Close to our offices, many community groups are finding it hard to survive, with the outlook for some young people seeming just as uncertain.
With understandable expectation for business to “give something back”, we are facing unprecedented demand for support. Maintaining our longstanding commitment to communities requires sensible, although tough, decisions.
This year Linklaters invested 1.5% of our pre-tax profits in our communities in cash and time, and hundreds of our people have volunteered their skills and expertise.
We have worked with our community partners to review current volunteering opportunities, looking particularly at where we can contribute even more using our skills and experience. This is leading to a changed emphasis for our volunteering programme, notably a shift from quantity to quality. Although we contributed fewer hours this year, the hours we volunteered involved more use of our professional skills. But we believe this is a better use of our resources. To put it plainly, one hour’s pro bono work is a more valuable use of our skills than eight hours painting a wall, and has undeniably greater impact, as discussed further in the measurement section. We are focusing on the impact of what we do, rather than on how much.
We are developing long-term community partnerships, continuing to underpin each with a clear statement of financial and time commitments and mutual expectations. Our partnerships are becoming more professional and more transparent, building trust and reducing the likelihood of things going wrong. More of our funding is now unrestricted, and we are incorporating core costs and surplus into our grants. Our core contribution remains pro bono – particularly in harnessing our commercial legal skills to help drive rapid innovation in social enterprise and social finance. More information is available in the pro bono section.
