SUPPORTING BT TO GROW ITS COMMUNITY INVESTMENT STRATEGY

THE CHALLENGE

BT is one of our long-standing clients; we have supported BT’s payroll giving through the CAF Give As You Earn scheme and their payroll giving matching scheme since its launch 25 years ago.

BT runs an extensive corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme in the UK and internationally, and is constantly seeking new ways to extend its activity to involve more employees, deliver greater innovation, promote best practice and bring about greater impact. 

We have worked with BT since 2011 to help them deliver parts of their community investment strategy and address a number of key challenges. This included specific help and support in the delivery of BT’s global charity partnerships. 

OUR APPROACH

CAF worked closely with BT Brazil, India and UK, using community knowledge and expertise to help them successfully implement BT’s global strategy at a local level. We also worked with CAF India and our global alliance member IDIS in Brazil to identify potential partners in these countries who could help BT meet their strategic objectives. 

We were able to provide a co-ordinated response to reflect BT’s international footprint and its business requirements. 

We undertook the following:

  • Translated BT’s criteria for identifying appropriate charity partners to fit local context in Brazil and India.
  • Identified a range of potential projects that reflected BT’s focus on digital literacy, innovation, capacity building and volunteering.
  • Undertook the necessary due diligence for potential charity partners.
  • Helped BT select the in-country charity partners that would best suit its criteria, ethos and requirements.
  • Undertook a collaborative process that helped to engage local BT employees with the process of selecting a charity partner and developing a project ensuring ownership in country.
  • Supported the application to access funding from BT’s global fund that will ensure the local charity partnership is appropriately resourced over a two-three year period, delivering benefits to beneficiaries and building organisational capacity and sustainability.
  • Provided project management, advice and coordination that helped to engage all stakeholders appropriately and keep to schedule despite multiple agendas and commitments.

THE OUTCOME

Charities were selected by BT from the shortlist we provided. Both India and Brazil were successful in securing support from BT and significant funding to develop their charity partnerships - Liga Solidária in Brazil and HOPE Foundation in India - and build flagship projects that will help improve digital literacy within deprived communities.

Our approach demonstrated how we are able to mirror a client’s global and local requirements to develop charity partnerships which help meet its global strategic ambitions within a local context.

“We were delighted with the support from CAF. We benefited from their extensive expertise globally, which was particularly valuable when working remotely in the UK with global colleagues new to CSR. 

Providing all the due diligence as part of the process, and a long-list of potential charity partners that met BT’s criteria, significantly speeded up the process and resulted in the successful funding of these two projects. 

We would certainly look to engage CAF again if required to develop further partnerships – we have had nothing but very positive feedback from all our stakeholders.”

Beth Courtier, Community Investment Programme Manager

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