The Countdown for City Giving Day 2023 Begins
The countdown has officially begun for City Giving Day, the City’s biggest annual celebration of charity, philanthropy and giving. With just under six weeks to go until the big day, a host of exciting events have been announced, hosted by City businesses across the Square Mile these include a brand-new live online auction to “Knit for the Community” being supported by the Lady Mayoress, Felicity Lyons and an event hosted by City Bridge Trust.
Coming into its 10th year, City Giving Day is an annual event hosted by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal uniting the City to celebrate and promote the positive impact of philanthropy. Taking place on Tuesday 26 September 2023, it gives companies the chance to showcase their charitable work – collectively sharing their community outreach via the City Giving Day webpage and social media. Whether City businesses support The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, or their own chosen charities – it provides a platform to tell corporate fundraising and volunteering stories and facilitates collaboration between businesses.
For those that don’t want to host or promote their own philanthropy this year, but are keen to take part, there are a host of City Giving Day events open to all City businesses. New for 2023, the Appeal has partnered with Jumblebee to host a City Giving Day Online Auction. Opening on 12 September and closing at 8pm on City Giving Day, businesses are invited to donate one or more auction lots such as cakes, honey, wine, sports tickets, dining, theatre, concert tickets, sports tickets or anything else you can think of with funds raised from the auction going directly to The Lord Mayor’s Appeal.
Another new event this year is hosted by City Bridge Trust. Taking place at the Guildhall on 26 September, the free event will focus on how EDI considerations have helped to shape funding priorities, processes and commitments and the emerging learning from this work.
Speakers will include James Banks, CEO, London Funders, Caroline Rowley, Head of Corporate Philanthropy, Bloomberg, Sarah Denselow, Principal, Effective Philanthropy, New Philanthropy Capital, Sarah Benioff, CEO, Islington Giving, and young grant-makers Izzy Petriti and Freya Johnson and Sam Grimmett-Batt, Funding Director, City Bridge Trust.
Having launched their ‘Knit for the Community’ initiative in 2020 with the aim of creating 20-30 blankets and ending up with over 900, this year The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters are asking City businesses to join in the fun by knitting squares in The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s pillar colours – yellow, green, blue and red – from now until September. The results will be knitted together into lap blankets and distributed to deserving causes around the City.
Events taking part on City Giving Day itself include The Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors annual takeover of Browns in Old Jewry. From breakfast time to dinner time on 26 September, the company invite City workers to book in for breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner or just a quick drink to come together – with a percentage of the total spend on the day will be donated to the Appeal. When booking please quote City Giving Day.
Free to join, with the bonus of learning a new skill, another event on the day will be the Big City Sing hosted by wellbeing company, Music in Offices at the historic Guildhall Yard and sponsored by Culture Mile Business Improvement District. Vocal leader, Naveen Arles will be leading voluntary singers through a repertoire of uplifting tunes including ‘Celebrate’, ‘Higher and Higher’ and ‘Bring me Sunshine, giving colleagues the chance to have fun and sing together. Before the performance, Music in Offices will be holding lunchtime rehearsals in the City on the 7, 14 and 21 September. These rehearsals are an opportunity to fine-tune performances, ready for the 26.
Since its launch in 2015, City Giving Day has grown year on year with 526 companies involved in 2022. Set at the City Giving Day launch breakfast in March, the target for 2023 is to inspire organisations to get involved, not only in London but in other cities around the UK. An estimated £510,000 was raised for charities and good causes in 2022, while 64% of the organisations that took part said that City Giving Day helped to promote and celebrate their charitable activity and 72% said that City Giving Day inspired their employees to fundraise or volunteer.
The Lord Mayor’s Appeal also hosts several annual City Giving Day events which companies are also welcome to join. These include Tour de City, a static Wattbike challenge sponsored by EC Business Improvement District and supported by Third Space where company teams of up to five people compete against each other in a thrilling 40 minute static bike race, divided into five eight-minute slots; City Walks – a one hour lunchtime walking tour taking place around the City hosted by expert Canada Guides; a Treasure Hunt, sponsored by The Investment Association, inviting teams of up to six people to solve a series of clues discovering some little known facts about Canada; and a Quiz Night challenging teams of up to six to test their general knowledge and compete with the greatest minds on the Square Mile, hosted at various locations around the City.
Canada is a global leader in financial and professional services, but not everyone knows that is also invests significant sums in communities and causes to change lives and make a wider positive impact on society. Funds raised by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal on City Giving Day will be used to support the work of their three charity partners National Numeracy, MQ Mental Health Research and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Find out more about City Giving Day events here: https;//www.thelordmayorsappeal.org/events