Acts of Solidarity
5 years of businesses collaborating with Camden Giving and Camden citizens
This book is a celebration of the work that Camden businesses have accomplished in the past five years through collaborating with citizens and Camden Giving.
CONTENTS Who We Are Core Funding HS2 Camden Fund KX COVID-19Fund Fund Equality Fund Future Changemakers Fund We Make Camden Kit PurchaseFundraisingwith a Purpose Programme Partnerships Skills EndnoteJusticeRaisingSpaceIn-KindsharingSupportAwarenessforLocalCommunities
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Poverty isn’t just “something that could happen to anyone”. It happens to some people more than others. Black Londoners are twice as likely to regularly go without basics and Asian Londoners are three times as likely as White Londoners. But, Black Londoners are the most likely group to say they feel a strong connection to London.
Poverty
Health
Many Camden communities experience health inequalities and this has a disproportionate impact on those living in areas of heavy development. Men in the poorest wards in Camden, typically south of the borough, die on average 7 years before men in the wealthiest wards in Camden.
In Camden, people with lots of money live side by side with people who are struggling, the borough has the 4th highest social housing stock in London and childhood poverty after housing costs is 37%.
Who We Are 2 Camden Giving was established in 2017 to work with businesses to overcome local inequality. Camden is a vibrant, exciting, and creative borough, but not everyone's experience of Camden is equal.
Racial Inequality
Perceived and real power varies across the borough, people tell us “there’s nothing I can do to change things around here”. The most deprived communities are the least likely to take part in civic action and are the least likely to be registered to vote. But Camden isn’t an apathetic borough and this is a borough where people want to be involved in change. Over the last year we’ve given grants to 63 Camden citizens to lead projects.
Powerlessness
We work with panellists who have struggled to have their voices heard or who have experienced the harsher side of Camden. It is important to us to change our programme to fit their specific needs, such as arranging meetings around childcare, work, and probation sentence. We financially compensate panellists for their time, knowledge and energy. We prioritise having accessible funding processes over counting the number of projects we’ve funded, because we work on a notion that everyone can play a part in overcoming inequality. Our processes and the people we have mean that experience, connections, skills, background, and confidence are not barriers to receiving funding. We prioritise the needs of individuals over counting the number of opportunities we secure, because we want residents to access opportunities that strengthen their community, economical, and political power. We work with our network and with residents who trust us to support them individually to access opportunities that give them funding, influence, community connections, and better wellbeing.
OpportunitiesFundingParticipation that Build Power
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Based on the notion that we can all give something - time, skills, and money – Camden Giving channels those resources into aligned action that strategically addresses neighbourhood need in a joined-up way. Acting on data and hard evidence and with a deep knowledge of the community’s key issues and assets, we work to deliver people-friendly programmes.
Our Mission is to end local poverty and inequality in Camden
We prioritise shifting power to a varied range of voices over counting the number of residents involved in our grant-giving, because people who are surviving local inequalities are the ones who can find solutions. Everyone involved in Camden Giving’s community-led decisions brings new perspectives and ideas. We’re shifting power to people, supplementing their knowledge, and opening up a new network.
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FUNDING
CORE
£6 1m FundingGrant 575 AwardedGrants 180 PanellistsResident
This campaign launched during the Autumn of 2020, with Autotrader formally announced as the first core supporter. Our Core Investors support the ongoing work that we do at Camden Giving to tackle inequality and poverty across the borough. Core funding pays for all the boring things like our annual audit and making cups of tea for our community panellists. Businesses that give to Camden Giving's core are helping us to achieve everything else we do, helping us to plan for the future and innovate to find better ways to work with communities. This makes core funding incredibly important and is one reasons we also offer this style of funding to our grantees.
