Approach to Community Affairs

Housman

The social and political landscape in London has changed dramatically in the last few years. The reduction in public sector spending has resulted in changes to the delivery of social and children services.

One would be challenged to find a community that has not been affected in some way by the cuts. In addition to this, and as a result of the recession and subsequent job losses, youth unemployment is a growing concern. In some areas of London, one in three young people are unemployed. Consequently, there has been a big push toward supporting entrepreneurialism and small and medium sized enterprises to increase local employment and help kick-start the local economy. There is also an expectation of all businesses, but particularly of the large ones, to help alleviate pressure on social and children services by funding and building the capacity of community groups and schools.

Housman

There are a variety of ways that banks are playing their part. Charitable funding is a key issue in London and the banking sector is in a position to help develop alternative forms of finance for charities and social enterprises. New forms of social investment bonds, social finance and blended finance are being offered to charities that can show tangible deliverables. It is perhaps not surprising that while charities need new ways of leveraging finance, they also are keen to improve their financial management skills. Again, banks are well-positioned to help the voluntary sector better manage their finances in these times of austerity.

Finally, and not to be underestimated, the banking sector continues to provide a much needed supply of volunteers to help community groups in many ways–from taking young people on sports outings to working in homeless shelters to mentoring those not in education, employment or training.

Phizackerley

Nomura has developed a highly effective Community Affairs program to manage our contributions to local community and charitable partners in London. As a firm, we are focused on a number of activities, with a variety of community and charity partners that look to improve the educational attainment, employability potential, aspirations and health of disadvantaged youth. With each of these partnerships we aim to address the critical needs of those in poverty, deprivation or high risk situations. We have developed volunteering, fundraising and grant-making programs so that Nomura is considered as an integral and valued partner in our local community. For our efforts, Nomura received the Lord Mayor's Heart of the City Dragon Award for our achievements in supporting local communities in London.

Housman

The main way Heart of the City supports these types of activities is by inspiring firms to increase their community activities. Our Newcomers program every year helps around 150 businesses start and grow community involvement activities; the knock-on effect this has on charities is tremendous. We are only able to have such a huge impact by relying on our expert businesses, such as Nomura, who give advice and mentor businesses new to community activities. We also are working closely with the financial service sector to encourage more investment in developing more responsible financial products and encouraging greater financial literacy.

Phizackerley

Nomura initially became involved in Heart of the City following our acquisition of Lehman Brothers in 2008. We joined to learn from other businesses and support those firms who wanted to establish a CSR program for the first time or consolidate ad hoc initiatives across different parts of the business.

Our involvement in the Heart of the City program has been a two way process; we started as a Newcomer business and were introduced to other businesses who had powerful and imaginative programs, making a real impact, which inspired us to do more. As a Contributor, we've helped other Newcomers get better at developing their community programs and strategies - as we now have an established program, we are able to share our knowledge of community engagement and help mentor other businesses.

Housman

Impact is difficult to measure, particularly as our role is to capacity build businesses so that they are better able to engage with and support their own local community partners. However, we know that every year our Newcomers send around 5,000 employee volunteers to over 600 community groups. These are largely volunteers that would not have been involved if it weren't for Heart of the City. Our Newcomers give nearly £10 million every year in charitable contributions.

Harte

Measuring the impact of Nomura's contributions is vital. In the last financial year, Nomura invested more than £2 million in local community projects and supported 15,000 disadvantaged young people across the region. This is something we are extremely proud of. In addition to our financial commitments, 1,463 employees were involved in a range of volunteer projects, representing 40 percent of London staff. The involvement of our employees has a number of impacts, firstly employees gain a great level of satisfaction as a result of being involved and secondly the experience develops core skills. Furthermore, the opportunity to work with Nomura's clients has a significant impact to deepen our client relationships. We are now in the process of collecting data for our global activities to understand our impact worldwide.

Housman

As a network of over 400 businesses growing and sustaining their CSR programs, Heart of the City is uniquely placed to see emerging trends in community programs. An increasing number of businesses are creating sophisticated cross-sectoral community partnerships, drawing on support of clients and suppliers. This means community groups can access a broad range of needed support–from HR to IT to legal to finance. This also presents interesting business development prospects, as potential clients work together to support the community. This type of partnership also draws on the increased business focus on skilled volunteering. In 2009, Nomura was already ahead of the curve by participating in and helping to launch groundbreaking research evidencing skills development through education-based volunteering. This continues to be popular in the business community and has encouraged more of our Newcomers to use their professional skills when volunteering with schools.