Working with good causes - it’s what we do

We have a dedicated Charities Committee at Kwik Fit Insurance, volunteering their own time in order to maximise our relationship with national charitable causes and local community projects.

As well as offering funding to various organisations, our staff also regularly spend time working on site at local organisations offering manual labour and volunteering.

Each year we nominate our ‘Charity of the Year’, which our staff select from a panel of nominees. We work closely with this benefactor, developing close relationships and a real partnership that often stretches beyond the one-year period. The committee set a target fundraising amount for a particular project that the beneficiary is working towards, with some great fundraising events and initiatives throughout the year that involve our entire workforce. In the past 4 years we have:

• Raised £22,000 to purchase a new Hydrotherapy pool for Capability Scotland’s Stanmore House School for severely disabled children, based in Lanark
• Handed over a cheque for £25,000 to NCH towards funding for a new care centre for families in Hamilton, Lanarkshire
• Topped £30,000 in funding for Tak Tent Cancer Care based at Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow. This money provided an entire year’s worth of treatments and therapies to their clients and families
• Fundraised over £35,000 to finance the build of a new Hydrotherapy Pool for Redburn Special Needs School, in Cambuslang, Glasgow. The pool will become a vital part of therapies for the children.

Stanmore House

Capability Scotland’s Stanmore House School in Lanark provides specialist education for children and young people with very complex needs. They provide school and residential accommodation to children and young people between the ages of 5 and 18. Facilities include classrooms, modern dining facilities, medical and social care facilities, resource equipment library, sensory therapy rooms and soft play area.

In 2005, Stanmore House was selected by our staff as our charity of the year. The school contacted us with a dream they had to install a hydrotherapy pool which the children could use to help stimulate their senses and help them receive therapy in the water. At a cost of £20, 000 our staff took on board the challenge to raise the funds. On top of this, our staff regularly attended the school to help maintain the building and the grounds, including a popular re-decoration of the classrooms and offices, ensuring a pleasant environment for everyone to enjoy.

In December 2005 we were delighted to hand over a cheque totalling £22,000 from a variety of fundraising activities involving our staff throughout the year. Since then, the pool has been installed and is in full use by the staff and pupils daily. Many of our employees have returned to the school to see the pool for themselves, and we have retained a strong relationship with Stanmore ever since.

NCH Scotland

NCH Scotland approached us in 2006 to help fund a new centre being built in nearby Hamilton. A place where children and their families could go and spend some quality time together, the new facility was named ‘Silverton Short Breaks’ and was visited shortly after opening by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal. Silverton Short Breaks supports local families of children aged 5-18 with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, autism or Down syndrome. The service, run in partnership with South Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire, is based in a custom-built six-bed bungalow, and can look after six children at a time, providing them with a safe and stimulating environment while giving families a short break from their usual caring role. Our support included fundraising for essential custom-made play equipment, including a wheelchair swing, an all-ability roundabout and soft play equipment. We handed over a cheque for £25,000 that allowed us to purchase all the equipment that the centre needed to really make a difference to the children who would visit.

Tak Tent

In November 2006, our Charities Committee was approached by one of our staff members to consider short listing a Glasgow cancer care charity, Tak Tent, as our 2007 charity of the year. Having used their services in the past, he felt that they were more than deserving of our assistance in the following 12 months. After meeting with the team and listening to the work they did, we agreed, and were delighted to announce in January 2007 our new fundraising partnership.

Tak Tent promotes the care of people on the cancer journey, their families and friends by providing emotional support to all. They provide counselling for anyone affected by cancer as well as therapies to assist in coping on a daily basis with all varieties of the disease. All of their services are provided free of charge and they rely on support through donations and fundraising to continue to operate.

We pledged to provide them with enough financial support to allow them to offer a full year of therapies and services, benefiting hundreds of people who regularly require their assistance. We managed to exceed everyone’s expectations by raising a whopping £36,000 in total over the 12 months of our partnership, much to the delight of all our staff and our friends at Tak Tent.

Kidney Research UK

Kidney Research UK came onboard in 2009 as our Charity of the Year following some suggestions from staff who had been personally comforted by the work that they provide. Although a UK wide charity, Kidney Research were looking to start up a new education and support service for the whole of Scotland that currently only exists in England. The ABLE project offers information and support to vulnerable members of the community who are more likely to contract Kidney Disease with the hope of preventing the disease ever appearing. Thanks to the fundraising efforts of staff, taking part in such things as White Water Rafting and climbing to the top of Ben Nevis, £43,000 was donated which will fund the entire project in its entirety for the whole of Scotland.

Back to Corporate Social Responsibility