In this three-minute read, we look at why it makes good sense for your agency to have a local charity of the year in 2022.
One of our company’s goals for 2021 was to have a charity of the year who we supported over 12 months.

And we achieved it.

We’re now towards the end of working with a charity we supported in 2021 that provides services for homeless people in East Sussex.

And it’s been a great learning curve. Some good points, some not so good. But ultimately, more than £3,000 raised for the charity.

In 2022, we’ll be supporting an organisation called WOLO (We Only Live Once) which supports families affected by cancer across Sussex, but it’s particularly well known and active in the town where we live.

We researched local Facebook groups to see what organisations were out there helping local people, and WOLO’s name kept coming up. So, last week, we met with the couple who run it and agreed to work with them as our charity of the year for 2022.

Here’s how we intend on doing it.

-  We’ve committed to a monthly donation of £150.

- We’ll hold two fundraising events/efforts over the next 12 months. We’ll be sharing ideas on what we’ve got planned with people in our database and on social media. I’ll also be running the Brighton Marathon raising funds for them.

- We’ll get hands-on by volunteering with the service.

- We’ll share our marketing and PR knowledge with them for free.

- We’ll be receiving quarterly updates from WOLO about their work and what our money is going towards.

- We’ll still be match funding our members’ charity and community donations via our Karma Club.

- The support for WOLO is in addition to that and we want to hit our annual KPI (Kindness Performance Indicator) of donating £10,000 via the club and our charity of the year work.

Why we’re doing it and why it matters to your agency

It gives us a purpose as a business beyond simply making a profit. We want to make a difference.

An agency that has goodwill locally through its community efforts is one that will be remembered.

We want to help you do that.

Here are five steps on how you can get involved with a local charity for the next 12 months. (The key, in my opinion, is to go local and small.)

1) Look to support one that you feel drawn to. We chose WOLO because both Wendy (Mrs Lyons) and I have dealt with cancer in the past couple of years. Yours could be a youth group, animal sanctuary, food bank, homeless shelter – whatever fires you and your team up.

2) Research them online. We asked around on local Facebook forums. Doing this as a business also lets people know you want to support the community.

3) Arrange calls with any organisations you are interested in supporting to find out more about what they do and see if you have a rapport. Remember, at this point, you’re not committing – you need to get that sense of whether you want to work with them and vice versa.

4) We agreed to make a monthly donation and to hold some fundraising events throughout the year. Now, these do not need to be grand community fetes or the like. Whatever you do, try to involve your team and other people within the community.

5) Working with a dedicated charity for 12 months gives your efforts a focus. And creates a load of content and PR opportunities if you do it right.

Our experience of having a charity of the year in 2021 has been a positive one. But I would say be careful and ensure that any charity or community group you consider are good communicators and are well organised.

If you have any questions about choosing a charity of the year for your agency in 2022, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for reading.

Jerry