Charitable giving

Cancer Research UK – our new charity of choice

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Cancer Research UK – our new charity of choice for 2010/12.

The charity of choice is our most high profile charity partnership. Chosen by our employees, the partnership is valued at around £250,000 a year. In March 2010, over 40 per cent of our workforce participated in a postal and online vote, choosing Cancer Research UK as our next charity of choice. In total, 16,389 votes were received and for each vote cast we donated £1 to that short-listed charity – so even if it didn’t win, each charity benefited.

Our target is to raise £1m for Cancer Research UK by April 2012 and increase awareness of the work they do. We’ll achieve this through fundraising, sponsorship, gifts in kind, health awareness events and employee volunteering.

NSPCC partnership draws to a close

Our two-year charity of choice partnership with the NSPCC ended in March 2010. We raised £450,000 for the charity – money that can now be used to pay for at least 10 child protection experts who will answer calls and deliver support through the NSPCC Helpline for a whole year.

Getting our people involved

By making our charitable giving schemes available to everyone at Network Rail we hope our people will support charities and the communities in which they work. We offer volunteer leave, matched giving and Give As You Earn.

Bikes to banners for the NSPCC

Download the full case study

Bikes to banners for the NSPCC.

Download the case study406 KB PDF

Volunteer leave

We offer all employees up to five days volunteer leave a year to take part in volunteering activities that align to our charitable giving objectives. In 2009/10, 144 people took volunteer leave, providing a total of 233 days to charitable organisations and trusts. We want to encourage more employees to take volunteer leave. By supporting 30 new regional charities we’ll be promoting more opportunities to volunteer and get involved in local communities over the coming year.

Matched giving

We support our people in fundraising for causes they feel passionate about and each year we match our employees’ fundraising totals (up to a Company-wide total of £100,000 per year) and donate it to our charity of choice. Between 2009 and 2010, 196 employees took part in our matched giving scheme – an increase from the previous year when 151 people participated.

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A charity collection at one of our managed stations.

Give As You Earn (GAYE)

In 2009/10, 885 people took part in our GAYE scheme, giving a total of £244,274 of tax-free direct donations to charity through their payroll. This year, with the help of the fundraising organisation Payroll Giving in Action, we’ll be increasing the promotion of the scheme with the aim to raise as much money as possible for charities that are important to our employees.