Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is becoming more and more important to companies. From an employee engagement point of view and also from the customers. Studies have found that consumers are 55% more likely to purchase from a socially responsible company*
In early 2016 when Next Generation was awarded a Great Place to Work we assessed the full feedback report and employees felt that more could be done on the CSR side of the Company. With that in mind we established a CSR committee, made up of employees across different divisions, to meet every quarter and plan out CSR events and which charities we could raise money for.
Below are highlights of our CSR activities in 2016:
PAINT IT PINK FOR ACTION BREAST CANCER
To raise awareness for Breast Cancer the Next Generation team dressed in pink for the day. Before the day arrived Linda, our CEO, staked a bet that for anyone who wore a pink morph suit (it’s worth googling these!) she would donate €100. Now fortunately, or unfortunately depend on how you see it, no one wore the morph suit! However on the day Linda very kindly donated an extra €200 for some employees to go during lunch in their full attire. On the day we were also selling badges, pens provided by Action Breast Cancer and we managed to raise over €320.
TRICK OR TREAT FOR TEMPLE STREET
Mario and Luigi. Mary Poppins. Wally. The Pope and a sword wielding maniac. Even our CEO participated as a cereal killer. Not exactly a typical day in our office. A favourite for nearly all our employees for Temple Street all of our employee’s came in fancy dress and we also had a bake sale for the building. All in all we raised just over €330 for this great cause.
JERSEY DAY FOR PIETA HOUSE
Manchester vs. Liverpool. Leinster vs. Ulster. That one fan of a sports teams where everyone quietly judges their choice ( in this case Newcastle ) and who can forget the Mighty Ducks! Each employee donated money to wear their sports colours with pride and for anyone who “forgot” their punishment was even more money for charity! All in all, we raised over €130 for Pieta House which raises awareness for suicide in Ireland.
5K MORUN
On a lovely winter morning in November some of the team grouped together and met in Phoenix Park for a 5k run ( or in some cases walk! ) all for the great cause of raising awareness of men’s cancer. Over €240 was raised for this amazing charity.
CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY FOR MS IRELAND
On our last day before we closed for Christmas and the New Year what better way to celebrate then with a Christmas Jumper day! All proceeds went to MS Ireland and we also had an office competition for the best jumper.
So there we have it! We have big plans for 2017 – even more fundraising and different type of events. Having seen how much our employees enjoyed giving back to charity in 2016 we are looking forward to doing even more, with a bigger team in 2017!
