Master's Charity boosts Glass Door
October 2023 The various events held for the Master's Charity during Nick Dunlop's year as Master, Glass Door, over the year raised £7,921.06.
Based in London, Glass Door co-ordinates The UK's largest network of open-access services for people affected by homelessness. Year-round, people find advice and support to end their homelessness through trained caseworkers based at partnering drop-in centres.
During the hard months of winter, Glass Door also provides emergency winter accommodation. Last winter, it operated circuits of night shelters in three London boroughs from 5 December 2022, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Wandsworth. These shelters run for 16 weeks until the end of March, offering a safe place to sleep and a nutritious hot evening meal and breakfast to 25 people per shelter each night, to support people out of homelessness.
Its vision is a world where no one has to sleep on the streets of London, and we’re working every day to achieve this. By partnering with churches and community centres to provide shelter and support, Glass Door is committed to supporting people get—and stay—off the street.
Helping schools meet the Sheriffs’ Challenge
February 2023: The WCI has been actively supporting this year’s Sheriff’s Challenge.
This is an annual public speaking event for teams of Year 12 students from London schools who might otherwise not have an opportunity to develop and practice their public speaking skills in a formal setting, helping improve their confidence and enabling them to rise to an occasion that would normally be well outside their comfort zone.
Special congratulations go to the students from La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls School (pictured) who were coached by Liverywoman Kirsty Gray and who won their heat. They go through to the final at the Old Bailey on 8 March
Master Nick Dunlop was judge for one of the other heats and said he found real inspiration in the students who took part: “All the schools were amazing and put in huge effort. What talent we have coming through. Let's engage it to power the future of our City.”
Turbocharge Your WCI Charitable Giving
January 2023: Did you know that the WCI Charitable Trust raised £285,000 in 2021? All of this is from the generous donations of WCI members. Imagine if the WCI could double this number – and double our impact – without WCI members contributing one Pound more, writes Erik Johnson.
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.
Reaching out to young people on inner-City estates
November 2021: We have appointed a new Charity Partner – XLP – which we intend to support in future with an annual grant of £5000.
XLP is about creating positive futures for young people growing up on inner-city estates in London, struggling daily with issues such as family breakdown, unemployment and educational failure, and living in areas that experience high levels of anti-social behaviour and gang violence. Every year XLP helps thousands of young people recognise their full potential.
WCI Backs The Brokerage Generation 2020 Fund
The fund has been launched in response to the enormous challenges young people at the crucial point in their lives between education and work currently face with the world reeling in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brokerage, which the WCI has supported for over ten years, is uniquely well-placed to step in and help.
Support for Nurses During the Crisis
The WCI Charitable Trust responded to the Coronavirus crisis and one of its first grants went to the Cavell Nurses’ Trust. This is a small charity providing emotional and financial support to nurses and midwives on the front line caring for people during the pandemic.
Supporting vulnerable communities
Made in Hackney is a community cookery school that that has been grant-aided over the last year by the WCI. This has helped it provide impressive support to vulnerable people and disadvantaged groups in Hackney.
It delivered 113 face-to-face cookery and nutrition classes for those vulnerable to ill health and food poverty prior to Covid-19.
During the first Covid-19 lockdown it held 43 online cookery classes and set up an emergency meal delivery service in mid-March 2020. Its initial plan was to offer meals for up to three months but this was extended to six months and it is now aiming to continue for another six months to the end of March 2021.
This scheme has seen 42,000 meals delivered by over 600 volunteers donating over 3900 volunteer hours.
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