As a mutual we want to make a difference, not just to our members, customers and colleagues, but also to the communities in which we live and serve. Our community and citizenship programme empowers our colleagues to make a difference to causes they care about.
Making a difference through volunteering
Our colleagues use their time, passion and skills to make a difference to the causes that are important to them. That’s why we give them two days paid volunteering leave each year.
In 2024, more colleagues than ever took the opportunity to make a difference, dedicating almost 900 days to activities like working in food banks and hospices, through to providing support as school governors and charity trustees.
Generation restoration
World Environment Day 2024 was themed #Generationrestoration and focused on restoring critical ecosystems. 150 Wesleyan colleagues played their part by working on canal and forestry restoration, as well as cleaning up beaches across the country.
“I’ve never done something like this before; it was definitely a good experience working with my team.” Colleague supporting canal restoration in Lichfield.
Our work to empower the next generation
Wesleyan works with a number of organisations to promote opportunities through inclusive and equitable action. We are pleased to continue our work with Wildhearts and Envision, as two organisations seeking to make a positive difference to the lives of young people.
Wildhearts
Wildhearts, aims to empower UK school students from all backgrounds by building confidence and expanding opportunities, with a view to creating the leaders of tomorrow. In 2024, we donated £30,000 to continue this work.
Our colleagues also help to design and deliver workshops on sustainable investments and project management, engaging 500 young people across Manchester, London, Birmingham and Glasgow.
Envision
Our work with Envision plans to encourage social mobility with the belief that students could go on to work in a similar field. Through this project, we donated £1000 to Holyhead School for students to create a wellbeing room to provide a safe haven for students when they feel anxious or in need of support.
Our team are extremely passionate about the work we do with Envision, recently winning Mentor Team of the Year. We’ll be continuing to support the Envision project until 2028.
Our fundraising support
In 2024, our colleagues raised over £50,000 for charities across the UK with activities including:
Walk for angels
188 staff walked 14 miles as part of the Wesleyan Walk for Angels campaign in aid of five child loss charities, and in memory of the children that our colleagues, friends and family have lost.
Moving for Mental Health
As part of Mental Health Week, we encouraged colleagues to take part in a team challenge to walk 1 million steps over 10 days. As an incentive we donated over £1,000 to Doctors in Distress.
Match funding
In 2024 Wesleyan match funded £18,000 to provide additional support to customers and colleagues fundraising efforts.
Volunteering to support our professions
Nigel Jones, Director of Sales for Practice Plan Group uses his volunteer days to fulfil his duties as a Trustee for Dental Charity – Bridge2Aid.
"The work Bridge2Aid do is inspiring and impactful and I have been very proud to sit for many years on the Advisory Board for the charity. The board explores ideas about how to raise awareness of the need and the solutions, to provide views and opinions on the evolution of the charity's strategy and to use networks to unlock funding and troubleshoot operational issues.
"Although I know I could do so much more, my involvement with such an amazing organisation is very rewarding and a source of much pride.”
Lived experience advisory panels
We launched our Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAP) to connect with organisations that have direct experience of using public/charity services to understand the challenges users face and how we can support.
We consulted with four groups that work with women survivors of domestic abuse, adults with learning disabilities and young people living in poverty. As a result, we:
- Supported a variety of different projects for survivors of domestic abuse to help them recover and regain control of their lives, including funding advocacy and counselling services for survivors of sexual violence.
- Funded a number of activities to support adults with learning disabilities, including employability schemes and group befriending projects.
- Worked with a charity that supports young people at risk of child exploitation through county lines and organisations that provide mental health support outside of school.
- Funded projects to help older people to cope in poverty and connect with younger people, as well as supporting community wellbeing and cost-of-living issues through cooking and gardening programmes.
Looking for match funding?
At Wesleyan, we’re proud to support the causes our people care about through our match funding scheme. We’ll match up to £300 for individual colleagues fundraising for a registered charity, and up to £500 when colleagues team up.
We extend this support to our wider community, offering up to £100 in match funding for customers, family members, and friends. It’s our way of recognising the incredible efforts made to make a difference.