Companies get a lot out of partnerships with charities. Davin Yap explains what real benefits his company sees from its CSR

All businesses have a responsibility to carry out charity work these days but few actually realise that beyond altruism it can actually bring significant advantages to their organisation. At Transversal we have been engaging in quite a bit of fundraising recently, with our Transversal Charity Cup which will see ourselves and our customers race 12 boats in the Solent to support good causes including Help for Heroes, Shelter, the RNLI and Save the Children. Here’s some of the benefits we’ve learned.

Customer Relations

One of the key pluses about a big charity fundraising project is that it gives a business a good excuse to speak to their customers in an informal capacity. Why not get them to come along to any events you might be having? It is the perfect opportunity for a chat, a joke and a small sales pitch between salespeople and customers – old, new and potential.

Team Building

As well as improving external relations, fundraising can also do a lot for internal relations. Charity work brings the whole team together, working towards a cause they believe in (other than the well-being of the business of course) can create a togetherness that didn’t exist before; and if the fundraising involves some fun activities then there is no better bonding session.

Morale

Hand-in-hand with the team building aspect of corporate charity work is the affect it has on team morale; it is the equivalent of a non-school uniform day at school. A big fundraising event gives everyone an exciting day to look forward to, it gives them something new to chat about with colleagues and there is nothing like hitting a fundraising target to give employees a sense of accomplishment.


The three reasons above are just some of the benefits that all businesses will attain from undertaking fundraising activity. Of course, the need to ‘do good’ tends to be the main driver for most organisations but the fact that it also benefits the business makes it a ‘win, win’ situation. This makes it more likely that more businesses will undertake charity work and do more of it. This has to be the benefit of all parties.


Davin Yap is CEO of Transversal, a Cambridge-based provider of web-based self service solutions. The Transversal Charity Cup takes place in the Solent on the 1st July.