| 2006 | 2005 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £000’s | % | £000’s | % | |
| Cash support | 2,298 | 87 | 2,279 | 86 |
| Employee time | 110 | 4 | 130 | 5 |
| Gifts in kind | 50 | 2 | 26 | 1 |
| Management costs | 195 | 7 | 215 | 8 |
| Total CI contribution | 2,653 | 100 | 2,650 | 100 |
Strategic and effective involvement in the communities in which we operate, and where our employees live and work, is an important facet of our CSR programme and an integral part of our business activity.
Legal & General contributed more than £2.6 million to community initiatives in 2006. The table above provides a breakdown of these contributions, with 2005 comparatives. As in previous years, we’ve categorised our giving according to Business in the Community’s PerCent Standard.
During 2006 we joined the London Benchmarking Group (LBG), and from 2007 we will use its data-management tool to track and collate our donations. Although we’ve measured the ‘inputs’ of our community investment for a number of years, with increasing accuracy, one of the key aims of our LBG membership is to help us more thoroughly assess what our programmes actually achieve, in other words the ‘outputs’. We hope, therefore, to be able to report these outputs more systematically in future years.
Legal & General’s Community Involvement (CI) programme comprises four main areas: Major Community Partnerships, Local Community Partnerships, Employee Support, and a Young Excellence Scheme. Each of these areas is explained and illustrated below.
We have chosen to focus on issues that are complementary to our business and, specifically, to support organisations whose work is aligned with our own activities. This approach ensures a positive impact on the charities we work with, and also adds value to Legal & General. During 2006 our Major and Local Community Partnership programmes focused on:
We do not support animal charities, charities based overseas or international projects, religious organisations (unless the project is for the benefit of the community as a whole) or political organisations. The one exception to this rule is the provision of match-funding for employees who have raised money for such charities (See ‘Sponsorship Matching’).
Our CI policy and criteria are reviewed regularly by the Charity Committee and approved annually by the Group Board.