But the purpose of this story is not to philosophise about religious teachings. Rather, it’s to show that being charitable can be good for the soul (and good for business too).
The urge to be charitable is strong in the UK. According to the Charity Commission, at the end of 2024, in round numbers, there were 170,700 charities in the UK along with 14,100 other linked organisations. The sector employs some 1.1m people assisted by 6.4m volunteers and 924,500 trustees. Notably, it had income of £98.3bn – yes, that’s right, turnover was not far off a hundred billion pounds .
And many in the world of print have seen the value of being charitable with reasons given that align with those noted by the Charities Aid Foundation – that charity makes us feel good, strengthens personal values, tax relief improves the impact of giving, it rubs off on others, and importantly, it can build and strengthen communities.
Not unsurprisingly the world of print has its own dedicated charity – The Printing Charity.
Set up in 1827 as the Printers’ Charitable Corporation by George and Charles Searle and their employer, John King, an independent printer, in the Kings Head Tavern in Poultry, London, it is one of the oldest benevolent charities in the UK.
Its stated goals are “to provide practical, emotional & financial support for people in print, paper, packaging, graphics and publishing”.
And it does this through a free employee helpline; financial support for living costs; independent living at two retirement homes that are part of the Almshouse Association; and helping grow the sector’s emerging young talent with skills training and development.
In 2023 the charity nationally spent £3m helping those who work or have worked in the sector through 835 instances of grants and support.
Printweek wanted to understand what organisations in the sector are themselves doing to further the cause of charity. And as we discovered, they’re doing quite a bit.
CIM Signs & Graphics
Mark Baker, managing director at CIM Signs & Graphics, has seen his company’s charitable works grow over time. Where once the firm would help with a free banner at a local event or waiving artwork charges on a charity project – it now often partners on projects and supplies labour or works in kind where CIM’s branding is also displayed.
Baker explains: “It was mainly born from if someone needed our help, and we believed and liked the project or the people, we would do what we could.”
Deciding on which organisations to help is simple says Baker. Very often it’s a function of “either one of our team having a connection or relevance to the charity, or just the feeling we have got on with the people we speak to, and the timing is right”. In other words, there is no exact science to the help given.
In more detail, Baker says that the company sometimes provides design or manufacturing time free of charge. His reasoning is that it “helps a charity get something of added value that perhaps would they not have spent money on but could gain them revenue, noticeability or an asset for the longer term”.
On top of that, CIM staff help organise events or run their own events to raise awareness and funds for charities. Baker recognises that this comes at the firm’s expense but considers it an opportunity for staff to step away from the day-to-day job to learn and develop. It should be said that the company also sponsors or donates money.
And the efforts pay off. Baker details that in one instance the company grew £250 to £4,500 through a mix of running, sponsoring and connecting four challenges where it got to explain who the charity was and its purpose – plus “we got to pack gift boxes and hear the stories of cancer survivors and those who volunteer after losing loved ones”. Further, CIM helped with awareness with branding the charity’s vans to help it get noticed.
Something else CIM does is to produce a calendar. Previously used to promote CIM and what it did, having run out of ideas the firm began to gift the monthly space to charities. As Baker says: “This isn’t giving money, but is a platform for others to see these charities – there are 800 of them that sit on desks and 12 charities get a month in front of our customers. We promote each month’s ‘why’ via our social media channels.”
Charitable work for CIM, Baker explains, “shows that we are not all about money and financial gain. The team knows that we do it for reasons that are credible”.
As for the charities themselves, Baker says that “they are thankful... there are so many charities, and they are all fighting for funding to make a difference to others”.
He adds that the company is a “flag flyer in appreciation for what they do”. He continues: “We make signs and are good at that, we don’t have the skillsets for some of the amazing, challenging and at times soul destroying situations some of these people have to deal with; without them there would be far more pain in our society.”
In his view, firms looking to do some good should “do what makes [them] feel happy, make the decisions based on what [they] can afford and why [they] want to be involved.”
He makes the point that “we are on this planet once, so are a few more digits in the bank going to make you that much happier, or is doing something nice for someone else more rewarding?”
For Baker, charity doesn’t have to mean a large donation – it can often be something simple.