The HS2 Camden Fund was created in 2018 in partnership with High Speed 2 Railways Ltd to mitigate the impact on Camden communities during the construction of the High-Speed Railway. The fund aimed to create a sense of place by providing grants totalling £3.15m for projects that brought people together, improved physical and mental health and created a stronger voluntary and community sector. Civil society organisations benefited from multi-year grants between £1,000-100,000 over 3 years. The funding created a muchneeded opportunity for residents most affected by the construction of HS2 to participate in activities and projects that are reflective of things that they want to see in their neighbourhoods and created a sense of place they can be proud of, such as; conservation volunteering activities for older neighbours, employment training for rough sleepers and community art spaces for families 588 PanellistsGrant 83,000 SupportedResidents
CAMDEN FUND CAMDEN PEOPLE'S THEATRE HIGH SPEED 2 LTD 6
AwardedGrants
7 ARGENT ARTS 4 DEMENTIA
£706,427
FundingGrant 73 AwardedGrants
KING'S CROSS COMMUNITY FUND
Camden Giving's Kings Cross Community Fund (KX Fund) was established in 2017 as a partnership between Argent Llp, the London Borough of Camden and Camden Giving to ensure that those who live, work, and play in the borough of Camden benefit from the changes in the local area. The grants were awarded over 4 years by 23 individual panellists who provided an opportunity for Kings Cross residents to access activities and services that enhanced social cohesion, improved the local natural environment, and reduced local unemployment and underemployment for communities in the King’s Cross Area. 20% of grants awarded went to grassroots initiatives led by residents who hadn't previously been awarded a grant were funded including projects supporting women to access physical sports, boxing and wellness interventions for at-risk young people and social clubs for older, isolated individuals.
As well as supporting the KX Fund, inIn October 2018, Argent Llp sponsored Camden Giving's Live Crowdfunding event as part of an innovative fundraising initiative to raise money for 4 small community groups run by local people responding to the Kings Cross community needs at a grassroots Theselevel.
NORTH LONDON CARES
"Being part of this meant we've received more support than just funding. We have built our network with other local organisations and potential volunteers.This has helped us to broaden our reach and recruit more isolated newcomers to our fun, free English sessions, who we would not otherwise meet" 8
Joanna - Founder of Speak Street
ARGENT
4 charities were initially funded through the KX Fund and each pitched for funding and other support such as volunteers at the event. One of the organisations was Speak Street who provide fun, free English Language classes through interactive storytelling for refugees and migrants who are affected by the redevelopment in Kings Cross area.
North London Cares were funded to connect 90+ older neighbours and young professionals through their inter-generational social clubs, with activities like film nights, podcast workshops, and science clubs. The grant from the King's Cross fund, alongside some additional funding from Camden Giving's 'Camden Giving Week' fundraising campaign, allowed them to host a further 25 social clubs to benefits King's Cross residents.
REGENTS PLACE THE BELSIZE SOCIETY WEVITOLARE ELEMENTS 94 Grants Awarded 12 Community Panellists SIR HUBERT VON HERKOMERARTS FOUNDATION
COVID-19 FUND £475,146 Grant Funding PRIORSMETALENDLEASEGOOGLEDP9ARGENTACME LLP AUTOARUP BRITISHTRADERLAND9
The COVID 19 Charity Fund was created in Spring 2020 due to the extraordinary demands that charities, social enterprises, and community groups faced as a result of the pandemic It provided funding for; emergency response activities, covering loss of income, tackling digital poverty, delivering specialist services for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities; employment pathways and wraparound services for unemployed and underemployed residents The success of our emergency appeal showed us that all sectors saw the importance of looking out for the local community. We also received many individual donations from employees from across Camden businesses, showing us that everyone felt a collective sense of connection and responsibility for their borough.This unprecedented time highlighted the strength of our communities but also the huge amount of work that is still needed to reset and rebuild We aim to put those who might feel powerless at the centre of this process The COVID 19 emergency response was made possible through the support and dedication from many, including the funding from several businesses based in Camden
Google supported the COVID19 Pathways to Employment Fund in 2020 to ensure that residents hit hardest financially by the pandemic were supported to access employability and wraparound services to bring them closer to, and into, employment.
"It felt like Camden Giving was really buttoned up with their response to the COVID 19 crisis, and you can see the value of them being so close to the ground by the impact of their microgrants to small organisations.
Zoe Stern - Community Engagement Lead at Google
The funding supported projects like The Swiss Church in London to provide a 4months office admin internship to a young person with no former work experience. Because of the success of this funding, they were able to extend his role by two months and then transformed this into a new permanent position of Office Admin Assistant specifically created for the young resident. "This was an incredible learning experience for both the intern as well as the team. The internship has brought a value to our church that excels all expectations. Not only have we successfully managed to give a young person a start into working life, but we have gained a much valued team member."
