Strategic philanthropy and volunteering

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Supporting our communities

The cost of living crisis is affecting the most disadvantaged groups across all our communities, and it is having an especially significant impact on the charity sector.

As part of our values, we have a responsibility to the communities we serve. We’re proud of the support our people give to help our communities and we offer all of our colleagues up to six days of volunteering time. Colleagues can take part in centrally organised programmes such as supporting a school or local charity, becoming a Charity Trustee or School Governor, or they can support a cause they are personally passionate about through a self-organised activity. Many colleagues also choose to volunteer for our national charity.

Our National Charity Partnership with Marie Curie

In 2021, our colleagues selected Marie Curie as KPMG’s National Charity Partner, initially until October 2023. Then, in recognition of the cost of living crisis, we took the decision to extend the partnership by a year, until September 2024, enabling colleagues to continue providing support through challenging times.

We have supported Marie Curie through fundraising, volunteering, pro bono and thought leadership. To date, KPMG colleagues have raised £1.5m and counting – which is enough to fund 65,000 Marie Curie nursing hours.

Total funds raised for Marie Curie / £1,232,039 FY22 & FY23

Number of nursing care hours our funds raised could help to support / 61,602 FY22 & FY23

As we conclude our three-year partnership with Marie Curie, it is with immense pride that I reflect on the incredible impact we have achieved together. At KPMG, we believe in the power of collaboration to drive meaningful change, and our work with Marie Curie is a testament to this.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of our colleagues who supported our partnership with Marie Curie. Without you, none of the above would have been possible.

And thank you to Marie Curie. Your organisation, the brilliant work you do and your people continue to inspire me. On behalf of KPMG we wish you all the very best for the future and please know you will always be part of the KPMG family.
Rachel Hopcroft CBE / Head of Corporate Affairs, KPMG in the UK

During our time together you have raised an astonishing amount to support the people we serve. You have delivered impactful and high-quality pro bono and thought leadership pieces which will vastly improve the lives of families across the UK at the end of life. And you’ve shared your skills with us, providing Marie Curie colleagues with invaluable opportunities to learn, grow, and innovate.

Thank you to each and every one of you. Your contributions will have a profound impact on the lives of so many people affected by terminal illness for yours to come. We are so grateful.
Matthew Reed / Chief Executive, Marie Curie

Fundraising

Every pound raised over the three years has supported families across the UK affected by terminal illness, providing hands-on care and vital emotional support at one of the most critical times in their lives.

KPMG’s vital support has funded core national services that support people affected by dying, death and bereavement, such as Marie Curie’s Hospice Care at Home service.

Total value of pro
bono time / £360,379 FY22 & FY23

Number of colleagues who’ve given their time to support Marie Curie / 9,221 FY22 & FY23

The KPMG Big Walks for Marie Curie

The Big Walk event series is KPMG’s annual flagship fundraiser, involving thousands of colleagues walking in a scenic area of the UK to raise money and awareness for our National Charity Partner.

Throughout our partnership, KPMG colleagues took part in 3 Big Walks series for Marie Curie. Thousands of colleagues participated, raising over £800,000 across the 3 years.

Pro bono

Since the beginning, the KPMG and Marie Curie partnership was about more than raising significant funds. We supported our colleagues to use their professional skills and expertise to help bring Marie Curie closer to achieving their strategic objective of closing the gap in end-of-life care.

Integrated Care Boards Pro bono

In 2022, Marie Curie successfully lobbied for an amendment to the Health and Care Act to include a specific requirement for newly formed Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to commission palliative and end of life care (PEoLC) services that meet the needs of their local population.

KPMG and Marie Curie agreed to work together on a pro bono project working with ICBs to improve palliative and PEoLC services in the UK. KPMG’s Healthcare Practice surveyed all 42 ICBs across England and performed a “deep dive” with two nominated systems in order to identify ways in which ICBs could be better supported to commission PEoLC services that meet local needs.

“This pro bono work has resulted in a resource that could be a game changer for Integrated Care Boards as they seek to transform their palliative and end-of-life care services to ensure they are fit for the future. Integrated Care Boards across England can now access in one place the expert information they need to better understand the costs and benefits of investing in palliative end-of-life care services, so that they can better meet the needs of local people, and also manage pressures on the wider health and care system.”

Ruth Driscoll / Associate Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Marie Curie

Volunteering

Volunteering has been at the heart of the KPMG and Marie Curie partnership. KPMG employees have dedicated countless hours to furthering Marie Curie’s mission, from participating in the Top of the Shops challenge to sharing our professional skills with Marie Curie colleagues.

Top of the Shops

Top of the Shops (TOTS) is a volunteering challenge in Marie Curie Charity Shops for KPMG colleagues.

The challenge involved KPMG colleagues working as a team to increase stock and sales on the day.

“I have taken part in two Top of the Shops activities in the last 2 years. Both have been great fun and have allowed me to connect with colleagues that I don’t see frequently in the office.”

Megan / Executive Assistant, KPMG in the UK

Thought Leadership

Throughout the partnership, we have aimed to use the collective voice and skills of KPMG and Marie Curie to ensure that current end-of-life care, services and support networks reach the highest standards.

One example of this was a piece of work we conducted which explored the cost of energy for households across the UK with a terminally ill person. We wanted to understand the opportunities and gaps that exist and identify any initiatives which could help households with a terminally ill member manage their energy costs.

KPMG’s Research Teams conducted research to highlight the financial challenges and barriers faced by terminally ill individuals and their families in accessing palliative care.

