Members' Fundraising

The WCI Charitable Trust supports members who work with, donate to or raise funds for charity. Any member may apply for matched funding for a charity that is registered with the Charities Commission or the Office of the Scottish Charities Register (OSCR). No more than one application may be made by any member in any period of two calendar years.

In order to apply, a member must personally take part in an activity to raise money for a charity. The Charitable Trust will match personal fundraising up to an amount agreed by the Trustees in relation to each application but not normally exceeding £1500. Members should apply in advance of the activity or event.

Matched Funding Application Form

Turbocharge Your WCI Charitable Giving

Erik Johnson explains how members can boost their fundraising

Here is how I was able to double my WCI charitable giving, and I am confident that many other employed WCI members will have similar schemes and opportunities to have their giving matched.

Employer Matching • Many employers have schemes where they match the charitable giving of employees up to a set amount a year. In my previous role, this was made simple through an online portal and my employer made the payment directly to the WCI Charitable Trust. The WCI issued me with a statement of my annual donations and that is all it took.

Other firms have schemes where you can email your donation receipt and an application for matched giving to the Corporate Social Responsibility or similar team.

Giving Month • Companies often also have periods in the year when they increase their matched giving to encourage charitable giving. Sometimes it will be ‘Giving Month’ or ‘Giving Week’. I have been able to benefit from this, where my donation using our online matched-giving platform was doubled. This meant that my £1,000 donation was double-matched and ended up being £3,000. Talk to your employer to see if they have a similar period where matched giving is supercharged and take advantage of it by timing your WCI Charitable Trust giving accordingly.

Volunteer Tracking • Employers increasingly also have schemes to track and reward employees who give back to their communities through volunteering. I logged my volunteer hours and once I hit a certain number of hours in a year my employer donated £200 to a charity of my choice. You may even be able to log your WCI volunteering.

It is not hard to supercharge your WCI Charitable Trust giving. A platform that is increasingly popular to manage employer matching and volunteer rewards is Benevity. The WCI Charitable Trust is already recognised on this platform, making matched giving very simple.

The impact of this could be enormous for those who benefit from the WCI’s charitable giving.

Volunteering

The WCI wants its relationship with the good causes it supports to be about more than just money. It seeks to engage with and support organisations in a variety of ways. This can extend to volunteering, representing the WCI at events or involving the organisation in appropriate Livery events.

In many cases a WCI member offers to lead the relationship with a charity, championing them within the WCI, representing the Company at charity events and offering support and advice when required. Members can find out more about this by contacting the Clerk’s Office.