Our giving
Along with our regular staff-led fundraising as part of our Lovewell Blake Community Fund, we also support local and national good causes on both a firm-wide and individual level.
Staff across our offices have, amongst other things:
- Hosted a black tie ball
- Competed in a muddy run
- Arranged a ten-pin bowling evening
- Became quiz masters at a quiz
- Held various mini-office competitions
- Completed the three peaks challenge
- Cycled from London to Amsterdam to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK and Future Stars
- Ran a succession of races of varying lengths for a number of different charities
- Taken part in various charity golf days
- Supported OpenChristmas in Great Yarmouth
- Collected donations for local foodbanks
- Grew a wide range of moustaches for Movember
- Supported the Christmas Stocking Campaign in Great Yarmouth
A survey of our staff revealed that they gave almost 4,000 hours a year to a range of different organisations, freely of their own time.
Lovewell Blake Community Fund
In 2008, we launched our own charitable fund so that we could benefit the many community organisations operating around our local offices. The fund is administered by the Norfolk Community Foundation but applications can be made through the Suffolk Community Foundation and the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation once the funds have opened.
Each year, a staff led panel chose the causes who the funds raised will benefit. Despite the pandemic putting a hold to our regular events, in November 2021, our grants panel were able to share almost £22,000 with the following organisations:
- Norfolk Accident Rescue Service
- Open Road West Norfolk
- The Norfolk Hospice
- LEAPS Suffolk
- Aylsham Community Gym
- Warren Association Trust
- The Prospects Trust
- Oulton Broad Water Sports Centre
- Kingsgate Community Church
- Norwich Door To Door
- Thetford Town Football Club
- Involve Razem Community Interest Company
- Ketteringham Hall Cricket Club
- The Disability Advice Service
- REMAP
Our fund is still going strong and to date we've raised over £320,000.
Pro Bono
Our local community is important to us and we are proud to play an active role in supporting it. As well as raising money for our own community fund, we support over 100 local groups and charities with free or discounted fees on our professional services.
These groups receive the same expert service as any of our clients.
Our staff and partners are just as generous with their own time, a survey revealed that between them they give almost 4,000 hours a year to various organisations on a voluntary basis. Among other roles, they act as governors in schools, town councillors, trustees, children’s group leaders and sports club officers.
Supporting young people in the community
We feel strongly that as a firm committed to our local community we have a responsibility to support our young people.
One of the ways that we do this is through supporting local schools and colleges to bring young people and businesses together. We attend many careers focused events each year, reaching out to thousands of young people in our local area.
Some of the activities that we have been involved in include, careers fairs, enterprise days, CV and interview tips workshops and speed networking. All of these help the young people we speak to decide on their short term next steps such as choosing the subjects to study in the next stage of their journey and also provide them with information to think about what their longer term career goals may be.
Our involvement with local education is taken a step further with some of our staff giving up their free time to sit on the board of Governors at local schools and one of our HR Managers is the Enterprise Adviser for Lynn Grove Academy. Both of these roles provide guidance and direction to help schools ensure they are able to provide the very best for their students.
Being a part of a network that works closely with schools and colleges is not just about giving back to the community, through the programme we are able to offer personal development opportunities to our staff helping them to develop new skills. We are also able to attract school leavers, graduates and apprenticeship scheme applicants through our involvement in education.