TheMPC
Paul Marsh, managing director, understands just how valuable to society good work and the effects of charity can be.
He details what it has meant to him – personally.
“It is not until you experience something that you realise how lucky you are. In our situation, our son was very poorly and spent quite of bit of time in hospital when he was very young. We realised very quickly that although he was unwell, he would get better. But he was surrounded by young children for whom hospital was like a second home and they would need care continually throughout their childhood and into adult life.”
This for Marsh was, as he says, “a wake-up call for us; my wife and I decided we should help where we can.”
Marsh tells how while at the hospital the steps they took were “as simple as ensuring that other parents had adequate respite and ensured they took care of themselves”. They helped organise food and accommodation for those parents who didn’t know this was available or who were just too exhausted.
But when back at home the couple decided to do more and that is when his relationship with The Knights Foundation started.
The foundation was chosen, says Marsh, precisely because the founder of the charity covered the costs of running it via his own businesses. “We know all of the money we donate goes directly to those who need it,” he says. “You hear so many stories about organisations where the salaries are huge. We aren’t providing support to pay salaries; we do it to help those in our community who need it most.”
In terms of the assistance given, Marsh explains that as patrons “we provide a regular donation plus we are always the headline sponsor of the bi-annual Children of Courage awards. We also aim to provide support all year round working with the charity to use our knowledge and marketing expertise to think of innovative ways to raise funds”.
He tells how instead of giving Christmas gifts this year the company will instead sponsor a water-skiing event in 2025 where 10 to 15 families will “have a day out to remember”. He’s doing this because, with Christmas gifts to customers, “there are only so many bottles of wine one person can drink at Christmas” and the event “will give families the gift of something to look forward to into the new year when times for these families can be so tough”.
Other examples of giving that Marsh mentions include an event that raised more than £18,000 for the NSPCC through sales of a charity print, and helping to fundraise, through the Knights Foundation, to build a school in Nepal.
And TheMPC staff welcome what the company is doing in this sphere. As Marsh comments, “they are very supportive of the charities we support and love to get involved where they can. We take our staff to a number of the events so they can see first-hand how we as a business look to support this very important charity in our local community”.
In finishing, Marsh reckons that if a firm can help then it should. But he says that “it’s important to ensure you can afford to do it, not only from a financial point of view, but also in terms of time”. He says this for good reason: “When you can see what an impact you are having first hand, you will want to do more and more.”
Webmart
Simon Biltcliffe, founder and executive chairman, is a keen supporter of charitable giving. Indeed, what the business once did – “doling out money” – grew to the point that a team, a “giving committee”, was needed to handle requests for help.
Biltcliffe says that Webmart has donated for a long time and says that “we’re coming up to £1m that we’ve given away over years”.
And it started from a small seed of an idea based on the fact that he “didn’t think it was fair that money that we didn’t actually earn should be kept... we should be able to give it to the least well-off in society”.
And as Biltcliffe looks back, he recalls that the company had quite a cache of money in the bank on high interest rates; he says that the interest the money attracted returned in excess of £100,000 a year. Of course, the recent low-interest rate landscape lowered the returns. Even so, Biltcliffe says that while the giving morphed over time, along with different recipients, the minimum given was around about £20,000 a year.
But as for time, money and people – Biltcliffe says Webmart gives all three.
“We choose things of particular interest. Last week I was with Barnsley food bank collecting donations outside Tesco and we got two van loads; such kind people.” He details how he leafleted shoppers as they walked in and subsequently received items on their way out: “It was just such a nice thing.”
To illustrate that giving isn’t a recent innovation for Webmart, Biltcliffe says that the company previously sponsored a business school in Ethiopia, in Bahir Dar, in conjunction with another firm, Alchemy. The idea for that school came, he says, “out of communism – they needed skills to run and create micro businesses”. He continues: “The idea was that we would prime it with about £30,000, but that the graduates of the school would actually give, as part of the giving the education, 10% of their business back to the school.”
Biltcliffe is pleased that after three or four years the profits that the graduates earned paid for the school: “It was so fulfilling.” He’s not heard from Ethiopia for some 10 years now but imagines that it’s still going strong.
