrastructure to support such a partnership. Thirty charities applied, six were shortlisted and the Teenage Cancer Trust won the vote. So we began our partnership in May 2009.
Teenage Cancer Trust is an organisation that believes young people have a better chance of fighting cancer if they are treated by teenage cancer experts, in an environment tailored to their needs. The charity funds specialist cancer units which tailor for young people with cancer.
Teenage Cancer Trust needed a new business partner to meet an urgent need within London. A funding partner was required to invest in eight dedicated treatment pods for the first ever day care cancer centre in Europe. Nomura and Teenage Cancer Trust were determined to push the partnership as far beyond the £100,000 as possible.
I soon realised that to reach this target we needed an integrated method of communicating with our employees and had to engage all levels of workers in the partnership. This is where we created something unique: we gave Teenage Cancer Trust access to all our internal resources and created an open-door policy so that representatives could speak to the senior team whenever they wanted – and vice-versa.
Meanwhile, Francesca Marenghi, the corporate relationship manager at Teenage Cancer Trust, spent two days each week at our office, getting under the skin of the organisation, getting to know the business, networking and learning where opportunities for fundraising lay. We wanted Teenage Cancer Trust to understand the needs and culture of Nomura so that we could all tailor the fundraising initiatives accordingly. Our partnership became a dedicated function within the London office.
It was amazing to see how involved staff became: we had people shaving their heads on the trading floors, bankers cycling from London to Paris, and eight equities graduates skydiving from 10,000ft – to specify a few of the activities undertaken. We raffled off all our car parking spaces in the building, donated boardroom furniture to the charity and introduced the charity to as many suppliers and friends as possible.
Apart from employees own fundraising activities, we organised team-building initiatives, including trivia nights, fun runs and the annual Nomura Challenge. These individual and team activities have been instrumental in the success of retaining talent within the organisation and enhancing our external reputation. The partnership was a valuable tool in integrating teams, building relationships and the communication skills of employees following the Lehman acquisition. A common internal company culture was forming; staff satisfaction was increasing, which heightened staff productivity. It has practically become the uniform at the corporate gym to wear Nomura's Teenage Cancer Trust T-shirts; employees are proud and want to show their involvement.
Using quantitative analysis, I devised an employee survey in December 2010 to measure staff engagement and whether employees felt the partnership helped elevate their pride in working for Nomura. The survey revealed that more than 96% of employees were aware of the partnership and were more proud working for Nomura than those who were not aware of the partnership.
On 4 April 2011, at the official opening of our EMEA headquarters, we presented a cheque for £1m to Teenage Cancer Trust. At the conclusion of our two-year partnership, I was amazed at how far beyond our target we had reached. Simon Davies, chief executive of Teenage Cancer Trust, was overwhelmed by what we had achieved. In the lead up to the announcement, staff were buzzing with excitement about reaching £1m so that we saw an influx in individual employee fundraising efforts.
This is an effective model for charities to get the most out of their fundraising partnerships. I cannot emphasise enough the importance for them to embed themselves in the company culture and identify themselves as a way to enhance pride, improve staff productivity and increase an organisation's profile externally.
I recommend the following tips to corporates looking to create their own partnership:
Be focused: There are so many good causes out there and multiple ways to get involved. By focusing your efforts on one or two organisations, themes or areas, your business will have a greater impact.
Think long-term: Plan each activity to ensure the programme develops, setting long-term targets.
Empower: Give individuals across your organisation the chance to take responsibility for delivering activities and managing partnerships.
Demonstrate business benefits: Where possible, ensure the business benefits of your activities are clearly understood. Do simple activities to demonstrate this – for example, we survey our volunteers and non-volunteers. This has shown that significant skills are developed by our people through volunteering.
Build relationships: Peer-to-peer relationships between individuals at the charity and within the business are important. They ensure regular communications, generate idea and empower individuals to act in support of the charity.
Anthony Harte is head of community affairs at Nomura
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