We aim to improve access to legal services, support charitable activities that add high levels of value through volunteering and the provision of our expertise.
Each year, staff choose a Charity of the Year for the firm to support through various fundraising activities and staff volunteering.
Between 2019 and 2022 the firm’s charity of the year was The Prince’s Trust. In May 2022, each office chose a local charity to support, with a theme of mental wellbeing. These were:
Previous Charities of the Year have included Ronald McDonald House, Bristol, Home-Start, WAITS, The Haven, Peace Hospice Care, the Julian Trust Night Shelter, St Basils, Bristol Children's Help Society, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, the Rainbow Centre, Avon Outward Bound, MusicSpace, Windmill Hill City Farm, Sailability, St Peter's Hospice, BRACE and St Mungo's Broadway.
VWV has its own charitable trust, the VWV Charitable Trust, which makes regular grants to regionally based charities and provides substantial financial support to our Charities of the Year.
In addition, the Trust also donates funds to Quartet, a charity which manages funds on behalf of individuals, companies, charitable trusts and statutory agencies primarily to meet needs in the West of England.
Staff are encouraged to engage in community support work and projects both during office hours and outside. We do this by granting extra holidays for days spent on worthwhile causes whilst at work and advertising widely the activities. We also match-fund any amounts produced as a result.
A few examples of staff volunteering include:
In addition, many of our employees mentor students from local schools, colleges and universities.
We offer free pro-bono advice to organisations and projects that support the local community, such as law clinics and universities. For example, our Corporate Law team works with the University of Bristol as part of their New Enterprise Competition.
We offer free meeting space to a number of charities, including:
As part of the relocation of our Bristol office to Narrow Quay House in November 2015, we donated office equipment and furniture to international charity Meningitis Research Foundation.
In 2022, we also donated IT equipment to Norton Hill School and other schools across the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership.
Members of our CSR committee work hard to organise a range of volunteering events and opportunities throughout the year. For example, in 2018, 'Partner Pandemonium' saw a number of our Partners facing jungle-themed challenges in aid of Ronald McDonald House Bristol.
The firm has compliance procedures in place to ensure that all its charity work is documented and recorded, and to prevent conflicts of interest between the provision of advisory services and voluntary activities.