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GOOGLE WELLRYANGROUNDED-SWISSCHURCH INTERN C4WS
The Equality Fund was set-up in 2021 to respond to existing inequalities that have been, and continue to be, exacerbated by the pandemic. Small charities, social enterprises and community groups that serve communities experiencing inequality were overwhelmed by the demand, alongside the loss of income as a result of the pandemic. This flagship fund is our first to provide unrestricted, multi-year funding to organisations tackling the root causes of inequality. Grants of £30,000 over two years provide financial security to these organisations, allowing them to respond to changing community needs and more freedom to work flexibly to find new and innovative ways to overcome inequality. The fund has been led by 18 local people over the last 2 years who have seen inequality first hand in Camden. They work together as a team to decide how they can use money to make long-term change. In 2022, the Equality Fund panel decided to prioritise organisations that bring together groups of people to overcome stigma that causes inequality. Our partners that support this fund do so because they know that inequality isn’t an easy thing to tackle and that we need to give trust and flexibility to those who are closest to communities to overcome it.
£585,000 FundingGrant 11 AwardedGrants EQUALITY FUND HATGOOGLETRICK11 TAKE-TWOMETA THE EQUALITY FUND COMMUNITY PANEL
One panellist shared feedback with us about their experience: E-TWO
META
"Being a community panellist makes me feel connected and it's helpful to hear other people's views, it's great being involved in decisions that will affect my community. I feel valued and loved meeting everyone. Working with peers in my community from all different backgrounds makes me feel we are all getting a fair say and supporting one another." CIC
Following the success of the Christmas partnership between Meta and Camden Giving in December 2020, which saw hundreds of urgently needed items bought by Meta employees and distributed to 5 Camden charities for their service users, they increased their support by contributing to Camden Giving's Equality Fund. Meta's contribution CASE STUDY has supported projects like the Wellness Action Alliance to improve and support the wellness and wellbeing of families especially parents and children who maybe at high risk, vulnerable, disadvantaged, isolated and/or from the Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
the global pandemic of Camden Giving developed a partnership with Take-Two - a leading games publisher who contributed a significant donation to the first Equality Fund. This partnership put large sums of money into the hands of people experiencing inequality and them to fund solutions that they believed in.
ZONE TWENTYONE
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THE FUTURE CHANGEMAKERS FUND
Young people in Camden face rising violence, poverty and cuts to the youth services that protect them. Camden Giving’s response to this is the Future Changemakers programme; a youth fund that provides support to services that work to keep young people safe, empowered and in meaningful employment across Camden. Each year, 16-25 year olds living in Camden design the aims of the fund and decide which organisations receive funding. We firmly believe in putting power into the hands of those who understand the challenges best, so who better to make decisions about funding youth services than Camden’s young people. Over the last 4 years, Camden businesses have worked together to give power to young people, who have awarded over £500k to 59 local youth services. The 46 young people who have been involved in the program have gone on to lead campaigning work, award grants for national funders and advice the United Nations. This fund is made possible through impactful contributions from local businesses and others.
MIDTOWN BID REGENTS PLACE SWEYN FORKBEARD OS COMMS
EUSTON TOWN BID
Euston Town BID exists to better connect businesses and build relationships between them and the community. board was keen to work with Camden Giving to gain insights from our knowledge of the local area, so that they could involved with community projects.
Georgie Street, Head of Projects at Euston Town BID
THE FUTURE CHANGEMAKERS PANEL SMALL GREEN SHOOTS
Euston Town BID and the businesses they work with were especially interested in the wellbeing of younger people when the idea of the Future Changemakers was proposed, it seemed like the ideal project to fund.
"It is a really impressive thing to see local young people as professional people before their time of embarking on their careers, taking on professional responsibilities and making decisions carefully, applying their lived experience."
LabTech, owner of the world-famous Camden Market partnered with Camden Giving in 2019 to support Camden Giving Week, a week of fundraising to support the Future ChangeMakers Fund, because they believe local communities are a vital part of what makes Camden unique.
Changemaker community panellist was successfully awarded a grant of £10,000 by the Future Changemakers Year 3 panellists for their new organisation, Your Revolution CIC. Their mission is to help young people that are vulnerable to crime and gang culture through exploring and developing their creative skills.
