A business needs to be profitable to thrive; however, focusing solely on profit can mean we neglect things that are needed to create a happy, proactive culture, and this includes giving back to society in the form of CSR. The vision for C5 Alliance is to have a positive impact, not just for our clients and team, but for our community as well, which means that CSR can’t be an afterthought. Supporting the local community is an intrinsic part of what we do – every member of our team participates in some sort of fundraising or community engagement. We have also made a specific commitment to ‘digitally enable’ the charities or community organisations that we work with. As business leaders, we believe that we have a responsibility to use our expertise to contribute to building a positive society.

To fulfil our CSR commitment to ‘digitally enable’, we have worked with Jersey Hospice, Jersey Alzheimer’s and Jersey Women’s Refuge to develop infrastructure and skills to build their operations more effectively and feel that this technology enablement has helped more than making a simple financial contribution. We want to demonstrate a level of commitment that goes beyond just making a donation, instead creating a person-to-person approach that builds links between individuals within our business and individuals within the charities we support, to benefit everyone involved as part of our CSR.

We also still engage in straightforward giving and fund raising, as a way to embed this way of thinking in the culture of our business. We support local charities such as Jersey Hospice, Mind Jersey, Mind Guernsey and Macmillan Jersey, and we are the proud lead sponsors of the annual Macmillan Jersey Greatest Coffee Morning.

Working with Macmillan Cancer Support Jersey in particular has empowered our team to get involved in fundraising, sports and social activities to assist Macmillan in their development. This year we took part in the Macmillan Rowathon, Golf Day, Back to The 80’s 30^th Anniversary Celebration and also opened our doors again for the fantastic Coffee Morning. This charitable partnership of support and engagement for our team has helped the charity grow on the island and create a genuinely positive impact for Channel Islanders year on year.

Our team commitment to be original in their thinking has also seen the development of an internal Employee CSR Fund whereby any team member can pitch a charitable idea or concept for C5 to provide a £500 donation towards. This year has seen an inter-departmental team enter the Jersey Tackle Africa tournament, brave souls take to their bikes and ride the 174km Marmotte Challenge in support of Jersey Cancer Research and SCBU, along with teams entered for the Jersey Relay Marathon and Jersey Hospice.

Ultimately helping others inspires us to do better, teaches us to build better relationships, keeps ‘problems’ in perspective and bonds us as a team, giving us a way to express our values and passions. CSR is not just what we do at C5, it’s who we are.