Business in the Community shapes our new Appeal Partners Programme

The National Emergencies Trust will be launching an Appeal Partners Programme later this Spring which aims to empower businesses, media partners and community organisations across the UK, with a local presence, to play a vital role during future domestic disasters.

Appeal partners are invited to act fast alongside the Trust, when the worst next happens to:

• Help amplify the Trust’s emergency fundraising appeals, to maximise the support available for people affected.
• Make sure those affected can easily and quickly find the support that is on offer to them
• Share intelligence about local needs

The Trust would like to thank Business in the Community’s (BITC) Scotland Director Louisa Macdonell for so generously helping to shape the development of the programme so that it is fit for purpose and easy for those interested to get involved.

Last week, the team chatted to Director of Partnerships at BITC, Hannah Tankard, about how BITC’s members are often keen to play a role during emergencies.

1. What response did you see from businesses during the pandemic?

There was a lot of uncertainty at the time and before we went into national lockdown, many of our members were reporting that their supply chains were being affected. For some retailers who have supply chains all over the world, the impact was huge and meant that getting stock on shelves was proving challenging. There was also just huge amounts of uncertainty from face-to-face event delivery to keeping people in employment to supporting communities who desperately needed extra support.

Overwhelmingly, when we put the question to businesses in our network if they would help communities in response to the pandemic, we heard a resounding yes. They were willing to help. That’s when we decided to start our National Business Response Network (opens in a new tab) because we wanted to be able to match community need to business support. We were aware that members had this energy to do something to help right away and there was a need to channel this drive. We’ve now reactivated the National Business Response Network to help our members respond to the cost-of-living crisis.

When the National Emergencies Trust launched their Coronavirus Appeal on 18th March 2020, it was a real turning point. It meant BITC could signpost our members who wanted to support communities immediately through financial donations to the National Emergencies Trust. To be able to direct them to the Trust’s Appeal whilst we focused on providing community organisations non-funding support, was from my perspective, phenomenal.

Similarly, in the context of the Ukraine crisis, we saw companies and staff wanting to give goods and raise money to help Ukrainians. In this instance we signposted members to our partner the Disasters Emergency Committee. Having a trusted organisation where we can direct our members to in the first instance of an emergency is so helpful for both businesses and BITC. We know that nearly always in the first few days and weeks of an emergency that the best way we can all help is to donate cash to support those on the frontline to get support to those who need it most.

2. What role did BITC play, alongside the Trust?

We played multiple roles. Firstly, as a member of the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership, we were advocating that businesses could do more to help during the pandemic whilst also trying to understand the needs of the voluntary sector so that we could help businesses to meet those needs.

To harness the energy of businesses we engage with, we focused our efforts on non-monetary support. All the way through we were able to differentiate ourselves from the Trust, as we are not a grant giving organisation. In the early days, we were matching physical items to community organisations in need of food, essentials, PPE, technology etc. As the pandemic went on, we shifted our efforts to offering skilled volunteering.

Early questions in the first few weeks included: what did businesses do with surplus products that could not be sold? A classic example was when 3000 surplus sandwiches a week, for several weeks, were donated by London North Eastern Railway and distributed to food banks. As emergency response isn’t our core business and as the pandemic progressed, we began to also look at the impacts of COVID-19 on our members’ business operations and how we could support them through the lens of being more responsible. This meant highlighting issues worsened by the pandemic like gender disparities, racial inequalities in the workplace and employee wellbeing.

3. Do you think there is appetite from businesses to play a role or greater role in future emergencies?

Broadly speaking, yes, but we must remember that businesses are not a homogeneous group. We have members who are category two responders within the Local Resilience Forum structures in the UK so will always respond to emergencies in some way. We also have others who are unaware of the emergency response landscape but want to play their part during major catastrophes. For smaller, localised emergencies this may be different and will depend on whether it is in the businesses interest or locality.

Businesses need to be empowered to be able to respond to emergencies responsibly. I also think there’s a role of businesses in the wider resilience space, in making sure that people’s capacity to respond in the first place is there. We know that addressing systemic issues like ensuring individuals have greater financial security, better access to employment and housing would not only boost their ability to be resilient in their personal circumstances but also in the wider community. There's a wider resilience conversation that I think businesses need to recognise that they are a fundamental part of.

4. If so, what would better equip them to do this?

Certainly, for major events like the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis, we have seen organisations wanting to do something but not always knowing what it is they should do. That’s where we come in to support them and where the Appeal Partners programme could be incredibly valuable in helping them to make a meaningful difference to communities in times of crisis.

Often businesses want to help in the immediate aftermath of something happening and pointing them to trusted emergency appeals from the National Emergencies Trust or the Disasters Emergency Committee ensures that they can offer funds, or simply raise awareness of the support on offer to those affected in the local areas. Establishing partnerships ahead of the next emergency will help to save a lot of precious time when you need to act immediately to get support to those in need.

To find out more about the National Emergencies Trust’s Appeal Partner programme and register your interest please get in touch. Email:
fundraising@nationalemergenciestrust.org.uk (opens in a new tab)

BITC’s National Business Response Network connects businesses with community organisations to offer support. Visit The National Business Response Network - Business in the Community (bitc.org.uk) (opens in a new tab) to find out more.