LabTech's investment into the programme led to a noticeable rise in self-confidence for the young people, through giving them a platform to make impactful decisions for their local community. One former Year 2 Future BTECH
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The fund supports charities, social enterprises as well as individual residents the first ever time we've done this - to run their own projects that offer spaces to reconnect, access food support, have more access to power and leadership, improve the sustainability of neighbourhoods, and have activities to empower and support young people. The Kit provides additional resources and skills to resident grantees to bring their ideas to life such as access to safeguarding training, insurance cover and 1-2-1 advice.
WE MAKE CAMDEN KIT 15 LANDSECCADENT URBANSHAFTESBURYPARTNERS CITIZEN GRANTEE - SOME STRING DIFFERENT £309,527 Grant Funding 149 Grants Awarded 20 Community Panellists
The We Make Camden Kit was established in 2021 as a collaborative between Camden Council, Camden Citizens and Camden Giving aimed at achieving Camden Renewal Commission's 4 Core Missions are achieved. Since then 3 businesses have joined the collaboration.
SOCIAL NOTES
The Screen Film Community held workshops led by a local resident called 'Somers Town Fit & Food Boot Camp' for young people on the Somers Town Estate - a community with one of the highest childhood poverty rates in the UK and and a significant lack of access to spaces for physical activity. The project enabled 35
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young people living on the estate to improve their physical wellbeing and their knowledge of healthy food through daily fitness and nutrition boot camp during half term; a time when many families can't always afford opportunities for their children to engage in or even access regular food provision. Because of the success and increased demand of their first grant, they were awarded a further grant to offer self-defence classes for girls and young women in Camden.-Matt, Co- Founder
"Personally I've struggled with a lot of self doubt, not seeing myself in a positive place, so to be able to build this from nothing has done wonders for my self esteem."
Social Notes was founded by three young Camden residents who wanted to create an inclusive and affordable studio recording space for 30 other young residents to create music, regardless of their background. As young musicians & creatives themselves, who have lived experience of challenges in the industry, they want to make a change. This funding enabled Social Notes to provide an opportunity for collaboration amongst young residents, a safe hub to cultivate creativity and community and a space to cater to the musical talent in the area, many of whom were struggling to find affordable space to produce their music.
Social Notes
THE SCREEN FILM COMMUNITY
FUNDRAISING AUTO JOHNITECHIMPACTHOLIDAYHATHARMONICELEMENTSDOUBLECO-OPERATIVEBUCKSTRADERHEADTREEFINANCETRICKINNCAMDENHUBMEDIALEWIS LOCKSMITHLENDLEASE ANIMATION SAINSBURYSREGENT'SPAMBANPIZZERIAPEMBROKEOXFORDOWLOSMETACOMMSBOOKSHOPARMSCASTLEDICAMDENPLACE SHEPPARD ROBSON SPRINGERSOFTWIRE ZAPPIWORDURBANTTITILEYARDTEDTAKE-TWOSUPERCATSTARBUCKSNATUREPRBAKERIMPACTSCHOOLPARTNERSONTHECURB17
Camden Giving raises money from businesses - who often hold a lot of power - to be able to redirect funding and resources back into grassroots projects working to find solutions that tackle inequality and injustices in the borough.
Too many people struggle with money, loneliness or access to meaningful opportunities, so we fund projects to try and make things fairer like food banks, homeless shelters, wellbeing support, and training to help people into employment. This wouldn't be possible without funding that businesses have raised through fundraising from employees and the public; whether that be through payroll giving, hosting pub quizzes, running yoga sessions or taking part in challenge events like the Santa Run, Tough Mudder and bungee jumping. These activities not only allow employees to do good while having fun and increasing team cohesion, but also provide raise money for grassroots community work.
UMP FOR CAMDEN
Camden Giving were invited by Coram's Fields to invite brave supporters to Jump for Camden a 160 ft bungee! - and fundraise for us to support our mission. The team, made up of employees from former panellists, Hat Trick Productions, John Lewis, Camden Collective and Zappi, raised donations with the generosity of their friends, family, colleagues to raise £2,890 to support our work tackling inequality in Camden.
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#GivingTuesday is a global celebration of giving, whether that's a bake sale, a fashion show or popping a small donation box next to your canteens self serve coffee machine In 2019, top trending tech talent consultancy Elements raised over £150 after hosting a pop up shop featuring donations handed over by staff to raise money for Camden Giving There was even a #GivingTuesday themed cake that people could enjoy for £1 a piece.
