Our Communities

Maintain our focus on two core themes: health and wellbeing, and young people

To donate at least £45,000 by way of cash donations to charitable causes during the financial year 2023/24.

To ensure our support reaches across all the regions of our three offices.

To give each person one day per year paid volunteering time, equivalent to a contribution of £125,000 per annum.

To deliver pro bono legal work worth £125,000 each financial year.

In our report for 21/22, we set ourselves some challenging objectives for our investment into our communities. This is how we faired:

Objective: To donate at least £45,000 by way of cash donations to charitable causes during the financial year 2022/23.

Actual: We were just shy of our investment target, but delighted with the extent of investments and breadth of organisations to which we were able to make donations.

Objective: To give each person one day per year paid volunteering time, equivalent to a contribution of £125,000, per annum.

Actual: A number of people informally took advantage of this opportunity, but we recognise there is room for improvement with regards to uptake. This year, we have agreed to take a more active approach to promoting the formal uptake of this opportunity, as well as telling the stories of those who have, to encourage the rest.

Objective: Maintain our focus on two core themes: health and wellbeing and young people.

Actual: We did ensure that the vast majority of donations made by the firm were based around these themes.

Objective: To ensure our support reaches across all the regions of our three offices.

Actual: We did maintain a good balance across all three regions, but recognise there is more we can do to increase the commitments made within the North West region. To ensure an improved balance, we have nominated a Charity of the Year in each three office locations, and are independently working with these charities to help grow donations and engagement.

Objective: To deliver pro-bono legal work worth £125,000, each financial year.

Actual: We just missed our objective by recording time worth £111,000 during the financial year. We intend to further promote the firm’s Engagement Portal, as well as adapting our processes to make it easier for our lawyers to undertake pro bono engagements.

A Community Foundation is a tremendous way for businesses and individuals to invest in charitable organisations based within their  communities. The organisation sits at the heart of a diverse and populous network of local charities, most being very small.

The fund provides these charities with support, training and mentoring, to help them fulfil their objectives and get investment into the real heart of a community where it has the most impact.

We have been closely involved with the Tyne and Wear and Northumberland Community Foundation fund for over 16 years, since Ward Hadaway first started investing in our own endowment fund, as well as making other donations and supporting specific initiatives.

We have more recently extended our regional coverage by established funds with the Leeds Community Foundation and Durham Community Foundation too, and are exploring our options across the North West region too.

These are a myriad of charities with which each fund is linked, so by informing the Community Foundations of our particular areas of emphasis, we can better direct the donations made from our endowments. For instance, health and wellbeing and youth initiatives are our two core focus areas which we ask to be considered. However, unusually for regional community funds, we have asked for our original fund in the North East to be invested not just in the direct locality, but in charities across the whole North aligned to our offices in Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle.

We take the time to remain wholly engaged in the process of selecting charities to receive support from our funds and seeing the impact it has on those charities. In excess of 30 charities have been supported from our fund over the past 16 years – it is incredibly rewarding to reflect on the impact this will have had on people’s lives.

I’m once again delighted to comment on the charitable activities that have and continue to take place within Ward Hadaway’s Leeds office.

During 2022, for the first time ever, we set up our ‘Charity of the Year’ programme – an annual event held to focus all of our major fundraising efforts towards one specific charity. In its inaugural year, we’ve been raising money for the Leeds Children Heart Surgery Fund (LCHSF).

Activities included ‘Steptember’, where staff were challenged to record as many daily steps as possible, throughout the month of September. Not only did the Leeds office hit a grand total of 937.7 miles, (further than travelling from Leeds to Berlin) we also raised a significant amount of money.

Of course, making fundraising fun means that not only do we get to give back to our local communities and those who need it most, we also get to enjoy ourselves while doing so. To celebrate Halloween and the 2022 Christmas holidays we held raffles, a pumpkin carving competition, Halloween fancy dress, a Christmas decorating competition and a Christmas jumper day. Every February, the LCHSF host their annual ‘Wear Red Day’ – and here at the Leeds office, we couldn’t help but get involved with another now-trademark Ward Hadaway ‘fuddle’ (a party or picnic where attendees bring food and wine) in the kitchen, complete with a wide variety of red coloured food, and raffle.

Alongside the LCHSF, we also once again held a very successful Macmillan ‘Coffee Morning’ to help raise money for cancer support. Hosting our very own ‘Bake-Off’ style competition, complete with Eccles cakes and handshakes, we raised a generous total to aid Macmillan and the crucial work they do.

Throughout the last year, we’ve also been involved in the ‘World of Work Days’ scheme – helping primary school children to learn more about work and the inspiring the next generation to choose a career in law. Taking place within three different schools, 91% of all children involved said they felt more motivated to work harder and succeed as a result of the programme.

Our trainee solicitors also spent time volunteering at CATCH (Community Action to Create Hope), a local charity in Leeds. CATCH empowers young people on their educational farm, and, beyond donating their time and effort, our trainees got to hang out and feed the centre’s goats!

Most recently, we’ve chosen our Charity of the Year for 2023/24: Martin House Children’s Hospice. Kicking off this year’s initiative with a ‘Lunch and Learn’ event in May, Martin House came along to the office to share their story and why their work is so important in changing the lives of young-people with life limiting illnesses.

In addition to the Leeds office, both Manchester and Newcastle are supporting their own individual annual fundraising programmes, for The Cindy Appleyard Foundation and The People’s Kitchen, respectively.

Not only are we hoping to smash last year’s fundraising total, we already have plenty of fundraising events planned for later this year. Please keep your eyes peeled and do get in touch – it’s incredibly rewarding to make a difference to the charities on our doorstep, as well as having a great time with our colleagues doing so.