Naylor Wintersgill

Naylor Wintersgill is the largest independent firm of chartered accountants in Bradford city centre. As a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, we’re a trust worthy source of advice on a wide range of business, audit, accounting and taxation matters with over 50 team members.

Looking at your company vision and values is a great place to start when considering what you want to do in order to support and pro-actively make a contribution to your local community.  At Naylor Wintersgill, we look to focus on opportunities for volunteering and skills sharing that allow us to make the most of the valuable professional expertise of our team and those that help us to inspire young people in the city by demonstrating the Naylor Wintersgill company values of trust, integrity and honesty.

We have been part of the Bradford business community for 100 years now and so when it comes to choosing what to support, it’s important to us that there’s a local connection. Annually, each member of our team has the opportunity to put forward a charity of their choice for us to focus our fundraising events and activities around.  Very often our team want to volunteer and contribute to good causes but don’t always have the time outside work or sometimes the confidence to do so on their own.  Having the opportunity to have a positive impact on a local charity with a personal connection through Naylor Wintersgill as their place of work really helps to instil a sense of camaraderie and unity in our organisation. During 2018, we are currently supporting Cancer Support Yorkshire who provide practical and emotional support to anyone affected by a cancer diagnosis in the local area.

One of the things we decided to organise as part of our centenary year celebrations in 2017 was a spectacular charity balloon race in aid of our chosen charity of that year, The Bradford Soup Run. Our ‘Great Centenary Balloon Race’ combined an impressive PR opportunity to mark our centenary milestone whilst raising vital funds for the charity. The event involved our clients, professional contacts and the Naylor Wintersgill team supporting the race by making a charitable donation towards the release of 1 or more of the 100 balloons.

To continue with the centenary theme, we worked together with a long standing Naylor Wintersgill client to sponsor the event which provided us with a generous prize for the balloon that was found to have travelled the furthest within a set time period. This mutually beneficial arrangement meant we were able to provide an incentive for those taking part without incurring additional costs but also gave valuable brand exposure to our client.  We actively encouraged all colleagues to be part of the balloon release and gathered to release the 100 balloons (one for each year of our centenary) into the air alongside our clients and press contacts on the day with a great sense of pride felt on the day.

Top Tips

• If you are organising a particular fundraising event for the first time, make sure you check with the relevant authorities if you require any specific licences or permissions to carry out your chosen activity before you get started.
• Make use of social media platforms to promote your event. There’s lots of free apps you can utilise to allow you to schedule content to keep the momentum going whilst you focus on other things.
• Collaborative relationships in the wider community are key. Think about teaming up with other like-minded business owners and professionals who share your company’s ethos and values to exchange valuable skill sets and divide the load. You’ll achieve a higher impact for a joint cause and create powerful networking opportunities for your organisation.
• Every little helps – it doesn’t always have to be something huge. A couple of hours of volunteering or skills sharing could make a huge difference to a cause as well as providing a real sense of personal benefit and satisfaction for a member of your team.
• When organising a fundraising event try to think outside the box as it could open up more PR opportunities to raise awareness of the great work of your chosen charity or cause and for your company. Something a little bit different may also boost engagement and get more colleagues involved if they are able challenging themselves, have fun and feel good in the process.