Our Global Stance for Australia Wildfire Relief & Recovery
Posted by on 30/01/2020
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As a global organisation, we take immense pride in moments we can come together as individual offices, teams, and cultures, to support those who need it the most. With multi-culturalism at our core, being truly 'global' means that our teams are made up of a plethora of nationalities; perhaps none more generous, warm-hearted and family-centric as the Aussies.
With the recent wildfires destroying large parts of Australia's homes, land and wildlife, we knew that we needed to do something to help; for our colleagues, friends and their families. With stats like these, it's clear these wildfires have rocked the country to its core:
- 1 billion animals killed
- An estimated 25 people killed
- Over 25 million acres of land destroyed
- Just under 2,000 homes destroyed
- Almost 3,000 firefighters deployed, 3 have died
This map shows the active fires across Australia over the past 7 days.
— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) January 3, 2020
: NASA FIRMS. pic.twitter.com/HTE1cbvjU7
The 26th January is an important day in Australian history dating back to the 1700s, as it marks National Australia Day, a day to reflect and celebrate the country’s history and culture and what it means to be an Australian. With this date upcoming in our calendar, it presented itself as the perfect opportunity for LHi Group to acknowledge the crisis they are currently battling and embark on our mission to raise as much money as we possibly could for the relief effort. But rather than just do it for one day, we dedicated a whole week to the cause, calling it our Aussie Sales Week Relief and Recovery Fundraiser.
After careful deliberation, the two charities we chose to equally split our fundraising between were WIRES, which has been rescuing and caring for wildlife for over 30 years and is the largest wildlife rescue organisation in Australia. And The Salvation Army, who have been on hand to offer practical assistance and emotional support to people fleeing their homes from the devastating bushfires, as well as supporting firefighters in the hardest-hit states. We felt that our fundraising efforts would have the biggest impact on the work these charities are doing.
Each office hosted their own fundraising activities, from fancy dress, to bake sales and charity football matches, and we also sold our own handmade LHi Koala bracelets. All of our leaders made individual pledges based around their offices and team’s activity for the week and the company pledged to also donate based on the group’s overall activity. Not only that but we also found ways for our customers to get involved too, offering clients the opportunity to pay an engagement fee upfront, with the entire amount being donated to the cause. A huge thank you to everyone who got involved, contributed and donated, we are extremely proud to say that all of our efforts have amounted to fundraising an incredible £10,203.88 so far, which is more than we could have ever imagined and hoped for.
From 27th to 31st January all LHi Group companies agreed to donate our ENTIRE engagement fees from our customers to charity. Yesterday, Head of @HarperHarrison_ London, John Guest secured this week's first engagement fee donation from @lcr_property and we can't thank them enough! pic.twitter.com/ygoatsbWCX
— LHi Group (@LHiGroup_) January 31, 2020
Our CFO, Ed Parkes, who is native to Australia said
“I couldn’t believe the response we received from the entire group. Whilst I am personally raising donations for the bushfire appeal, I couldn’t believe that every office in the LHi Group got involved in the appeal. To be able to be part of a company that is able to raise £10,630 in such a small amount of time is truly amazing, and makes me proud to work for LHi! A big thank you to all at LHi and your efforts are greatly appreciated by all back home.”
Last night our LHi "Athletes" in London took to the pitch for a charity football match to raise money for our Aussie Sales Week in aid of the Bushfire Relief Fund!#LHiIN #ChooseToBeDifferent #GivingBack #Charity #DoYourBit #AustraliaDay #Australia #AussieDay #Aussie #Bushfires pic.twitter.com/7jWldKvQ6o
— LHi Group (@LHiGroup_) January 29, 2020
But it doesn’t stop there, as a company we have promised to continue supporting Australia during this difficult time with continuous fundraising. To find out more or if you’d like to donate, please visit our JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/LHihelpaustralia