Corporate case studies

Our corporate partners help us do amazing work. Thanks to them, we’re able to deliver vital programmes for children, young people and their families. We give children skills to cope with life’s challenges and provide financial support to those in need. Here are some examples of the impact we’ve made thanks to our current partnerships.

In April 2022, Action for Children launched a partnership 3-year partnership with Arcadis.

Arcadis kicked of their support for Action for Children by raising £10,000 to fund specialist play equipment for Birmingham Children’s Community Centre. Arcadis are now fundraising to support the Breaking the Cycle programme in Newcastle and the rollout of a new programme in Cumbria. Breaking the Cycle is a vital service that supports children and young people affected by domestic abuse.

Arcadis colleagues have been fundraising across their offices in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. From marathons, treks, bake sales and raffles, along with volunteering across Action for Children’s services, Arcadis are demonstrating their incredible commitment to making a difference.

Together we can improve quality of life for children and young people across the UK.

Our partnership with CMC Markets launched in January 2020. The partnership has extended until 2023, with a commitment to raise more than £236,500.

CMC has funded a new coordinator for our London Independent Visitors service. This is thanks to a corporate donation, employee fundraising and matched giving. The coordinator matches volunteer mentors with children and young people in care, helping them to gain vital independence skills.

In 2021, we launched the CMC Markets Education & Enrichment Fund. The fund provides support to disadvantaged children and young people in London to build confidence and help them fulfil their potential. The package includes tutoring, educational days out, and essentials like school uniform and equipment.

We have worked in partnership with Dell Technologies since 2010. Over this time, the company has raised more than £2 million to fund the Inspire IT programme. Dell Technologies staff also volunteer their time to raise vital funds and support our projects across the UK.

Inspire IT works with more than 60 Action for Children services across the UK. It provides technology to help children and families learn and make the most of opportunities.

Together, we’ve taught children to stay safe online. We’ve helped care leavers with IT training to help secure employment. And we’ve supported disabled young people to overcome communication barriers.

We launched a very exciting partnership with leading organic baby and toddler food brand Ella's Kitchen in December 2022. Ella's Kitchen will be supporting little ones and their families through fundraising, amplifying our voice through policy and campaigns work and much, much more. We are thrilled to be working with them to change the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged children across the UK.

"Every little one deserves a safe, happy and healthy childhood. That’s why we are delighted to be partnering with Action for Children to support the vital work they do for children and families up and down the UK." Mark Cuddigan, CEO Ella’s Kitchen.

From 2020-2022, Action for Children partnered with Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation to support the most vulnerable children and families across the UK through the Winter Crisis Fund. In 2022, we were thrilled to be their lead charity partner.

Thanks to Iceland’s incredible sponsorship of our Secret Santa campaign and the amazing fundraising efforts of the 30,000 colleagues across the UK, our partnership has raised over £1 million.

Over the past couple of years, colleagues have blown us away with their creative fundraising ideas in store, and initiatives like The Big Lunch and Charities Week. Not to mention, taking on the London Marathon and Action for Children’s Boycott your Bed challenge - which they hosted in a cave at Zip World in North Wales!

Iceland’s funding was invested in Action for Children’s Winter Crisis Fund, which provides grants to families across the UK so that they have everything they need to be able support their children. Examples could include food packages, food vouchers, gas, electricity, cooking appliances and kitchenware. This support has been vital during the past few years of economic upheaval, which has forced many vulnerable families deeper into poverty.

We’re incredibly pleased to continue our relationship with Iceland as one of the Foundation’s partners, which will ensure we can continue to support vulnerable families across the UK.

In December 2022, Action for Children launched their brand new corporate partnership with Starling Bank to help families manage money. As the cost of living crisis deepens, our frontline services see vulnerable families being pushed further into financial hardship and in need of support.

Starling Bank will support Action for Children’s Parent Talk service to develop new informative articles to help families manage their finances and encourage conversations about money. Whether it’s helping parents talk to their partners, offering support on how to navigate the cost of living crisis, or helping families to manage the costs of having a child with additional needs, Starling Bank’s support will provide a lifeline to families in need of our help.

Together, we will provide vital support to families and parents at a time when they need us most.

Since 2015, we’ve been working in partnership with Turner & Townsend to break down barriers to education for children and young people right across the UK. The Action for Children and Turner & Townsend Education Fund provides vulnerable families with grants to cover the costs of basic school essentials like a warm school coat, sturdy school shoes, and a PE kit. We do this to enable children and young people to access an education, fulfil their potential, and build a brighter future.

