Strategic philanthropy and volunteering

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Supporting our communities to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic

We are proud of the support our people have given to the National Emergency Business Response, to help our communities recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone in our firm gets an allowance of six days per year to use on volunteering and during the pandemic, we boosted our volunteering support by granting colleagues an additional six days to volunteer for NHS Volunteer Responder and St John Ambulance vaccine support programme. We also granted an extended period of paid leave to Army Reservists and colleagues within the firm called upon by the government for public service including: special constables, ambulance drivers and ex-clinicians.

Volunteers step-up to support the COVID-19 recovery

Karen signed-up as a volunteer vaccinator with St John Ambulance, to support the COVID-19 recovery. "People were feeling anxious and I wanted to help reassure them things were going to get better."

After participating in thorough First Aid and vaccination training, Karen was deployed to support communities across the Midlands. "The greatest gift you can give someone is your time. For so many people, their vaccination appointments were the only thing they had left the house for in past twelve months."

"I am proud to have been part of the biggest vaccine drive in British history, and truly grateful to KPMG for giving me the volunteering hours to deliver this vital work."

Karen / Senior Manager

Fundraising and volunteering for our national charity

Looking back at our national charity partnership with the NSPCC

1 in 5 children in the UK have suffered abuse. Abuse robs children of their childhood, reducing their life chances and opportunities to succeed in the future. The NSPCC and KPMG UK share a passionate belief that young people should have the power to shape their own future, rather than letting it be determined by circumstances beyond their control. By combining our voice and influence, we've helped to unlock the potential of young people.

Our national charity partnership with the NSPCC ran between April 2018 and October 2021 and we are proud of all that we achieved together through:

Fundraising - Raising £1.5 million to help the NSPCC be here for more children who need help.
Volunteering - Becoming volunteers for Childline and Speak out. Stay safe. and piloting remote volunteering opportunities that help staff share their skills in support of the NSPCC’s work.
Pro bono - Building organisational capacity, supporting and delivering priority projects and, more recently, helping the NSPCC understand the impact of the pandemic on children. 195 colleagues provided 3,119 hours and £500,000 of pro bono support.
Thought leadership - Sharing expertise to help the NSPCC influence change that transforms society, so we can continue to protect children today and prevent abuse in the future.

Our support over three years…

£1,060,000 paid to run Childline for 35 days

£440,000 enabled the Schools Service to reach over 146,000 children

6680 hours hours of volunteering for the NSPCC, involving 921 KPMG staff

3,119 hours of pro bono support from 195 KPMG staff, with a community investment value of £469,033

17,298 hours of fundraising activity from 2,248 KPMG staff

90% of primary schools reached nationally by the NSPCC’s Schools Service, thanks to KPMG’s support

Gold Award for Best Management of a Programme for our partnership with the NSPCC at the Corporate Engagement Awards 2021

Silver Award for the Best Charity Programme for our partnership with the NSPCC at the Corporate Engagement Awards 2021

Shaping strategy through technology and teamwork

Ga Lok has been supporting the NSPCC for over a decade. On Sundays, he volunteers as a Childline counsellor, something he has now done for eight years. He's also raised over £5,000 for the charity by running the London Marathon. To add to this admirable list of support for the NSPCC, earlier this year, he took the unique opportunity to combine his passion for volunteering with his consulting skills, on a pro-bono strategy project.

The NSPCC needed our support to find a mechanism for gathering ideas across the organisation, to help shape its strategy, so Ga Lok led a team of KPMG experts to deliver a workshop responding to this ask. "We demonstrated how we use journey maps to show rich, multi-dimensional visualisations of the customer/employee experience. We covered creative problem-solving and frameworks to prioritise ideas, so the NSPCC can make maximum impact with its funds."

Shaping strategy through the use of technology has been exciting for Ga Lok, but it's the teamwork he's enjoyed most. "It's been great to work with like-minded people, who are passionate about making a difference."

Ga Lok / Technology Project Manager

Introducing our new national charity partnership with Marie Curie

Every two years, our colleagues help choose the charity we'll support on a national scale. As our partnership with the NPSCC was coming to an end, we asked our colleagues to vote on which UK charity we should support next through fundraising, volunteering, pro bono and thought-leadership opportunities. We wanted this charity to be one that is supporting society to build back better following the COVID-19 pandemic and one that promotes cohesion and connection to communities. We are delighted to announce that our colleagues have chosen to support Marie Curie as our national charity for the next two years.

We’re delighted to be supporting Marie Curie and their mission to ensure that everyone with a terminal illness, no matter who they are or where they live, has the care and support they need; whether that’s dementia, cancer, heart disease or any other terminal condition. It’s a cause that has clearly really resonated with our colleagues, with the majority of them voting for Marie Curie to be our next national charity partner.
Rachel Hopcroft / Head of Corporate Affairs, KPMG in the UK

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the people we support. It has kept families apart when human contact was the one thing they needed. Inequity has been exacerbated, and bereaved people have been isolated. And as a charity, fundraising has just not been possible at the level required. But now, thanks to KPMG UK, we can start to address these issues and strive to reach more people with a terminal illness and their loved ones. I want to thank KPMG and the staff who voted to make Marie Curie its charity partner. Together we will create a positive legacy of change for each person affected by terminal illness, for every community in which they live, and the UK as a whole.
Matthew Reed / Chief Executive, Marie Curie

Pro bono for better

Our strategic pro-bono offering not only helps to support our National Charity, but also offers professional skills and expertise to multi-sector organisations, in need of support.

