Review of 2011

April – December 2011

The predictions for the voluntary sector for 2012 are gloomy with most charities predicting an even worse year than 2011. Many charities survived the year by utilising their reserves, re-focusing their business models and making redundancies. Any further cuts in central and local statutory funding will place many in such a precarious position that it will dramatically affect the services they provide, causing even more hardship to the most vulnerable in our communities.

Man's charitable contribution is based on the financial performance of the business. As a result of lower performance fees Man donated $1.5 million in the period ($3.8million FY11) to the Trust and charitable committees of our overseas offices. With less funding available we narrowed our focus to support those charities working with the most excluded and disadvantaged such as supporting the homeless or long-term unemployed into education, training or employment. The Trust built up its reserves in 2009 in order to ensure we were able to maintain a consistent level of giving and therefore donated $3.8 million in this period to support charities when they needed it the most.

We are passionate about maintaining our presence in our local communities, particularly in this difficult economic climate, and are also expanding our volunteering programme in order to maximise our impact through time and expertise.

Community and philanthropy have always been important to our employees and our employee volunteering programme ManKind has continued to be extremely popular with over 20% of our employees taking part. Activities range from serving breakfast to the homeless to facilitating employability workshops for disaffected youth and mentoring students in further education.

Our new Annual Charity for 2012 will be the Starlight Children’s Foundation which grants seriously and terminally ill children their once in a lifetime wish. We look forward to working with Starlight to help ease the pain, fear and isolation for even more of these children.

A huge thank you to all of our employees who have volunteered their time, energy and skills over the year and to those who have also donated via their Give as You Earn accounts and the Trust’s sponsorship matching scheme.

Lesley King-Lewis
Director, Man Charitable Trust