Capgemini rolls out global CSR programme MoveFifty for charity
Capgemini has launched MoveFifty, a global project encouraging employees of the consultancy to get active, as they bid to raise €100,000 for three charities promoting education for underprivileged children. Guatemala-focused Ciudad Quetzal, India-specific Enlight, and French charity Cap Sur Le Code are each in line to benefit from the international funding drive.
This year professional services firm Capgemini is celebrating its 50th birthday by launching MoveFifty, an initiative which pledges the employees of the ICT advisory the chance to raise money for three education-oriented charities. The group boasts a global staff of over 190,000 employees, with their workforce spread across more than 40 countries – and Capgemini, including its subsidiary Capgemini Consulting, has given them the deadline of the end of October to raise money. Employees can take one of two routes to attract sponsorship; either they can engage directly in sporting activities, or the less activity inclined keyboard athletes at the firm can participate in a social media challenge to help raise awareness.
Sponsored shares or cash per kilometre
For every kilometre travelled by the employees – either by walking, cycling, running or swimming, Capgemini have pledged to pay €1 to the chosen charity of the participant. The distances travelled can be recorded in the ‘KM for Change’ app, an independent smartphone platform developed especially to accommodate sponsor projects like this one around the world.
Using social media, Capgemini employees can also raise an additional €50.000. To make this happen, together they will have to post a message with the hashtag #Capgemini at least 200.000 times on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. At the time of writing there are already 67.665 kilometers covered and 12,220 #Capgemini posts posted across the social networking sites.
Capgemini considers the initiative an ideal way to combine Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with an active employee policy aimed at stimulating physical exercise. Christine Hodgson, responsible for Corporate & Social Responsibility at Capgemini Group, who who recently ascended to the role, commented on the project, “Over the last five decades Capgemini has always been an organisation that is on the move, never standing still, always evolving. MoveFifty is therefore a perfect way to embody our sense of progress, fun and team spirit that is inherent within the Group. I know that our team members will embrace this challenge over the coming months in support of the communities in which we live and work. I look forward to cheering them on around the globe.”
Socially responsible
Capgemini has a history of backing charities on global and local levels. While the ICT consultancy has been involved in a number of international initiatives, including support for the Naandi Foundation from India, which combats poverty, and MicroWorld, an international organisation that supplies micro credit, the company also assists a number of UK campaigns. Among those the firm aids are the Business in the Community programme, which is committed to realising a more sustainable world, and the Red Cross, with whom Capgemini worked to develop an award-winning first aid course.
Naturally, Capgemini encourages its employees to support the charities they partner with – which usually focus on education, important skills for the future and social participation – and in order to foster a more caring culture at the firm, the consultancy has also created a global reward system for its staff who participate. The ‘Global Community Engagement Awards’ were created to acknowledge the employees who are at the forefront of engaging in social community initiatives as well as to inspire others colleagues to think along about issues of corporate social responsibility.
In line with the company’s previous history then, the three charities that are supported by the new MoveFifty initiative are all focused on improving education. Ciudad Quetzel, named after the Guatemalan community the project supports, works to create basic infrastructure for school children. Capgemini’s previously supported the organisation in 2014, when the small school based in the village was destroyed by heavy flooding, prompting Capgemini employees to raise money. In the following nine months €67,000 was raised, with which a new school with four classrooms was built and furnished. After the school was finished, Ciudad Quetzal remained active within the community, with volunteers beginning work on two new projects. The new developments which Capgemini’s funds will go towards aim to give all the children in the community the opportunity to go to school.
The second charity supported by the project is Enlight, which supports girls in India born into disadvantaged families. The group aims to give underprivileged girls in the region chances of a prosperous future by giving them access to high quality education, with the initial concrete goal currently set by the charity being that every girl should complete at least ten years of school.
The final initiative supported is Cap Sur Le Code, a French project, which was launched in June 2016, and was partly developed by Capgemini themselves in co-operation with Cantine Numèrique and CCO Nantes. The charity is aimed at getting underprivileged children between the ages of eight and fourteen acquainted with coding and technology in a fun, engaging environment.
Rising standards of corporate social responsibility in the consulting industry have seen a number of other firms join Capgemini in their spirit of communal giving meanwhile. Recently fellow consulting firm Mace launched a £200,000 campaign on behalf of charity Mind’s UK appeal to support the mental health of emergency service staff. Big Four firm PwC also recently set off on a UK-wide charity bicycle tour following up from a £150,000 haul in 2015, with donations to be split between local offices selected charities, and the PwC Foundation’s Race for £3 million.