KPMG’s research found that the financial impact of a terminal illness diagnosis can be huge, with soaring energy prices compounding the cost of running medical devices in the home. This research led to Marie Curie’s “One Charge Too Many” report and initiated conversations with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that the terminally ill receive the necessary support to combat fuel poverty.

Introducing our New National Charity Partnership with FareShare

In April, we opened applications in search of our next National Charity Partner. Following a rigorous shortlisting process, we gave colleagues the opportunity to vote and the winner was FareShare. FareShare is the UK’s largest charity tackling the environmental problem of food waste for social good. They save food which would otherwise go to waste and redistribute it to local communities through a network of 35 regional sites across the UK.

FareShare provides surplus food to over 8,000 charities and community groups, who transform this food into parcels and meals to feed nearly 1 million people. These organisations also offer holistic support services aimed at addressing the causes of food poverty, helping people overcome mental health challenges, domestic abuse situations, unemployment and more.

For every £1 we raise through our partnership, FareShare will be able to redistribute the equivalent of five meals to those who need it most.

Our new National Charity Partnership with FareShare launches October 2024 and will run until September 2027.

Governance for Better

At KPMG, we have long been encouraging all our colleagues, irrespective of grade, to take up governance volunteering roles such as charity trustees and school governors through our Governance for Better programme, because we recognise the value that all KPMG colleagues can bring to these roles, and similarly, the value they can all get out. In recent years, our Governance for Better programme has been developed even further to enhance the support we have given to these colleagues since the start of the pandemic. We recognise how valuable our colleagues have been in helping schools, colleges and charities to come back stronger. The enhanced programme features a series of webinars from industry experts, information and recruitment sessions for those considering taking on such a role, peer to peer networking events, in addition to latest news, support and guidance.

Using our expertise in the community

School governors volunteer at board-level to set the strategic vision for the school, provide challenge and support, and oversee finances. It’s a fantastic opportunity to have a real impact in the community while gaining skills to bring back into the workplace. Our school governor volunteers are involved in budget management, health and safety and data analysis. They help ensure a wide curriculum is delivered so every child has the opportunity to thrive.

“Whenever you’re working with people and trying to push a particular strategy or mission statement it will always benefit you in life. The challenges, the camaraderie, the diversity, and the amazing things teachers do make me feel positive about the world and how we as people can always make a difference whether big or small. Dedicating a couple of hours a month is worth it for me and I’d highly recommend it!”

Avril Thomas / Executive Lead, KPMG in the UK

Supporting emergency appeals

We respond to global emergencies via immediate fundraising appeals, which the firm and colleagues contribute to.

£85,000 towards flood relief in Pakistan via the British Red Cross

September 2022

£140,000 to UNICEF’s Ukraine Emergency Appeal.

March 2022

£123,000 towards the British Red Cross’s Syria & Turkey Earthquake Appeal

February 2023

Ukraine crisis support

KPMG was part of a response to the Ukrainian crisis in Scotland, alongside other partners, working with the City of Edinburgh Council. They needed support to help them work through some of the challenges they would face with an increased number of refugees arriving into Edinburgh.

Drawing on the experience of the team who had supported the Scottish Government through the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to help the Council manage a complex situation and tackle uncertainty.

We focussed on the refugees arriving, keeping in mind their journey so far, working through various scenarios so we could test, challenge and improve their experience. By mobilising and bringing together the various stakeholders involved, we helped identify short and longer-term actions that the teams running the services in Edinburgh were able to implement.

“The whole team gained a huge amount of satisfaction for the small part they played in this hugely important response.”

David Grimson / Director, KPMG in the UK

KPMG Foundation

The KPMG Foundation works with others to improve the lives of the most vulnerable children and young people in the UK, so they are safe, healthy, happy and learning.

The KPMG Foundation, created in 2000, is an independent charity supported by KPMG. It shares a passion for promoting social mobility and achieving long-term change, wherever possible.

The Foundation makes grants to selected partners to improve the life chances of some of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people. Current priorities are care experienced children, and the early years.

The charity invests in:

new ideas or organisations: START UP
work with emerging evidence, to help sustain or scale: STEP UP
collaborations for influencing policy and systems change: STEP TOGETHER
filling gaps in knowledge, where findings can be put into practice: ACTIONABLE RESEARCH

The charity’s trustees make decisions about where the Foundation can add most value, drawing on their personal and professional experience in KPMG, in academia and from working with communities, families, children and young people.

Find out more about KPMG Foundation

Helping children in care achieve a better outcome

The recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care¹ stated that in ten years, without dramatic reform, outcomes for too many children and families will remain stubbornly poor. There are nearly 100,000 children in a flawed care system, costing over £15bn per year.

The KPMG Foundation is supporting a variety of work to help children in care achieve better outcomes as well as investigating whether there is anything it can do to prevent children from entering the care system in the first place.

The Fostering Network recently published timely research into the retention and recruitment of foster carers in England. It looked at how to achieve a more diverse and stable foster care workforce in England, supported by the KPMG Foundation and conducted by the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI).

As well as supporting a number of initiatives to improve fostering, we are also working to raise the status of kinship care, where a child lives with a relative or friend. Supporting the adults who provide a stable, loving home is a vital route to ensuring children are safer, healthier, happier and learning.

Ensuring sufficient numbers of skilled and knowledgeable foster carers is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the fostering sector. This research explores what works to retain foster carers – ultimately so we are able to meet all the needs of children in care, both now and in the future.

Read the summary report here.

We helped amplify the findings of this research, and the importance of fostering, at an event earlier this year, alongside the John Lewis Partnership.

The Foundation was delighted to work with the KPMG Family Network and the Corporate Responsibility Team, to help make KPMG a Fostering Friendly Employer.

¹⁾ childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk

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