#GIVINGTUESDAY
" We host activities year round for Camden Giving and really believe in their cause and can see the positive impact they make on the community."
- Alicia Richardson, Talent Research Partner at Elements
THE
BENEATH THE FLOUR STATION 40-ZERO 19
ORIGINOLIVER'SLOCKSIDECREPESCOLLECTIFCOFFEECHEEZELOTUNEALACARTEHYGGEPYGGECAMDENVILLAGECOFFEE
THE BREAD FACTORY GOOD MIXER THE FIELDS
people can buy unique Camden Giving products that raise money for good causes across Camden. We are currently working to secure more as this has been a great way to raise awareness for our cause whilst supporting businesses with increased sales and improved brand image.
PURCHASE WITH A PURPOSE APULIA CAMDENCAFECOFFEE HOUSE CAMDEN ROCK FESTIVAL CAMDEN SUPERNOVA CAMDEN TEA CO. CAMDEN TOWN BREWERY CAMDEN TEASHIRT CAMDEN WATCH CO.
Purchase with a Purpose is our campaign to create partnerships with businesses who collaborate with us to create and sell limited edition products, or ring-fence sales of existing products and donate a percentage of the profits; which in turn raises money for us to support communities benefitting from our grant-giving. We've had businesses create cocktails, coffees, beard oils, watches, tea blends, breads and much more. Another business also reached out about gifting their employees with Christmas hampers and wanted to include gifts that support the work we do with our grantees. This was a great initiative to encourage more local businesses products.We are grateful to have two long-term partnerships where 26 Small Businesses 9 Unique Products
We want to bust the myth that businesses exist alongside communities purely to profit from them, but instead want to invest in them through promoting social good initiatives by collaborating with us.
Anneke Short, Co-Founder of The Camden Watch Company said: “From the very beginning of The Camden Watch Company, it was important to us that we give back to the community that we love so much. We had been searching for a charity project to work on for quite some time, one that fit the brand and that we ourselves felt passionate about, when Natasha, the director of Camden Giving, got in touch.”
EYN FORKBEARD
hope this helps to the munity of Camden, specially young people. At the same we hope this effort can res to other businesses to the people that needs more "
Camden business Sweyn Forkbeard created a limited edition of 1000 units amden Giving Beard Oil and have supported us since 2019. This beard is scented with 100% organic Rosemary and Lemon essential oils, is as fresh as a breeze of hope.
CAMDEN WATCH CO. 20
George Garcia, Founder of Sweyn Forkbeard
- Jerome Robert, Co-Founder of The Camden Watch Company
“Initially Camden Giving were just gauging our interest to see if there was anything we could do to help them with their Camden Giving Week campaign, but I knew that this was our opportunity to do so much more. And that is how the Camden Giving edition was born.”
PROGRAMME PARTNERSHIPS BRITISH FRANCISEUSTONCOLLINSLANDCONSTRUCTIONTOWNBIDCRICKINSTITUTE REGENT'S PLACE TED 4DVERTEXBAKERPROJECTS21 PWCLABTECHLENDLEASEGOOGLE 6
We have worked with businesses over the last 5 years using participatory approaches to provide residents with opportunities to access decisionmaking, employment and power.This includes partnering on programmes that; support young people at-risk to access quality, paid, long-term work placements; upskilling resident panellists in areas of corporate grantgiving; providing paid training to conduct research and inform development projects and providing high-quality consultation workshops that influence how community spaces are designed and interacted with in Camden.
Our community panellists tell us that grant funding alone won't solve every issue. Sometimes working in partnership with businesses to help tackle injustices can have a greater impact and communities.
ParticipatoryProgrammes 53 ResidentsEmployed
"An opportunity like this has got me interested in different jobs I didn't know about. I was really interested in the role itself so I enjoyed it more, compared to other placements. I was able to develop a work routine. Also, having a regular income is good, it allows me to be free and get my own things without having to stress my parents for money." 22
In 2019 Regents Place were a significant partner in this collaborative programme that enabled residents aged 16-25 to access quality, paid work placements. Camden Giving employed and paid the London Living Wage to 3 young residents and they accessed pastoral support through a dedicated youth worker at Coram’s Fields; ensuring their wellbeing was prioritised and supported alongside their work placements.
