Beyond finance

Our charitable giving 2025

To really understand what a charity does, its impact and what drives the people who work there takes a bit of time, some listening and – best of all – seeing what they do on the ground. Over the years a number of charities have come to our offices to tell us about their work. This can be eye-opening, inspirational and moving, but perhaps the most powerful way to truly ‘get’ what a charity does is to spend time there as a volunteer.

As in previous years, many of our employees used their paid volunteering allowance, and many opted to spend it with two charities right on our doorstep: The Manna Society
and Blackfriars Settlement. Some of our volunteers were returning to The Manna Society for the second time

Navera Charity Challenge 2025

The amount of volunteering we see happening reflects a general enthusiasm for charitable giving across the firm. Firstly, everyone at Navera plays a part in deciding which charities we support – a total of 54 in 2025. Secondly, raising money for them through our Charity Challenges is fun, with challenges such as a treasure hunt walk on the sunny Surrey downs – no Google maps, just a trusty Ordnance Survey map and teamwork to navigate the way back. It’s all about friendly rivalry, collaboration and making a positive impact beyond the workplace.

Charity pods (‘teams’ to you) compete to earn points which equal money in the pot for charities. This year we have introduced mind, body and soul challenges, such as practicing silent contemplation, walking 70,000 steps in a week or trying a new skill or hobby.

Charities benefiting from this year’s Challenges included:

• The YOU Trust (support, therapy and advice)
• Greenhouse Sports (youth sports)
• The Robes Project (homelessness)
• Future Frontiers (youth social mobility)
• Felix Project (London’s largest food redistribution project).

Act local, commit to the long term

This is our third year working with The Manna Society, a day centre at London Bridge for homeless people that provides year-round food, housing and welfare advice, clothing,
and access to showers and computers. This year 20 of us volunteered to run Manna Society computer sessions, enabling homeless people to use the internet, listen to music, send emails and apply for jobs. We also held two collections in our office for staff to donate food, clothing and toiletries.

We have also been working with Southwark’s Blackfriars Settlement (est.1887), which supports disadvantaged individuals and promotes social inclusion. Inspired by a presentation at our offices by the Settlement’s indefatigable Tina, three Navera team members volunteered for the charity’s annual day trip to Herne Bay to give one-on-one assistance to visually impaired members of the trip. A further 11 members of our team volunteered to prepare lunch at the charity’s ‘Friday Crusoe Club’ for 20 of their visually impaired members.

Two of our team volunteered with Plan Zheroes to collect surplus food from foodie heaven Borough Market and transport it (by cargo bike) to charities. Each year UK food businesses throw away 3m tonnes of food – most of which could have been eaten by people¹. So far, Plan Zheroes has saved 103 tonnes of surplus food at Borough Market.

Other London-based charities we donated to included:

• Whitechapel Mission (homelessness)
• Theatre works (youth theatre access), XO Bikes Onwards & Upwards (post-prison jobs)
• Neighbourhood Doulas (pregnancy support) and Young Women’s Trust (pay equality).

Rapid response

Over the years, we have been regular donors to humanitarian emergency relief charities. We continue to support international emergency relief efforts, but we are also aware
of less high-profile situations that call for a quick response.

We’ve now extended our ‘rapid response’ thinking to local charities. This year we responded to a request from The Charter School in Bermondsey to help address a shortfall in their funding. By contributing £8,000 towards cooking equipment, we helped the school to add food and nutrition classes to their curriculum.

The return of CAKE, tasteless
pullovers and more

It seems impolite to ignore World Cake Day (we Googled it and it’s real) so we reprised our Great Navera Bake Off, encouraging all participants to indulge in support of Manna
Society. We’ll also be throwing sartorial caution to the wind on Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children, and we’ve re-engineered our office secret Santa: we’ll bring
useful items to donate to a local women’s refuge.

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1. Source: WRAP, ‘Food Surplus and Waste in the UK Key Facts,’ 2021. Gov.uk United Kingdom Food Security Report 2021 ↩︎