For over 7 years, Turner & Townsend colleagues across the UK have gone above and beyond with their fundraising. From organising spectacular gala dinners to bake sales, and taking part in dress down days to Tough Mudders, they have raised over £780,000!

Not only that, but they have supported many of our UK services through volunteering and pro-bono support: providing mentoring for senior leaders and project management support on our Residential Growth Programme.

In 2023, we were delighted to extend our partnership by three years, with a focus on growing our partnership impact and reaching as many children and young people as we possibly can. By 2027, we hope to deliver over 15,000 grants to vulnerable families in desperate need of our help.

We've had many fruitful partnerships. Read about what we achieved with our previous corporate partners.

Our partnership with Advent International began in May 2020. Their generous donation contributed to our Emergency Fund, our Family Partners programme, and Parent Talk, Action for Children’s online parenting support service.

With Advent’s generous support, we continued helping families with essential provisions throughout the pandemic, provided one-to-one help online support to parents, and delivered intensive family support to reduce child neglect. We also received generous support through Advent International employee donations and volunteering.

We worked with CBRE between 2018-2020. In that time, they raised over £1 million to help transform the lives of children in care. This includes corporate donations, significant pro bono support and employee fundraising.

CBRE staff from across all 19 offices volunteered more than 2,291 hours of their time and provided expertise to various pro-bono projects. All the funds raised by CBRE help support children and young people in foster care.

The partnership allowed us to develop a digital tool for children entering foster care. We’ve introduced six workers to support those leaving foster care, and set up a fund to cover essential items for living. CBRE also supported our government campaigning work to make improvements across the sector.

In 2020, the partnership won Charity Partnership, Property and Construction at the Business Charity Awards. We are so proud to have achieved so much during our three-year partnership with CBRE and cannot thank them enough for the opportunity to work together to build a better future for children and young people in foster care.

From 2018—2022, Action for Children partnered with FirstGroup to support young people on their journey to better mental health.

Our partnership has now been valued at more than £3.7 million in employee and customer fundraising, corporate donations and the commercial value of gift in kind advertising support. This is thanks to the incredible enthusiasm of staff and customers across all operating companies.

The partnership funded a number of initiatives including a national Mental Health Training programme to ensure that Action for Children staff can meet the growing needs of young people with mental health problems — keeping them safe from harm.

FirstGroup’s funding will also be invested in the Enrichment Fund, which enables all children supported by Action for Children — and particularly those who might otherwise miss out — to access enriching activities and experiences, which are basic pre-requisites of good mental health and wellbeing. Examples could include day trips and activities for young people, activity packs, or family barbecue events.

Our formal partnership has now come to an end but we’re incredibly please to say that with funds already raised and some continued support, we will be supporting young people on their journey to better mental health through to March 2023.

From June 2022 to May 2023, we partnered with the Thai restaurant group, Giggling Squid, to help vulnerable children and young people to thrive. It's hard to grow, learn, and fulfil your potential when you're hungry or cold, scared or alone. But with Giggling Squid’s support, Action for Children could be there for children, young people, and families in need across the UK.

From beach cleans to bike rides, sponsored treks to supporting our Christmas Secret Santa campaign, colleagues and customers from over 40 Giggling Squid restaurants raised over £60,000 to support vulnerable children and young people in need of life-changing support.

Thanks to our partnership with Giggling Squid, Action for Children were able to create a brighter future for children and young people across the UK.

Metro Bank chose to support Action for Children for their 2020 Christmas marketing campaign. They were encouraging their staff, members, and the public to donate to our Secret Santa campaign via their Magic Money Tree.

Alongside a corporate donation, Metro Bank offered us ample marketing value, featuring us in their social media posts and a grand display in each of their 77 stores. In every store, Metro Bank displayed a huge Christmas tree, full of decorations and gold coins which customers were encouraged to take and follow the QR code through to a co-branded Donation page.

Our partnership with Royal Mail began in June 2017 and aimed to raise £2 million through a mix of employee fundraising and matched funding. All funds went to the Blues Programme for 13-19 year olds who are suffering from, or at risk of developing, a mental health condition.

The fundraising efforts of Royal Mail’s 140,000 staff meant we reached thousands of young people.

Royal Mail also offered pro bono support, collaborated on campaigning for better youth mental health, and donated Apprenticeship Levy Funding which was used used to fund training and apprenticeship programmes for Action for Children staff.

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