Working with corporates
Despite being a small charity, we are extremely lucky to have strong support from individuals, groups and businesses - without whom we wouldn’t be able to continue our work.
A large part of our work is generating donated letters to give to our letter recipients. Demand for our letters is increasing, so the need for more letter writers has grown as a result.
Recently, we had a much needed boost to our postbag thanks to FMTY supporter, Abby King, who engaged the company she works for - Man Group - in an international letter writing day. Colleagues from five offices around the world took part - Hong Kong, London, New York, Boston and Switzerland.
The result of this global activity was wonderful! And to top it off, in the package of gorgeous cards and letters was a donation of stamps - enabling us to get their contributions out to those who need them.
We asked Abby about their experience of doing this for us.
How did you find FMTY?
Through a friend who wrote 100 Christmas cards to recipients a few years ago! She is still an inspiration!
Why did you want to get involved with FMTY?
I love writing and often exchange letters with family and friends, so it felt like a natural extension of that and one where I could make just a small difference in someone’s day.
What did your company and colleagues think when you suggested they write letters for us?
They loved the idea! I think writing is something that many people don’t do in their daily life, so it was a novel idea as a volunteering activity and also a very easy one for people to get involved in. We hosted sessions in our offices across the world but also had a ‘letterbox’ available for people to submit letters in their own time.
How did you and your colleagues find writing the letters? Was it enjoyable?
As we did this as an initiative across all our offices internationally, those who were not in the UK wrote postcards and other notes which was really fun. We got a lot of interest in our US offices who wrote such lovely letters to cancer sufferers here in the UK which must have been quite special to receive. It was such a lovely activity to do as a group and one that we could do as a united force involving all offices, which we often don’t get to do.
Were there any benefits to you / your colleagues from writing the letters?
It was a nice opportunity for our colleagues to take some time out of their working days to do something for others.
Do you think you’d like do it again?
Absolutely!
The contributions from Abby and her colleagues from Man Group has enabled us to support 50+ people facing cancer - people who may have been feeling isolated, alone and disconnected from society because of their ongoing cancer treatment.
We know from Abby’s feedback that as much as this kind of activity is a benefit to us and our letter recipients, it’s also a huge benefit to her and her colleagues.
If you and your business would like to get involved with our work, we’d love to hear from you. Whether it’s a letter writing day like this, or a fundraising challenge for colleagues, or a bake off in the staffroom. It all helps us to brighten the day of someone who’s fighting cancer.
To read more about woking with us in this way, read our blog on giving the gift of a CSR day.