We've supported a selection of charities and schemes since the foundation began in 2000, and we've now set up a number of programmes in order to help us achieve our vision.
The Richmond Group supports Julia's House, a local children's Hospice which aims to improve the life quality of terminally ill children.
The Richmond Group offers a volunteer programme for Youth Cancer Trust, a unique charity providing free, fun activity based holidays for young people suffering with cancer or any malignant disease.
The Richmond Group has a unique work experience programme with The Manchester Settlement, an organisation that runs education programmes for young people not reaching their full potential.
Since March 2007 all Richmond Group employees have been given the chance to donate at least £1 a week from their salary. The tax and NI saved on the income is also donated and the Richmond Group matches this donation, making a total of at least £3. In the first year of this scheme being operational we donated over £35,000 to Julia's House, enough to pay the salary of a wonderful full time nurse, Ron Scroggie, who works to support 6 families in their own homes.
In July 2007 an idea raised by one of our call centre staff was tested by a group of Management Development Trainees. The idea was a simple one, to give all Richmond Group customers the chance of donating 49p when they make a payment over the telephone to us. The trial was a huge success, with 80% of customers agreeing to donate 49p, and some far more. In the first 9 months of operation this scheme raised over £100,000 for Julia's House, enough to allow them to open for an extra day every week. The feedback from our customers and our staff has been great and the donation scheme is an example of how Richmond Group innovation, passion and resourcefulness can be used to benefit those less fortunate than ourselves.
We work very closely with The Youth Cancer Trust so that they can rely on us to provide volunteers as and when they need them. Any member of staff can sign up to volunteer and help out for the day, doing whatever it is that needs support - from admin work to pulling out the weeds and gardening!
The scheme set in place for The Manchester Settlement follows on from our MD's involvement in the Secret Millionaire programme. The relationship built from James' time spent with the Manchester Settlement led to the formation of the Youth Work Experience Programme.
Any young person who achieves at least 1 GCSE through the Manchester Settlement education programme is invited for 1 month's fully paid work experience, which can even lead to full-time employment, as it has done with Aiden Gordon (pictured below)
