Peachtree 2013 Annual Report Download - page 58

Giving our time to help charities
We have a long history of actively supporting a number
of charities and community organisations, with our
people taking the opportunity to dedicate some of their
time to the local causes that matter to them. This year in
North America 190 employees utilised their volunteer day
through our Employee Volunteer Day Benefit programme,
which provides employees with a day off to volunteer for
a local charity. Similarly, our UK business offers all our
employees two days per year to volunteer, which resulted
in nearly 4,000 hours given to community volunteering
and charitable events this year. This included over 1,000
hours supporting almost 250 children as part of the Right
to Read literacy programme. As it does every year, Sage
UK opened its call centre to take calls for Comic Relief
2013, with our people volunteering to process donations.
Every year in July, Sage celebrates Sage Day, when our
employees have the opportunity to get involved in local
communities and charity work together. As well as the
global Sage Day activity to support Ashoka and Junior
Achievement, there was widespread local activity.
In South Africa, Sage Day coincided with Mandela Day,
a national day of celebration in recognition of Nelson
Mandela’s 67 years of dedication to South Africa.
To honour both events our people in South Africa,
in partnership with Afrika Tikkun – a long-standing
beneficiary of Sage South Africa’s support – volunteered
at the Diepsloot community centre, an informal
settlement located close to Sage South Africa’s
head office. Afrika Tikkun is a well-established
non-governmental organisation and works in six of the
most impoverished communities in South Africa to fulfil
their mission of uplifting and empowering disadvantaged
orphans and vulnerable children.
In the UK, 56 Sage employees took part in three charity
bike rides as part of Sage Day (Coast to Coast, London
to Paris and London to Alpe d’Huez) to raise funds for
Sage UK’s chosen charity, Cancer Research UK, raising
£53,000. Overall donations to Cancer Research UK
during our seven-year partnership with them have now
reached £615,000.
For us, helping charities is not just about raising funds.
Sometimes a donation in kind can make a huge
difference. For example, our people in Spain donated
450 kilos of food to the National Food Bank, an
extremely significant resource for many Spanish families
at this difficult time. Our employees in North America
have donated a total of 3,480 items including food,
toys and clothes to various charities.
Corporate responsibility continued
Community
Investing in young people
Sage South Africa has a long-standing joint initiative
with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
(“SAICA”), known as The National SAICA-Sage Pastel
Accounting Olympiad. The programme aims to address
the imbalance of racial representation within the
accounting profession and equip African learners with
financial literacy skills. The winner of the Olympiad is
awarded a full bursary to further education in accountancy.
In Spain, we have been working with the Create
Foundation to help deliver workshops where students
are encouraged to embrace their creativity, innovation
and entrepreneurialism. In the UK, Sage launched an
apprentice scheme for 12 apprentices to join Sage, all of
whom are still with the business, as well as a formal work
experience programme for local senior school students.
Our involvement in local communities is about more than
business, so we empower our operating companies to set
their own targets and goals because they know best what
will really make a dierence locally
Every year we’re amazed at how much eort our people put into
supporting our local communities.
56 The Sage Group plc | Annual Report & Accounts 2013