In celebration of 25 years in business, the Wise Employment Group wanted to mark this special occasion by giving back to the local community within the South and South West network of branches.

The group were excited to choose to work with Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) as it was not only a very worthy charity but had the same geographical match and was established in the same year.

The challenge was to raise £25,000 in 2017, representing a £1,000 for each year in business by involving its clients, temporary personnel and permanent candidates in the local communities.

It set about achieving this by breaking the year into four separate campaigns.

The first challenge was “Pedalling for Precious Lives” – between January and April the aim was to raise £2,500 and to cycle 2,500 miles on a static bike.  Each branch took it in turns to take the bike out into the local towns and attracted local people to ride the fastest mile and to offer donations to CHSW. Tesco backed the challenge and allowed the bike and the teams to set up by its doors in order to boost the donations. 

In May, campaign two commenced – CHSW’s own £50 challenge was launched throughout the network with five teams participating and competing against each other to make the most money out of the £50. Each branch set about making their monies grow through separate activities and events that included tea parties, jumble sales, band and barbecue nights, sales of afternoon teas and sales of items on eBay to name a few.  From all the companies that participated throughout 2017, Wise Employment Group were thrilled to receive the news that the Wise head office team had won the competition overall and the national prize!

In August it was time to empty cupboards and the Wise Employment teams enticed clients, candidates, temps, families and friends to put all of their unused clothing and bric-a-brac into the CHSW charity bags. A total of 329 bags were donated to the CHSW charity shops.

In the lead-up to Christmas, the teams had a final push to achieve the target of £25,000.  Through raffles, dinner parties, bucket rattling and Festive Fashion Fridays, the group embraced the challenge.

Over and above the campaigns, three managers took on personal challenges to boost the funds. Parachute jumping, charity boxing and a half marathon were all completed.

Amanda Gallagher, corporate partnerships fundraiser at CHSW, said: ‘It has been inspiring to see how the Wise Recruitment Group has brought employees and the local community together to raise as much money as possible for CHSW to help us continue to make the most of short and precious lives. The group pledged to raise £25k at the beginning of the partnership, and has exceed this by raising £27,391.08 for CHSW. We cannot thank them enough.’