Giving Back

Supporting charities, communities and those in need

Our Giving Back campaigns

Supporting charities and those in need is part of who we are, and we have long established global programmes of charity and community support, volunteering and giving across our group. To drive and unite our employees and inspire and recognise employee efforts, we have created three core Community Impact campaigns as key focus points for colleagues throughout the year:

Global Group Giving Month (GGGM)

Held every May, this is our core campaign where employees around the world come together to give back through volunteering, fundraising and raising awareness - for the charities, people and causes that our employees care about most.

Giving Back Celebration Campaign

Held every September as a moment in time to celebrate all those colleagues who have given back throughout the year, to recognise the incredible charities we support around the world through charity nominations and awards (funded by the Howden Foundation) and to inspire colleagues through the stories shared to keep giving to those in need.

Festive Giving Campaign

Held every December to unite colleagues to donate all they can to those in need – by giving their time through volunteering, donating books, toys, clothes or food through donation drives, or by fundraising for charities and those in need.

Howden employees holding up a thank you sign

Charity partnerships

We have a decentralised charity partnership approach to enable each of our global businesses and teams to select their own charities, so that they can choose the cause and partners that are the most meaningful to their local teams to support.  These range across all themes from environmental protection and wildlife projects to cancer support and mental health and orphanages to child development programmes.  

In the UK we also support 6 central charities – one for each of our core themes of Environment, Education, Employment, Health, Disasters and Poverty - through a combination of direct donations from Howden, employee volunteering and support, and employee fundraising and awareness programmes.  These run alongside our UK Military and Youth Development programmes - combining volunteering, donations, fundraising and events to help military veterans and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into work.

Howden employees out litter picking

Volunteering and Fundraising

To support and encourage employees to give back, Howden gives everyone in the Group 2 volunteering days to use each year.  Our central Community Impact team organise, drive and inspire volunteering and fundraising activities across the world, especially during our core campaigns.  From quiz nights to charity walks, local school maintenance to beach cleans, and bike rides to global adventure challenges – our colleagues continue to give to those in need and inspire each other to get involved.

We have also partnered with Benevity to create a global fundraising and volunteering platform called ‘Group Giving’.  This helps employees find ideas and opportunities to sign up for, whilst also acting as a donation platform for our many active fundraising activities around the world.

Two canoes on a fully dried-up lake

The Howden Foundation

As a company we have a fundamental belief that a great business takes care of people, communities and the world around us, now and in the future. One of the ways we do this is through our independent corporate foundation.

The Howden Foundation is a registered charity with a mission to protect people against the social and economic effects of climate change. With an approach that mirrors our own DNA, the Foundation funds entrepreneurial and innovative solutions that will save lives, reduce poverty and address underlying inequalities.

Find out about the Foundation's work