Stevie the Philanthropist

For Stevie, one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a successful businessman is having the ability to give something back to the community. He really defines the term ‘philanthropist’ and loves to get involved in projects which have a direct and positive impact on the quality of life of others.

At the beginning of this year Stevie was introduced to the CARING (Children At Risk and In Need of Guidance) project. This is a charity that works with children between the ages of 7 and 16, the project works with the most vulnerable children in the community, offering them the chance to escape poverty and vulnerability and giving them the right to receive protection and a fair chance to become good citizens.

Stevie was approached to sponsor a minibus for the charity as they had been unable to secure funding for this. The minibus is integral to the service the charity provides as this takes the children to and from their homes. The charity is there to provide a safe haven for these vulnerable children and part of that is ensuring that they provide a safe means of transport to and from the project.

Stevie agreed to this straight away and arranged a visit to the project to see firsthand the service they provide to the children. Andrew Craig, KDS Director and Head of Training accompanied Stevie on the visit and they were both completely blown away by the project and by the level of commitment of the staff and volunteers involved in it.

When they arrived back at the office there was a real desire to do everything they could to support this fantastic cause. Stevie briefed everyone within KDS and got total dedication and buy-in from all of his staff. The first thing to be done was to get all of the KDS training academies involved in a fundraiser, this took the shape of brainstorming sessions with each of the academies and having them come up with ways the project could be supported. The academies will also be involved in deciding on a look for the minibus – as with everything at KDS we come up with innovative and unique ways of doing things. The minibus will have a message on the side that will speak directly to the age group of children that come through the CARING project.

Another initiative that we were able to implement straight away involved the excess food we have at the end of each lunchtime. At the moment we have 4 training academies happening within our offices, we employ an outside catering company to provide buffet style lunches for the candidates and there is often food left over. Whilst on the visit it was explained to Stevie and Andrew that part of what the project offers is a meal for all of the children – another expense. It was an easy decision to arrange for all of the excess food from the academies to be taken down to the project on a daily basis.

 Another challenge facing the project was going to be funding a driver for the minibus and following on from a meeting with the senior team at KDS Stevie has agreed to endorse an employee for 30 hours per week to drive the minibus.

Another aspect that we can provide support in is by Stevie offering personal mentoring sessions to some of the older children on the project. This is something that he has started already by holding a personal mentoring session on Friday for one of the youngsters. This has had some very positive feedback and Stevie is keen to offer this service to as many children as possible.

Moving the partnership forward we will continue with the initiatives above and will be looking at organising a corporate fundraising event to raise as much money as possible for the charity.

Watch this journey continue!
 

1 Comment

Posted by Joe Wilson on 17 January 2011

Wow! See, this is what other companies give the grand title of CSR - corporate social responsibility. The main difference with KDS is the level of involvement. Rather than throw money at a charity and pat themselves on the back, they are committed to raising awareness of what CARING does. Who else would get trainees involved in initiatives for fundraising? I think this is an example to others of how this could be done. The amazing thing is that I know for a fact that if I went to KDS tomorrow and asked "Who is CARING and what do they do?", every single person would be able to tell me. Now, isn''t that the real definition of corporate social responsibility? Phenomenal.

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