Introducing Neighbourgood…
An introduction to Neighbourgood
Last month, we launched our new CSR consultancy, Neighbourgood. We’ve had a lot of interest in our new venture, which is exciting, so we wanted to explain what Neighbourgood is, what it does and how it fits into the wider Clearbox Group picture.
What is Neighbourgood?
Neighbourgood is a consultancy that specialises in corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR is how companies and organisations create a positive impact on the communities where they operate, or where their staff live and work.
There are many ways an organisation can create this positive impact, but the two most common ways are providing donations to community organisations (either financial or product) or mobilising their workforce to volunteer with community organisations.
Why would a company get involved in CSR?
Many organisations today care about the impact they have on their community. CSR is a way to ensure that impact is positive, while also creating employee engagement opportunities for staff to come together and volunteer to help a community cause.
What types of companies do this activity?
In our many years of experience, we’ve helped companies of all shapes and sizes create impactful CSR campaigns.
Whether it’s a small, local business donating IT equipment to a school around the corner or a global brand engaging thousands of employees across the UK and Ireland to get out into the community and create a positive impact, the possibilities with CSR programmes are endless and apply to businesses of all sizes.
The most important thing is that there’s a genuine desire to support the community or good causes – the size of the company isn’t important.
So, what does Neighbourgood do then?
Neighbourgood creates CSR programmes from start to finish. Our team works with companies and brands to:
Come up with creative ways organisations can support their community.
Develop ideas into strategic initiatives.
Identify charities and community organisations that align with our clients.
Vet the charities and community organisations to ensure there’s a strategic fit for everyone.
Produce vetting reports on each community organisation using authenticated data from the Charity Commission.
Contact the community organisations to offer support and manage the set-up process.
Liaise with charity partners to ensure the smooth running of all projects.
Process product or financial donations to the community organisations.
Mobilise and organise teams of employee volunteers to get involved with community organisations.
Book and brief photographers to attend donation events or volunteering activity for internal and external communications.
Track all community activity, producing bespoke reports on impact, employee engagement, volunteering hours and more.
Track sentiment from charity partners on how projects are executed.
Have you got an example of a project Neighbourgood could bring to life?
Let’s take the example of a bank with hundreds of branches across the UK.
The bank would like to support children from underprivileged backgrounds. The bank also wants to engage employees from its branches that geographically match a national charity’s locations.
That’s where we come in.
Neighbourgood will:
Propose creative ideas so the bank can meet its objectives, such as: a team kitting event held at the bank’s branches, where employees pack maths kits for the beginning of a new school term.
Develop a clear project plan.
Create a database of staff in each branch that will oversee the activity locally.
Vet the charity that’s been nominated for support and produce a report on how well it fits the aims of the programme.
Contact the charity to inform them this support is being offered.
Manage the relationship with the charity.
Create an employee engagement programme that includes dates for the packing events.
Source the products for the packing, including the boxes, and have them sent to all local branches.
Manage the packing events, ensuring they happen on time.
Book and brief photographers to attend selected events. Charity representatives will also be invited to selected events.
Creating a briefing pack for the branch leader which includes a walk-through of what to expect on packing day.
Arrange for the collection of the boxes once the packing is complete.
Arrange for the delivery of the boxes to each charity branch.
Produce a report on the activity that details things like number of products donated, number of boxes packed, value of the boxes, number of employees engaged, volunteering hours donated and more.
Liaise with the bank’s PR and internal communications teams from the start of the campaign to the end, equipping them with stats and information for employee communications, social media content and press materials.
Our job is simply to make the process of engaging with communities as easy but impactful as possible for the companies we work with.
Why are you doing this?
We’ve worked on thousands of CSR campaigns that have impacted millions of people in the UK and Ireland. We’ve seen first-hand the amazing impact that companies can have on their people and the community and we’re passionate about helping the brands we work with to have that lasting impact.
We genuinely believe that even the smallest community engagement campaign can make a huge difference and we want to help more and more businesses to use their powers as a force for good.
And, as we say on our website – you can’t choose your neighbours, but you can choose who you are as a neighbour.
How do I find out more information?
Contact alex@neighbourgood.net or follow us on Instagram