REGENT'S PLACE
For Regents Place this programme was not just about the number of young people into jobs, but their journey and growth along the way; through gaining work-ready experience alongside developing soft skills, citizenship building, money management, having a routine and responsibility, and accessing new networks and connections. They provided one young resident with a placement to gain experience in community engagement, events and project management. Because of the success of the placement, they extended the paid role for a further 3 months during the pandemic to ensure they continued receiving jobready skills and financial support during this time.
In addition to fundraising for Camden Giving's core costs in Christmas 2021 & 2022, coordinating a series of skill-sharing workshops with us for grassroots charities over 2 years, providing in-kind donations of space; Regents Place were one of the businesses who contributed towards the successs of our pilot Youth Employment Programme.
SKILLS SHARING
There is an increasing desire and need for grassroots organisations to access support beyond grant funding and we have been able to connect them to employees who can provide it. We do this by working with businesses to provide skills-based volunteering opportunities to employees, enabling them to develop their own professional skills and return to their workplace with this growth. Communities have benefitted from over 200 volunteer’s time and knowledge, including support with building websites, event management, accessing workshops hosted on social media and marketing, public speaking with confidence; providing capacity building support to charity leaders including business planning and budget management; diversifying knowledge at leadership level through Trusteeships. We ensure that all needs are met and that both the charity and the volunteers gain equally from the experience.
GOOGLEFHTEUROSTARELEMENTSDOUBLETREECOSTAINCHANNELCAMDENCAMDENISTBRITISHBRITISHAUTOARGENTTRADERLANDLIBRARYTOWNUNLIMITEDTWELVESKANSKA HEARTGUARDIANOFTHE CITY HAT MPACTHS2HS1HAVASTRICKLTD.LTD.HUB KX INDUSTRY IN THE STREETS INTERNATIONAL COACHING FEDERATION ITECH LOCOCOLIGHTFULLENDLEASEMEDIA MTARTLNER AGENCY REGENT'SPWC PLACE SAM LANE ZONEZAPPIWEAGILEVEOLIAURBANTEDTAKE-TWOSPRINGERSOFTWIREPHOTOGRAPHYUKNATUREBAKERPARTNERS23 Camden's businesses have so much more to share than just money, particularly their skills. Camden Giving act as a bridge between the local community and businesses, because we know employees can add huge value through sharing their talent, resources and assets. 250+ Volunteering Hours Per Year 50+ Charities Benefiting
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY EVENT
our Trustee Board and brings his experience of operations as well as addressing diversity, inclusion and equality within businesses. Most recently, when reviewing our Racial Justice Strategy , Nathan spoke to the CG team to share what Auto Trader are doing to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. This helped the Camden Giving seek inspiration from what those around us are doing. of giving back. In her words, working with the network of Camden Giving is like 'a chain reaction of happiness and goodness and makes me feel proud to be in such a dynamic and diverse community.' Her willingness to volunteer gives local organisations and people a service that they would not usually be able to afford and helps them advertise their good work.
began working with Camden 2020, having been introduced ban Partners. Sam and her been involved in several working with organisations like Communities Project, ZAD Cafe, orizons, and You Mocha and Style. work has involved capturing photographing events, and videos for our grantees. Sam terested in working in the local area and found that helping local people raise awareness and gain more corporate interest through the photos were her way Trustees hold an important role at Camden charities including Camden Giving; supporting us with governance, strategy and sharing specialist knowledge to help us succeed, grow and meet the aims of our organisations. Nathan, Operations Manager at Auto Trader, was first introduced to Camden Giving in June 2020, when attending our anti-racism workshop with other businesses. Shortly after, Nathan joined
NATHAN DYKE AUTOTRADER
PHOTOGRAPHY 24
SAM LANE
35 In Kind Donations per year
IN-KIND SUPPORT 11 Donations to Young People in 2022 BOLTERASOS DESIGN BRITISH HAVASDISHOOMCOSTAINLIBRARYSKANSKA HAT HEMINGWAYTRICK DESIGN HS1 LNERLENDLEASETECHLTDMEDIA25 SHEPPARDMETA ROBSON SPRINGER URBANZONETAKE-TWONATUREPARTNER 2219 Phones Donated
Sometimes the things businesses take for granted are of huge value to a grassroots charity, such as office space or equipment. Camden Giving brokers connections between businesses and charities so that everyone benefits. The In-Kind donations businesses offer to us benefit the local community by providing organisations and residents we work with access to valuable resources. The In-Kind support is a key element of the service that Camden Giving provides and allows us to go beyond simply giving financial support for projects to open up more equitable access to them. For example, a business donated a laptop to a grantee, who reported that the company was ‘making such a difference and assisting positive change with donation of this laptop.’ Items donated can help Camdenites and local social enterprises to do the good work that they do. The in-kind support we receive, such as the creation of maps and passes for events, is also incredibly useful as it provides us with materials and assistance that, as a charity, we would not usually have the budget for.
