|
community
|
- Financial support
- Impact on society
- Staff involvement
- Customer involvement
- Measure the impact of the bank's Customers Who Care campaign on unexploded cluster bombs. TARGET ACHIEVED
- Continue to develop the bank's Ethical Purchasing Index, which is designed to recognise and encourage Ethical Consumerism. TARGET ACHIEVED
- Assist in establishing and developing new Community Development Financial Institutions. TARGET ACHIEVED
- Assist in establishing The Co-operative Foundation, designed to translate the principles of mutual support and community into practical action. TARGET ACHIEVED
|
|
|
performance
|
Sources:
Co-operative Bank Figures: Corporate Affairs 2002
Comparative Figures: The PerCent Club Benchmarking Report 2000i
|
|
|
The PerCent Club i logo is awarded to those organisations
contributing at least 1% of pre-tax profit as community investment.
Note: The graph indicates The Co-operative Bank's community
investment as a % of pre-tax profit in 2002, calculated in line with
PerCent Club guidelines. The total of £3,301,150 is made up of
cash support (£2,580,100), staff time (£187,420) and management
costs (£533,630). Comparisons have been made with the
community investment in 2001 (latest available figures from
The Giving List ii, November 2002) of other leading financial
services organisations.
|
|
|
Analysis of Community 'Inputs' According to the London Benchmarking Group Model, 2002
|
|
Sources of 'Charitable' Aid, 2002
(cash contributions)
|
Areas of Charitable Support, 2002
(cash contributions)
Cluster Bomb Campaign
|
Allocation of 'Customers Who Care' Monies, 2002
Note: In addition to direct contributions, a further £236,855 was spent on
associated campaigning activities in partnership with the charity sector.
|
|
|
commentary
|
Community support During 2002, the bank's 'cash'
donations increased by 22% to £2,580,100 (2001:
£2,113,220). As a percentage of pre-tax profits, 'cash'
donations have increased slightly from 2.0% to 2.1%.
However, the bank's absolute total community investment
(which includes items such as staff time) has fallen by £72,280
or 2%, and investment expressed as a percentage of pre-tax
profit has fallen from 3.1% to 2.7% as a result of a fall in the
verifiable value of staff community volunteering. Previously,
volunteering had been ascertained for a sample of staff and
then a bank-wide figure determined via a process of
extrapolation. In 2002, for the first time, the survey covered all
staff, and this indicates that previous estimates significantly
overstated volunteering.
Financial support and customer involvement Affinity relationships During 2002, the bank issued credit cards
for thirteen national charities/non-governmental organisations iii.
Affinity partners receive a donation from the bank for each new
card and a margin on the use of the card. During 2002,
partners received a total of £1,191,150 (2001: £1,207,470)
The charities/non-governmental organisations, in order of
income received in 2002, are: The Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds (RSPB), Oxfam, Amnesty International (UK),
Greenpeace, Tearfund, Save the Children, ActionAid, Help the
Hospices, Barnardo's, Schools Card, Help the Aged,
Children's Aid Direct and WaterAid. In 2003, smile is working
with Christian Aid to trial a new internet-based affinity
relationship that will promote smile's current account. smile
will donate funds to Christian Aid in proportion to the number
of current accounts opened via this promotion.
Customers Who Care The bank donates 1.25p per £100 spent
by personal customers on their bank credit and debit cards to
its Customers Who Careiv campaigns. In response to customer
requests, in 2003 this has been extended to include
expenditure associated with the bank's Business Visa Card.
During 2002, a total of £365,855 was donated via this scheme
(2001: £364,280), of which £129,000 was allocated to
Landmine Action v, the Halo Trust vi and Mines Advisory Group
(MAG) vii for clearance programmes in Sudan, Nagorno
Karabakh and Cambodia. In addition, funding was provided for
a new research report, produced by Landmine Action, on
explosive remnants of war in Sri Lanka. Landmine Action is a
coalition of fifty organisations, including Amnesty International,
Oxfam, Christian Aid and Tearfund, who are seeking the
introduction of a new international law requiring those who use
cluster bombs and other explosive weapons to take
responsibility for their clearance. For a full independent
analysis of this campaign follow this link.
Co-operative Action Launched in April 2002, following the
recommendations of the Co-operative Commission,
Co-operative Action has been established to assist
communities to developviii co-operative, mutual or social
enterprises, through the provision of grants and loans. The
fund has been created from donations made by co-operatives
throughout the UK. The bank has taken a key role in this venture,
contributing £500,000 to the establishment of the fund.
Encouraging funding applications The bank previously
identified that Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and disability
groups make very few community funding requests. The bank
has taken action to improve funding to these groups as follows.
- BME Groups. As previously reported, a dedicated BME fund
of £50,000 was established in 2001 with the Community
Foundation for Greater Manchester (CFGM).ix Although BME
groups have applied for and received support from the
bank's general community funding, there were no payments
from the dedicated BME fund in 2002. This was considered
unsatisfactory. A mapping exercise to identify potential
beneficiary groups was undertaken by CFGM and, in early
2003, the first grants were agreed for three community
organisations: the Khelagher Youth Association in Oldham,
management training for the Harmony Youth Project in
Bolton, and business plan development for the Bury Afro-
Caribbean Opportunities Initiative. In these awards, there is
an emphasis on developing the operational and fund-raising
capacity of each organisation. Separately, the bank has
worked with The Progress Trust and Business Community
Connections to facilitate and sponsor an event in
Manchester which brought BME community organisations
and local businesses together.
