Helping our communities, the Investec way
Across the business, we use the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for us to assess, align and prioritise both business and community activities. As a group, Investec has committed to two core (SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities and SDG 13 Climate Action) and six secondary sustainable development goals (SDG 4,6,7,8,9 and 11). With this in mind, for our community initiatives in the UK, we focus on programmes and activities where we can add the most value in three key areas: education, entrepreneurship and the environment. In the financial year 2023/24, our colleagues dedicated over 3,477 hours to supporting local community partners in the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands.
We’re committed to adding value to the communities we operate in by delivering targeted programmes with community partners and giving our people two days paid annual leave to volunteer with our community partners. To name just a few, in the last financial year 2023/24, we have supported two leading food redistribution charities, funded several new businesses with a social purpose, nurtured young talent through a series of skill workshops, one-to-one coaching and an investment education programme, and have committed to enhancing the UK’s green spaces and engaging communities in conservation efforts.
Our three focus areas
Education
We aim to empower young people to achieve their goals in life. While academic success is important, our education programme also focuses on improving life, employability and interpersonal skills.
Entrepreneurship
Investec has entrepreneurial roots and we’re proud to support entrepreneurs who want to make a sustainable impact in their communities. We do this through our award-winning Investec Beyond Business social enterprise incubation programme.
Environment
We establish partnerships with local charities that align with our purpose and actively engage our employees in volunteering initiatives. These collaborations improve the local environment, enhance conservation efforts, and contribute to the wellbeing of individuals in the community.
3470+ hours
£140,200+
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings
We participate and maintain our inclusion in select world-leading indices. These indices have been designed objectively to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards.
Measuring our impact
In the UK, we use the Business for Societal Impact (B4SI) framework to measure our charitable contributions and their impact on society. Measuring the impact of partnerships through the B4SI framework enables Investec plc to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and value generated through its partnerships, leading to informed decision-making, improved performance, and enhanced stakeholder engagement. For the third year, we have obtained assurance from Corporate Citizenship, the managers of B4SI, regarding our community investment data for FY2023, demonstrating our commitment to transparency and accountability in our community investment efforts.
Our data shows a total contribution worth £1 996 456, a 10.5% decrease from the previous financial year. Of our total contribution, we contributed 81% through community investment activities and 19% through charitable gifts. 54% of our total contribution was in the form of cash donations, with 19% dedicated to employee engagement in volunteering activities, and 1% in-kind donations. We measure most of our inputs from our operations and currently record social outputs for our main partnerships, which represented 25% of our contributions in 2023, with evolving impact measurement in most of these. Feedback from B4SI on the review of our community investment data for the past financial year noted increasing implementation of the B4SI framework and good implementation of past recommendations. It highlighted that future developments could address in-kind valuation and further refining measuring of beneficiaries.