Overall, in terms of what Webmart does, Biltcliffe reckons that because staff can “choose the things that matter to them, then it means a lot to them”. Further, he says that they appreciate what might be relatively small amounts of money for the business can mean to a charitable organisation. As he says, “it makes us realise how lucky we are. For a few bad choices in life, there for the grace of God any of us could go. And if you’re brought up in challenging circumstances, it’s so much easier to go the wrong way”.
And Biltcliffe is aware of the impact of poor choices on individuals; he also works in the prison system with (Lord) James Timpson in trying to reduce reoffending through giving inmates greater employability skills. Allied to this he is a trustee at Barnsley Football Club’s charity – it runs male and female refugee football teams.
As for advice for firms looking to be more charitably minded, Biltcliffe emphasises that whatever is done “it’s got to tie in with the individual objectives. It’s never about you – it’s always about what you can deliver through the organisation to the team to make them feel great about themselves and helping people that matter to them”.
Ultimately, he reckons that every project has “got to be objective, got to be fair, and it’s got to be equitable”. And this results in greater loyalty from staff because they realise that you’ve actually mean what you say– “shit gets real when you spend time in a charity!”
Baker Labels
Steve Baker, managing director, outlines why Baker Labels gives to charity: “A lot of people work hard but through various reasons still have tough times. We have been very fortunate that our hard work has built us a successful business, so it is the right and fair thing to do to support our local community and charities wherever possible.”
On top of that, he’s keen to live in a society “where money is distributed to those with the greatest needs rather than lining the pockets of the corrupt or going to waste”. But he recognises that this isn’t the case which leaves “the most needy and vulnerable to rely on volunteers and charitable donations”.
Baker says that the main charities supported are chosen because of their location and the support they give children and families. As he says: “We wanted to make a difference to the local community and as a family company, the family ethos is strong.”
The company asks staff members to nominate charities that mean something to them – “they’re always very proud when they know they have directly impacted a charity close to them”.
He says that Baker Labels has always made regular donations to charity, but for its 50th anniversary, the firm launched the Bakers Foundation. Of this Baker explains that “we now have a commitment to donate a fixed percentage of profits to charity each year; this amount will be spread across various organisations”. For the first two years of the foundation, he says that it has donated a total of £300,000, and since the 2011 move to Brentwood the company has donated over half a million pounds.
While Baker understands that financial donations are more likely than giving time or lending people, “when volunteering opportunities do arise, we look at our production schedule and see which areas can afford to spare team members”.
He gives an example from December last year when four staff members attended the Kid’s Inspire Christmas Appeal to wrap gifts for children of all ages.
In other areas, the company has funded entertainment visits for children in Southend, Newham, Romford, Chelmsford, Whipp’s Cross and Harlow hospitals; some 60 sessions between July 2023 and May 2024 costing £3,000; funded the printing of a book for a charity, Aching Arms, to help newly bereaved fathers – the book is distributed by midwives across the UK; and supported other services Aching Arms offers.
As for what the company’s charitable work means to staff, Baker says that “there is a general feeling of pride to know that they work for a company that is able to support charities and good causes regularly”. He adds: “It’s always made clear that their efforts are why we can do what we do; giving staff a direct opportunity to support charities that have impacted someone close to them really engages them and gives them the warm fuzzy feeling.”
In finishing, Baker’s advice to print firms wanting to take their first step toward charitable giving is to “keep it simple”. He emphasises that charities need “unrestricted funds to pay for the mundane stuff like utilities and salaries. By making donations without too many strings attached lets them know that you’re really supporting them and not doing it just to show off”.
Of course, he can also see a little bit of ‘payback’ – that promoting charitable giving helps the business to be seen locally one that cares, a fact that has a positive effect on recruitment.
Summary
Charity is not about being ‘holier than thou’ or taking the moral high ground. Rather, it’s about doing the right thing and caring for others.
So it’s good to be charitably minded. It’s good for the soul, is great for workplace morale and teambuilding, and let’s be clear, it’s excellent to give more to society than we take. And it’s one of the little things the differentiates a civilised society from one that is both selfish and anarchic.
