Q Why does CapitalSpace support charities?
Within CapitalSpace, we have a lot of requests from various charities for our affiliation, and we look at these with three primary aims:
- For each Centre to be recognised as a ‘good neighbour’ in the community.
- To ensure CapitalSpace is regarded as a responsible company with good integrity.
- For the Centre Manager to have a good awareness of the local community.
An intrinsic part of the CapitalSpace philosophy is not just to be a company within the local areas in which we operate in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Bucks, but to be a partner to SME’s within these areas and to be recognised for our support of the local community – both from a business perspective, (with our offer of high quality, managed and supported office space), and from a local community perspective, to be an active participant in our local district.
Q How many charities does CapitalSpace support each year?
We encourage all the centres to pick a charity and therefore we have eight charities per year.
Q How are they chosen?
Choosing our nominated centre charities is a team effort, with nominations carefully considered based on the specific circumstances of the local area. Among the criteria we consider are:
- The charitable needs in the local area.
- Local charities close to the hearts of staff and customers.
- The specific traders on site (some of our centres have charities as occupiers of units/suites).
Q Which charities have you supported in the past?
We have supported really diverse charities over the years. This year, the charities that we have got involved with include: St Francis Hospice, Macmillan Cancer Research and Make a wish Foundation, The Demelza Trust and Edie’s Butterfly Appeal.
Q What activities have CapitalSpace staff and customers undertaken in support of the charities?
There are so many it’s hard to list them! The most popular events are old-fashioned fund raisers – cake bakes, fun runs, raffles, charity fares, any activity where the centre staff can go all out to create an event for our customers to enjoy. These are ideal opportunities where the charity itself can be showcased and interact with people to raise awareness and canvas support
An example this year was at Chelmsford, where the centre staff spent a morning filling their cars with balloons, donating raffle prizes, dressing meeting rooms, making food and generally giving their time in order to make their charity event go off with a real bang! We always have a goal in terms of what we want to raise for the chosen charity and we are always surprised with the generosity and willingness of the centre customers who get involved and show support. We raised a whopping £1,300 for this event which totally exceeded expectations – and put a big smile on the faces of all involved.