BOLTER DESIGN 26
Bolter Design are a creative design agency based out of Camden Collective and offered to collaborated with Camden Giving in 2019 as part of our fundraising campaign Camden Giving Week. They gave invaluable pro-bono design support to create a map (below) that indicated all of the Camden businesses who were fundraising for us during this week; from coffee shops to fashion retailers to restaurants. This clever marketing tool allowed people to visit all the businesses in Camden and purchase products from them that raised money for grassroots community projects, including initiatives that keep young people safe as youth violence peaked in Camden.
SPACE AUTO CAMDENTRADERTOWN UNLIMITED HAVASGOOGLE O2 THEREGENT'SPHOENIXFINCHLEYCOURTPLACEFRANCISCRICK INSTITUTE27
Since 2017, a large majority of Camden's grassroots organisations applying for funding sight that access to space is one of their biggest challenges. There are many ways that businesses help us at Camden Giving and providing space is an important part of the support that we are brokering for community groups and charities in Camden. Rising property prices and cuts to funding often mean that vital charities are under threat because they can’t afford rent. Alongside this residents and grassroots grantees face barriers to accessing space because they also often; don’t have access to their own space; don’t have unrestricted funding to cover high costs; only need space on an ad-hoc basis; lack networks to organisations or businesses who can support them to access this. The number of requests for multi-purpose space for service delivery, workspace and storage is rising and significantly outweigh the number of spaces accessible within businesses. Businesses offering free space can allow organisations to host events and meetings that are important for the Camden community, such as hosing evening support groups for Ukrainian refugees and having a regular, accessible space for community panellists meeting in person to award grants. At Camden Giving, we have greatly benefitted from the offer of free hotdesking spaces as it allows us to meet
AUTOTRADER 28
One of Auto Trader's values is to be a good neighbour and work with local people and charities like us to make a difference to their communities. The Future Changemakers panel formed of local young people to make funding decisions fitted their values well and they felt it was important to the local community to support them to access space local to them. Auto Trader provided funding but also the space that the panel meets in, which is especially helpful given the usual expense of venues in Central London.
O2 Centre has two community halls available to hire and Camden Giving used this space in 2022 to host catch up with some of our past panellists. It's important not only for as a community broker but also for community itself to find that the spirit of community isn't lost in such commercial facing spaces. One of panellists was thrilled about us using space in North Camden -close to where he lived as he was used to always travelling to the South part of Camden. 2 FINCHLEY
FUTURE
PANEL
"It brings us back to normality and has made us a bit more humble.' FCM presented an opportunity for Auto Trader to do good work inline with their focus on the importance of young people and investing in small charities in the area." CHANGEMAKERS
Casey Stevens, the Workplace Environment Lead at Auto Trader, described the impact of the partnership with Camden Giving:
hotdesking space, meeting rooms and a allowing us to collaboratively in the heart of Camden. The Collective values that have good purpose which is why Camden Giving was a good fit.
LLECTIVE
'The fact that we give out free space and help you guys to help others is amazing and so nice to see you guys utilise the space often, which is what we're all about. We have this community which is like a little family and Camden Giving emphasises that so much, I've seen the cross collaboration you have with businesses, which just adds to our ethos of bringing talent back to Camden and making things better locally. It's amazing to see you guys bring more young people into the workplace who otherwise may not have had the opportunity."
HAVAS 29 charity offering and accesstart-ups.subsidisedTheystofree
Leyah March, Hub Manager INSIGHTS TEAM
KX COMMUNITY
Havas started with working Camden Giving after having connected through Urban Partners. We were struggling to find office space and Havas, who hosted other charities such as Fishtank and had utilised office space during pandemic, provided hot desking for our team to work from. partnership with Havas extends beyond this, as they have donated items, volunteered, and given us space for many events. This is a beneficial relationship as Camden Giving is an important Havas' corporate social responsibility and connects them to the local community in Camden.
