We raised thousands of pounds for charities through company-led events and individual employee challenges.
Our major fund-raising activities were directed towards national and local charities chosen by our staff in a poll.
The charities were WaterAid, the NSPCC, RNLI, Cancer Research UK, Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice in West Sussex, Sussex Community Foundation, asthma organisations AAIR / Awaairebear and the Air Ambulance service in the South East.
We raised £80,000 at our annual charity race day at Fontwell Racecourse in West Sussex. The event was attended by more than 6,000 people and included seven races and a live concert by The Saw Doctors.
Our annual ball, with the theme Here Comes the Summer, raised £75,000 and was hosted by radio presenter Danny Pike. Guests included two former Olympic champions – rower Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE and swimmer Duncan Goodhew MBE.
We continued our health and safety fund-raising initiative and donated £14,000 to Air Ambulance services in Sussex, Kent and Hampshire. The money was raised by the company donating £2 for workplace hazards or ‘near misses’ reported by our staff.
A £9,000 donation was made to international organisation WaterAid after 132 golfers took part in our annual charity tournament. A further £5,000 was raised for the charity by four Southern Water teams taking part in the WaterAid Munro Challenge to climb British peaks.
We also sponsored the inaugural year of the East Sussex Council for Voluntary Youth Service Awards, which celebrate the dedication of youth and community volunteers across East Sussex.
A film featuring ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen and TV’s Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Deborah Meaden was made with the NSPCC. The film highlighted our partnership with the charity to encourage more businesses to support it.
More than £80,000 was raised for three children’s hospices – Demelza House in Kent, Chestnut Tree House in West Sussex and Naomi House in Hampshire – after we included the charities’ lottery leaflets with our bills to customers.
We also raised more than £11,600 for 31 charities on Dress Down Days, £2,500 for Children in Need and we made 91 small donations totalling £8,000 to a wide range of community groups, schools and organisations from our Community Chest Fund.