- Disability Fund. A separate £20,000 Disability Fund has
been established in conjunction with Disabled Living x. The
fund is designed to enable the purchase of mobility
equipment by individuals who would not otherwise gain
statutory funding or be able to afford it.
Impact on society The bank discloses its community
investment against the London Benchmarking Group (LBG)
modelxi. The model considers community investment in terms
of inputs, outputs and impacts.
Inputs. The LBG model helps organisations to analyse the
inputs of their community investment on the basis of the
motivation underpinning any involvement. The majority of the
bank's community involvement is classified within 'commercial
initiatives in the community'; this is largely due to the fact that
customer expenditure on affinity and bank debit and credit
cards determines the destination of over 60% of the bank's
cash community contributions.
Outputs. LBG encourages organisations to consider three
types of outputs: community benefits, business benefits and
leverage. Leverage includes 'Facilitated Giving', which involves
an organisation using its infrastructure to enable others to
donate money. The bank's partnership with Christian Aid
during 2002 is an example of 'Facilitated Giving'. Following the
launch of Euro notes and coins in January 2002, the bank
provided customers with the opportunity to donate any
obsolete European currency to Christian Aid via the bank's
branches. Customers donated £300,000 to Christian Aid,
which was double the original target. Examples of leverage,
such as this, provide a broader understanding of the bank's
commitment to the community. The bank aims to develop
systematic measures and accounting systems in all three
output areas during 2003.
Impacts: Impact measures assess the effect of community
activity and may take several years to emerge fully. The bank is
working with a range of its affinity partners to develop
systematic measures of the impact of community support.
Follow this link to read about progress to date with affinity partners.
|
|
|
Staff involvement During 2002, staff contributed the
equivalent of 1,269 days to community organisations on behalf
of the bank. This equates to a donation of time worth
£187,420. Follow this link for a list of bank staff involvement projects. During 2002, a programme was launched that aims
to enable all staff to engage in community volunteering
projects for up to three days per year, where participants are
willing to donate equivalent time
themselves. Staff were asked to
suggest a name for the programme,
and the winning suggestion of 'give it
up for...' now brands qualifying
projects. Projects are chosen that
support the bank's ethical stance and provide opportunities for
personal development. Five projects have been promoted to
staff to date. Three of these projects focus on ethnic minority
groups and education. These are: mentoring at Stretford High
School, Manchester xiv, School Governorships (with a particular
focus on inner city schools) xv and 'businessdynamics' (whereby
volunteers lead business seminars in schools and provide an
insight into the business world). The
biggest project to date, launched in
support of the European Year of
Disabled People xvi, is a mentoring
project working with deaf and hard of
hearing people and the RNID xvii. Over 30 members of staff will
be involved in a combination of e-mentoring (which offers help
and advice for an agreed period through e-mail
communication) and 'face-to-face' mentoring (which provides
support through a series of meetings, dependent on the needs
of the mentee and mentor). Most recently, a volunteering
project has been launched which asks staff to 'speak out' for
WaterAid. Staff will act as ambassadors and explain the work
of the charity to a variety of community groups. In addition,
over eighty staff participated in team challenges organised by
Greater Manchester Cares. The bank will continue to promote
a varied range of projects to staff at all locations during 2003.
|
|
- www.percent.org.uk
- www.society.guardian.co.uk/givinglist
- www.co-operativebank.co.uk/personal/visa_affinity.html
- www.co-operativebank.co.uk/ethics/cwcc.html
- www.landmineaction.org
- www.halotrust.org
- www.mag.org.uk
- www.co-operativeaction.coop
- www.communityfoundation.co.uk
- www.disabledliving.co.uk
- www.lbg-online.net
- www.co-operativebank.co.uk/ethics/partnership2002/pr/impact.html
- www.schoolgovernors-oss.co.uk
- www.disability.gov.uk/euro/euro.html
To follow any of the links mentioned within the Partnership Report 2002, please visit the links page.
|
|
ethical and ecological value analysis
|
- Cost of providing community investment during 2002 (excluding ethical and ecological management costs) £2,889,000
|
|
|
new targets
|
- Align the 'giving' practices of The Co-operative Bank and CIS to ensure that both businesses have a more co-ordinated approach to funding.
- Demonstrate the diversity of community grants awarded by The Co-operative Bank and CIS.
Chris Smith, Head of Community and Co-operative Affairs
- Launch an environmental Customers Who Care campaign and measure its impact.
Kate Daley, Campaigns Manager
- Further develop the bank's Ethical Purchasing Index.
Barry Clavin, Ethical Policy Manager
- Develop and launch new volunteering projects with the bank's affinity partners.
Isabel Ponte-Marino, Project Consultant
|
|