RAISING
AWARENESS
HAT WORDTRICKONTHE CURB ZAPPI
Camden is a diverse, creative borough but stark disparities, growing poverty and injustices exist alongside this. Income inequality in Camden is the 2nd widest of the London boroughs, it has the 4th highest social housing stock in London, picture of a borough aware of the struggles that so many face in Camden.
We wanted to find a new, impactful way to increase awareness of the work we do to tackle inequality in Camden. For us, an animation would act as a tool to help us tell our story to engage and inspire people to take collective action Hat Trick Productions, who are committed to working with community organisations, offered to help us fulfil this ambition using their skills and resources to create a 2 minute animation video They helped us by lending us audio recording equipment for the voiceover; which was later donated to a grantee AfroPics to support young people with their own storytelling through podcast workshops. They talked us through the recording process, designed the animation and made all the edits The video perfectly highlights what Camden Giving can achieve when working in partnership with businesses. It was even nominated for the Charity Film Awards the world's largest campaign for cause based films!
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That is why raising awareness place like Camden highlights the work be done to take ste achieving equality. several projects, supported businesses, that have such as having speakers racial equality and hosting violence debate. Yet, so much work that can raise awareness to the people face in Camden.
We raise awareness about the injustices people in Camden experience, especially in terms of discrimination and racism, and believe that our supporters can play a significant role in providing solutions beyond their financial contributions to Camden Giving. That could be handing over genuine power to communities to make decisions and enacting on their priorities. Or being part of the external work we are doing within our racial justice strategy. The whole staff team created this strategy in 2020, with
JUSTICE FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES
It has always been essential that the people of Camden be at the center of our work and mission by putting the power of back in their hands, giving them full autonomy over decision-making and ensuring their interactions with us are not extractive. Camden Giving is on a journey to achieving justice for the communities we are part of.
"I had an awareness of the level of inequality in Camden but the statistics highlighted the harrowing and eye-opening reality communities experience. It gave me an increased sense of awareness, shock, and horror at the level of inequality that exists in one of London's wealthiest boroughs." alongside social issues like health, income, and crime inequalities. Camden is a racially diverse area with a unique demographic make-up, but disproportionate inequalities exist alongside this. We we will share the insights gathered on local racial injustice with donors and supporters, so they too can understand how racial inequalities contribute to or are caused by other issues in Camden and use that knowledge to be better neighbours to Camden’s communities.
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Zappi began working with Camden Giving in 2018 and been involved in employee fundraising and volunteering. Director of Methodological Quality, Jack Millership, volunteered to undertake a research project as part of our racial justice strategy. He created a dataset on the intersection of ethnicity
The Euston area is being transformed and we believe residents should be at the heart of shaping the future of their neighbourhoods. We worked with Lendlease (appointed ‘Master Development Partner’ of the Euston development), UCL, Camden Council and 24 residents from Euston on the Good Life Euston partnership. Lendlease contributed funding that enabled residents to undertake paid training to become citizen social scientists and carry out research in their communities. They identified what local people needed to prosper while regeneration is underway and developed a set of indicators to support decision making, investment and regeneration planning in Euston in the long-term. Putting residents lived experience at the heart of plans was critical for developers and key stakeholders to better understand the social, economic and environmental impacts and benefits of developments and enact on priorities to build a more inclusive, equitable borough for everyone.
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Five years ago, when Camden Giving was set up as a charity, someone nervously asked the question: “what happens if businesses just don’t want to be part of this work?” Thankfully that hasn’t proven to be the case. This book demonstrates the varied and multi-layered ways that businesses are acting with solidarity with Camden’s communities.
Camden is a special place, full of activism, creativity and pride. When people are struggling here, communities stand up to support them, more and more we are seeing businesses doing the same. From this collective solidarity, we’ve seen ideas and community leaders emerge that have the potential to overcome some of Camden’s deep-rooted inequalities. Over the coming years, businesses can play an huge role in sustaining the work these leaders are doing. This isn’t easy work, either for businesses or community leaders, we’re here to help it easy and more equitable work. Work that feels like solidarity not charity.
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