A NORTH EAST financial firm has raised over £170,000 for local and national charities to mark its centenary year in business.
Robson Laidler, accountants, business advisors and wealth managers set itself an ambitious target back in 2016 to raise £100,000 for charity by the end of 2020 to celebrate its 100th year in business.
The firm, which employs 90 staff across two offices in Newcastle and Durham, also set out to support 100 different charities by doing 100 different activities. To help its staff achieve the target Robson Laidler gave everyone a paid ‘volunteering day’ to work in the community.
As the year comes to an end, the firm has announced it has smashed its target by raising £171,569.77 for 165 different charities / community projects, in 123 different ways, including a sponsored Three Peaks Challenge, velodrome race and Coast to Coast.
Emma Thompson who leads CSR at Robson Laidler said: “As our firm’s purpose is to ‘make a positive difference to people’s lives’, we pledged to raise £1,000 for every year we had been in business as part of our birthday celebrations.
“Throughout the past four years our team has really pulled together to reach this target and it’s a testament of the commitment and passion of our team that we not only reached this but smashed it!
“Throughout the years we’ve seen staff get involved in fundraising and volunteering projects from painting garden furniture at a community bowling club, supermarket bag packing, cake bakes and talking to young people about careers in accountancy at local schools.
“This year set us back with the pandemic restrictions, but we still managed to find ways to raise money for charities who needed our support more than ever.
“Each year we have had a charity of the year, voted for by staff, but we also raised funds for other worthy causes. This year our Charity of the Year was Macmillan Toon Angels and as they were hampered severely by the pandemic they have been overwhelmed with the support from Robson Laidler.”
Over 40 of Robson Laidler’s staff recently took part in a 100-mile challenge where they were challenged to either run, walk or cycle 100 miles before the end of the year.
The firm has also recently been accredited with Maintaining Excellence standard in the Northern TUC and Public Health England’s Better Health at Work Awards.