NSPCC

We know that COVID-19 has created challenges for schools and charities, so in response, we've volunteered our time and skills to help the NSPCC adapt to the new reality of working. We've used our expertise to support the NSPCC in its development and implementation of a refreshed organisational strategy and are supporting them to navigate the operational challenges presented by the pandemic. We've also provided digital and analytical support: facilitating the implementation and training of Microsoft Teams, for use by NSPCC colleagues; and leveraging advanced analytic and visualisation techniques to analyse Childline online message board data. The NSPCC will be able to use this to assess children's needs and shape future programmes and support.

Oak National Academy

Educational disruption caused by COVID-19 risks widening the attainment gap between poorer students and their more advantaged peers. To support students, and to help teachers and students guard against further disruption, we helped create the online classroom Oak National Academy. With the support of the Department for Education we helped produce 8,000 lessons in a four-week period to complement the provision of lessons both in school and virtually. Our people worked as project managers, volunteering 2,000 hours to support teams of teachers and oversee the quality assurance of lesson production. In Oak's first term, 20 million lessons were delivered to 4.7 million Oak visitors.

I've always been passionate in addressing the educational disadvantage in the UK and strongly believe in the power of education, so when I came across the opportunity to support Oak National Academy, it instantly caught my attention! We were an army of people, passionate about making sure students have access to good education regardless of the circumstances. Despite never having met anyone in person, we built a great friendship. The experience enabled me to work on something new and gave me a real sense of purpose and achievement. It was such a rewarding experience.

Haengeun / Assistant Manager

The support of KPMG has been outstanding. Their expertise meant our 300 teachers could focus on what they do best – teaching – safe in the knowledge the team from KPMG was making everything run smoothly behind the scenes.
Matt Hood / Principal, Oak National Academy

Governance for better

During the pandemic, the leadership skills our volunteers bring to charities and schools are even more valuable. We provide everyone with six days per year to volunteer. For governance roles, this increases to eight days in total.

Number of charity trustees, school governors and enterprise advisors / 472 FY21 (FY20: >500)

Colleague hours volunteered through these roles / 9,145 FY21 (FY20: >10,000)

Working with the most vulnerable

Hamza became a charity trustee to play his part in supporting the most vulnerable in the London borough of Harrow. As the pandemic struck, his charity had only been operational for less than six months, but it worked hard to respond quickly to the needs of the community. By converting a disused warehouse, located in central Harrow, to a fully functioning food bank, the charity made a huge difference to those most impacted by the challenges the pandemic presented. "We provided nearly 7,500 hot meals to frontline NHS staff in Northwick Park Hospital and to vulnerable residents in Harrow. We now support nearly 50 families with food parcels on a weekly basis."

Reinvesting in his community, to ensure a safer and more equal environment for all, has been a rewarding experience for Hamza. "It has made me more humble by recognising the fortunate position I'm in."

Hamza / Data Protection Officer

Changing young lives

Helping students start their career journey

Throughout her university years, Kasturi felt as if she didn't always have access to meaningful careers advice, support and opportunities. She wanted to help change this cycle of social immobility for others, so signed up to become an enterprise advisor. "I wanted to work with young children to make sure that they received the support, mentorship and guidance they needed to flourish in their chosen career paths".

Kasturi enjoys the unique opportunity this role gives her to inspire students across London. "My highlight was when I shared my career journey with hundreds of students and received warm and positive feedback in return."

Being able to create such a positive impact on society makes every part of this role worth it for Kasturi. "It has given me a sense of satisfaction to know I am motivating someone to embark on a great journey".

Kasturi / Assistant Manager

KPMG Foundation

The KPMG Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of some of the UK's most vulnerable children.

The KPMG Foundation, created in 2000, is an independent charity supported by KPMG. It shares a passion for promoting social mobility and achieving long-term change, wherever possible.

The Foundation makes grants to selected partners to improve the life chances of some of the UK's most vulnerable children and young people, including those in care or on the edge of care. Work to prevent and reduce school exclusions is just one example of the change that the Foundation is helping to make.

Over the next few years, the charity will invest up to £1.5m per year in initiatives across England, Scotland and Wales, wherever and however the greatest benefits for children can be achieved – in the early years, through families, school and through adolescence.

Find out more

Preventing school exclusions with the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families

The growing trend in permanent and fixed-term exclusions is a troubling problem, especially because children excluded from school can experience poor outcomes later in life. The Foundation supported the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families to prevent and reduce school exclusions, through targeted family-based work.

The Foundation made a grant of £93,000, to help train school-based professionals in ‘alternative provision’ and mainstream schools to tackle this challenge by engaging parents and carers. In addition, evidence-based resources were produced, to be widely shared across the sector.

The work was planned and started in 2019/early 2020 and the team adapted quickly to COVID-19 lockdowns by moving the training resources online. Despite ongoing challenges, the original targets were exceeded: over 70 schools, from Cornwall to Tyneside, participated; teachers reported increased confidence in engaging parents and carers to reduce exclusions; and the average number of children excluded for a fixed term, from each school, reduced from 69 in 2018/19 to 34 in 2020/21.

Due to its success, the work is now being more widely disseminated through the IntegratED programme – a coalition of partner organisations working to reduce preventable exclusions and improve the quality of alternative provision.

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