Skip to content
Home Link Logo

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Acting responsibly to make a valued contribution to the wider local community

LAA Visit

Our approach to CSR

At Blick Rothenberg success means more than financial performance. Success means creating a great place to work which breeds a positive, innovative culture as well as a supportive and nurturing workplace. Core to this is corporate responsibility or CSR.

Our approach to CSR supports our vision and values and we have a long and proud history of involvement with charitable and not-for-profit organisations.

Many of our partners take an active role as trustees and directors of a wide range of charities.

In December 2007, we launched a corporate and social responsibility (CSR) programme aimed at reducing the environmental harm of doing business and contributing to society through charitable activity.

We believe that we have a key responsibility in addressing pressing social and environmental concerns. This includes being consideration of all of the key stakeholders in our business including our clients, colleagues and the communities of which we form a part.

We have therefore built a balanced approach to becoming a sustainable business in the widest sense of that term. This includes our ambition to become B Corp accredited as both a demonstration of this commitment and a source of further ideas.  B Corps strive to meet high standards with regard to social and environmental impact, are committed to accountability, transparency and continuous improvement and seek to engender an inclusive, equitable economic system.

We work hard to ensure that we provide an environment where all of the team feel comfortable and confident and have equal opportunity to thrive.

Our focus on being a learning organisation includes not only technical and leadership development but extends into health, mental and physical wellbeing and education around social issues.

Graduates Team Photo

Initiatives

Current initiatives to achieve these aims include:

  • Introduction of dry recycling bins: over 50% of waste is now recycled
  • Introduction of renewable forestry-sourced plain paper: Saving hundreds of trees
  • Recycling of printer cartridges and batteries: reducing toxins to landfill
  • Introduction of reusable mugs and glasses: reducing plastic cup consumption from 6,000 per month in 2007, to zero
  • Introduction of a ‘Give As You Earn’ (GAYE) scheme to enable staff to make regular tax-free donations through payroll
  • Partnering with specialist organisations to enable staff to provide pro bono advice and participate in firm sponsored community activities
  • Supporting a ‘Charity of the year’ which is The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields

We hope that these and many other commitments will continue to ensure that we act responsibly and make a valued contribution to the wider local community in which we work.

Blick Rothenberg's partnership with The Connection

With a cost of living crisis and homelessness levels rising across London, we are incredibly proud to have chosen to support The Connection to help end rough sleeping and create a safer and fairer London for all.

The Connection has values that so seamlessly align with our own, putting people at the heart of their organisation to champion change in the local community.

It is these shared goals which make us so excited to work on this partnership together.

Lisa Gilmour talks to Olivia Wasson, Partnerships Officer at The Connection.

Lisa Gilmore Video Thumbnail

Our charity partners

Each year the firm nominate and vote for a charity to support throughout the course of the year through various fundraising initiatives.

 

Charities we have supported

Access Accountancy

Access Accountancy is a profession-wide collaboration established in 2014 on the back of overwhelming evidence that people from that lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to be hired in the profession.

Blick Rothenberg is proud to join more than 25 professional services firms including EY, PWC, KPMG, BDO, Grant Thornton, NAO, Deloitte and Mazars, to combat this trend and give everyone equal opportunity to gain access to the accountancy profession.

The programme promotes diversity across all levels of the sector and its core aims include:

  • Provide 3,750 30-hour work placements to students from lower socio-economic backgrounds a year
  • Collect and monitor socio-economic data of applicants and hires on an annual basis
  • Generate interest in accountancy by delivering common messages in more target schools & colleges

We also commit to host four students for work experience through Access Accountancy each year.

It is vital that there is opportunity for all in our profession and the wider business community, no matter your socio-economic background.

This is an initiative which must succeed and to which we remain steadfastly committed.

Access Accountancy October 2023
Access Accountancy atendees October 2023

g

Donations

We are committed to being transparent about the donations we make as an organisation.

On an annual basis we will provide a summary of the donations we have made and the causes we have chosen to support.

For the year ended 30 June 2023 these donations were as follows:

Cause Amount
London Air Ambulance £571
Access Accountancy £2,363
Supporting young people in media and entertainment £500
Supporting people with their tax affairs £890
Mental health charities £200
Total £4,524

 

The London Air Ambulance is the charity partner our people have voted for as the main charity that we support for a two-year period.  A number of fund-raising activities will be undertaken during that period and at the end of it the firm will match the amount raised.  This funding will primarily be in the coming financial year.

Access Accountancy is a charity that supports the encouragement of social diversity into the accounting industry.  As well as supporting this charity financially we make a much wider contribution as noted below.

The most significant contribution we make is to allow our people to spend time volunteering in the local community. In the year to 30 June 2023 we would estimate this time had a value of over £80,000 in supporting causes that they choose personally. Alongside this, a number of our team spend time dealing with tax queries for TaxAid, a charity that provides fee tax advice to those on low incomes.  In the year to 30 June 2023 we would estimate this time had a value of over £125,000.

As a firm we choose not to make donations to political parties and have a formal, documented policy detailing this that all of our people are required to confirm they have reviewed on an annual basis.