Chamber ‘Pledge’ launched to encourage social impact

West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce has launched a “Make a Pledge” campaign to encourage local businesses to commit to their social responsibilities.

Introduced as part of the Chamber’s ‘Raising the Bar’ dedicated social responsibility programme, the new ‘Make a Pledge’ initiative aims to encourage businesses and teams across the region to consider how and where they can make a difference.

Launched as part of the Chamber’s recent ‘How to be a Good Employer; learning lunch event hosted by Tong Garden Centre and Yorkshire Building Society, businesses are encouraged to make their pledge by outlining how they aim to improve their social impact in areas such as the community, environment, volunteering, donations, education or the economy.

Donna Morris, Marketing Executive at the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, commented: “Raising the Bar’s ‘Make a Pledge’ campaign is a fantastic way for businesses to vocalise the great things they are doing to support the community and the environment. The pledge process will encourage teams to think about and discuss where they can make a positive impact and by publicising their pledges, will help identify what positive changes can be made by companies and to influence others.”

Raising the Bar is a social impact business initiative, aimed to help businesses of all sizes achieve their social impact goals. There is a free benchmarking tool on the new website, allowing companies to measure their current social impact, against other businesses with similar demographics. Also, opportunities are posted by charities, not-for-profits or individuals looking for help from businesses. The Raising the Bar Awards take place towards the end of the year. These awards enable businesses and employees to be recognised for all the hard work they put into managing their social impact.

Rebecca Farhall, Raising the Bar steering group member and Business Development Manager at Naylor Wintersgill, independent chartered accountants and Executive Chamber members, said: “We have supported the Raising the Bar initiative for a number of years – it’s an excellent way for us to recognise our team’s efforts at the annual awards and connect with others. I can also track and set targets for our activities during the year through the benchmarking tool.

“The Raising the Bar Pledge has inspired me to rethink our social impact and how our team are working to improve it. Our 2021 pledge is to provide online reading sessions to young children in Bradford where our volunteers will remotely engage with their reading buddies for weekly 30 minute sessions during term time. Through our involvement in the TutorMate UK programme, we hope to support school children in our local community, helping them learn to love books and build the critical reading skills they need to succeed in school and beyond.”

She added: “I hope that by making our Pledge of commitment through the initiative and sharing that with others, more businesses will get thinking about their own social impact and the diverse range of things they can do to have a positive influence on our communities.”

Raising the Bar shares positive social impact stories with the Chamber’s business network, gives charities and not-for-profits the opportunity to appeal for help and support, and offers a benchmarking tool for businesses to log their progress when improving their impact. To find out more, please contact marketing@wnychamber.co.uk or visit