Just before the World Cup kicked off, Octopus Giving hosted its very own mini-tournament.
Octopus Giving is our way of giving back to the community. Since it was set up in 2014, our foundation has donated around £1 million to its charity partners. But we also give them something even more valuable – time. So far this year, Octopus people have signed up to volunteer around 500 hours, which will be used to help the charities in a number of different ways.
Every two months, Octopus Giving hosts dedicated days that encourage everybody in the business to learn more about the charities we work with, and sign up to volunteer.
This time, the aim was to raise awareness of MyBnk, one of Giving’s four charity partners, which teaches young people the basics of personal finance and entrepreneurship.
Like all Giving days, but especially apt for a financial literacy charity, the ‘MyBnk World Cup’ had a financial aspect, too. Octopus Investments donated the annual management charge it would otherwise earn on all investments that came through the door on that day to Octopus Giving.
A grand total of £61,610 will make its way into the foundation’s 2019 budget as a result, helping it make its £25,000 annual grant to the four charities it supports: MyBnk, FoodCycle, DEx and The Choir with No Name. This is on top of the £25,000 annual grant these charities each receives from Octopus Giving.
For every hour of volunteering that Octopus employees contribute over the course of the year, another £20 goes into the Octopus Giving pot.
Besides an opportunity to sign up for volunteering, those who fancied showing off their football skills could also enter themselves into a penalty shootout competition. A fiercely competitive shootout final had an almost entirely predictable result. It was won by the most competitive person in Octopus, co-founder Simon Rogerson.
But the ultimate winner was MyBnk. According to Octopus Giving trustee Stuart Sheppard: “More than 50 Octopus employees signed up to volunteer for MyBnk on the back of the day, which was a fantastic outcome. Those hours will be of enormous help to MyBnk as it looks to provide hundreds of financial literacy workshops to kids up and down the country.”
To find out more about the work Octopus does to support small charities, visit the Octopus Giving page.
