corporate

Forever Manchester is a new movement for all those who have an affinity with Greater Manchester and to be part of securing its future, forever. We want to work with innovative companies and organisations who share this spirit.

Businesses are often inundated with requests to support local charities and in some instances are unable to make informed decisions as to which request to support, consequently less than 4% of all businesses give any money to charities at all – and those that do, often do so on a whim or in response to the national advertising of the largest UK and international charities, resulting in a dramatic 70% of all charitable donations leaving Greater Manchester.

Forever Manchester offers several approaches, which we’ve outlined below to help introduce and develop your company’s involvement in its local community and enhance your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives.

Your return on investment

Ways you can get involved with Forever Manchester

Fund management

Services for professional advisors

Payroll giving

What next

Your return on investment
It’s a universally shared belief that businesses should operate in a socially responsible way, to benefit local communities and society as a whole. A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative doesn’t just improve society, here’s how it can help your business:

Helps to attract new and retain existing business
Shows that you are a caring, effective, forward-thinking company
Enhances the perception of your company
Helps to retain and recruit staff – involve them in community activity
Gives something back to the communities where your customers and staff work and live
Provides you with positive PR
Details of CSR activity in a tender or reports can give you an edge against competitors

Ways you can get involved with Forever Manchester

As well as being contemporary and exciting our range of services below have been developed to provide flexible and cost effective ways for your company to be part of a new generation of 21st Century philanthropists.

Fund management

A Forever Manchester Named Fund is for local businesses, entrepreneurs and organizations who want to engage in philanthropy, or who want to support a particular issue or cause with their giving.

Working just like your own charitable trust it allows you to support issues and areas of your choosing, but saves all the trouble of appointing trustees, handling investments and dealing with paperwork.

Your fund is invested within our portfolio and will have its own Fund name and separate bank account.

If you want to invest your charitable giving in a measurable, enjoyable and cost-effective way, we can help you set up a fund in your name that offers all the benefits of a charitable trust – flexibility, donor involvement and contact with beneficiaries – without any of the administrative burdens or prohibitive costs.

A Forever Manchester Named Fund offers :

Your own Forever Manchester named fund

Effectively acting as your personal charitable trust.
Named after a person, company, organisation or sector.

Your choice of funded priorities

By area of impact e.g. education, young people, health or tackling poverty.
Geographically focused, e.g. Borough or a neighbourhood.
Aimed at special interest, e.g. to particular charities or specific criteria.

Your personal mix of grant distribution and infinity fund contributions

Balancing immediate impact with long term funding.
Allowing you to give in your lifetime and/or through a legacy in your will.

Setting up a fund is quick, easy and rewarding and can usually be achieved in one initial meeting where we will discuss the options available.

We will work with you to understand fully how you would like to give, and then recommend one of two types of fund: We can recommend groups, manage donations on your behalf, monitor performance and report back to you.

To find out more please call 0161 214 0959 or email info@forevermanchester.com

Services for professional advisors

Help your clients make the biggest impact with their gift and more than triple the value of their original donation by supporting the Forever Manchester infinity fund.

Professional and financial advisors in the legal, accounting and financial sectors are often in a position to advise their clients about charitable giving.

It is very likely that many of your clients are already making annual gifts to support their favourite charitable organisations.

Why not help them give smartly so that they provide for the people and local causes they care about as part of their overall financial planning.

In a pioneering scheme clients establishing their own Endowment Trust Fund with Forever Manchester or donations received before 31 March 2011 will receive a 100% government “top up” in addition to the usual gift aid tax reliefs for personal donors.

This means that if your client is a higher rate taxpayer they you could see the value of their Trust Fund or donation increase by up to 341%.

We believe this is an exciting opportunity for professional advisors working with clients to make a massive and permanent difference and we can help you to take advantage of this once in a life time offer.

You will already have a good understanding of your client's requirements and most importantly will have built up a trusting relationship.

We work in partnership with professional advisors and their clients, whether they are individuals, families or companies, to develop plans to deliver their giving and provide a flexible and cost effective alternative to creating individual trusts or foundations, which can prove costly, complicated to set up and administer.

Download our information sheet here (pdf)

Payroll giving

Payroll giving is an excellent way of demonstrating to your employees your organization’s commitment to Forever Manchester and the support of local causes and is simple to set up and run.

From boosting employee morale and raising your organization’s profile, to enhancing community involvement programmes, payroll giving for Forever Manchester is good for business.

Payroll Giving is a simple, tax-efficient and flexible way to give - donating before you are taxed.

Employee pledges are deducted from pay before tax, so that the cost to them is much less than the final donation.

Did you know that if you donate £10 a month from your pay, your gift will only cost you £7.80? The Inland Revenue gives us the extra £2.20! (At the basic rate of taxation) – this means that money that would have gone to the Inland Revenue goes directly to help local causes instead.

This is a far more effective way of giving than simply sticking your money in a collection tin on the street, where you have no idea where it is actually going.

Donations raised in this way will not disappear around the country; your giving will stay in Greater Manchester.

To show their commitment to the scheme, many companies also offer matched giving, effectively doubling or tripling employees' gifts, providing further incentives for staff to take part.

As an employer, the scheme is easy to set up and we’ll be happy to help you set one up. It’s an easy process and involves completing a short registration form and agreement. To find out more email info@forevermanchester.com

Next steps

If you would like further details on any of the services we provide or want to discuss your company’s specific needs please call us on 0161 214 0959 or email info@forevermanchester.com and we’ll be happy to discuss putting together a package of Forever Manchester business benefits.