As a company, we’re committed to using our skills to make great things happen. Here’s a snapshot of the impact we are having beyond the day-to-day of working with our wonderful clients.
Work that matters
Our positive impact
Supporting good causes
– We run an annual fundraising – Creatives for Change – which raises money for environmental causes. To date, we've raised money for City of Trees and the Wildlife Trust. ‘Creatives for Change’ is a design collective, founded by Creative Concern, responding to the biggest challenges of our time. It’s about using our creative skills as a force for good.
– We donate annually to local charities as part of our Christmas commitment (in 2022 donations went to Coffee4Craig) and have supported MASH (Greater Manchester charity supporting sex workers), Lancashire Wildlife Trust and Wood Street Mission among others.
– Every member of the Creative Concern team is part of our charity volunteering programme. Past volunteering has included tree planting in Salford and clean up work in the Bridgewater canal.
– Creative Concern offers free consultancy time through an 'advice surgery' model to charities and not for profits seeking support with brand and communications. The surgeries are promoted through CharityComms network and our own outreach. We are also active members of the CharityComms network.
– Our directors support a range of charities including being volunteer board members/advisors for the charity Community Forest Trust, Freshwater Biological Society and City of Trees.
Tackling climate change
– Creative Concern is currently taking part in the GM Business Growth Hub Journey to net zero programme (started in November 2022). The programme will see us measure, manage and reduce our emissions as we progress to carbon net zero.
– Our website hosting is recognised by the Green Web Foundation and is certified from renewable resources.
– Our Founder, Director Steve Connor is a board member of Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership as their green lead.
– Creative Concern donates on a committed monthly basis to reforestation charity Ecologi. We have selected Ecologi because it offers the chance to support a broad range of projects globally that can prove they are reducing or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions.
– Each month we support a range of carbon avoidance projects that are certified at the very highest level by Gold Standard or the Verified Carbon Standard. Ecologi also has a range of reforestation partners, who, with our support, are growing millions of trees per month. We also selected Ecologi because 85% of our donation goes to the project delivery directly.
Sustainable travel
– We are committed to travelling sustainably, using public transport or walking/cycling wherever possible. When our team comes into the office, we run a cycle to work scheme and a scheme to support the purchase of public transport season tickets. Our travel miles have also significantly reduced due to hybrid working.
– Our Founder, Director Steve Connor chairs the GM Bee Net Zero Partnership, which is dedicated to helping businesses reduce their carbon.
Supporting future creatives
– We’re working with the University of Manchester to run career mentoring sessions, undertake portfolio reviews and support students with guidance on ethical communications and careers guidance.
Cities of Hope
Back in 2016, Cities of Hope brought sensational street art to the Northern Quarter and raised awareness and income for social causes at the same time. And we were delighted to be part of the Cities of Hope team for 2018. Some of the biggest names in street art came to Manchester to cast a new light on some of the most challenging issues of our time. We supported Cities of Hope with a website and promo film in the coming weeks – check them out and support if you can.
This is the Place
It was an honour to be part of the ‘This is the Place’ book, a creative memorial in response to the attack on Manchester Arena in May 2017. The book, based around Tony Walsh’s poem, 'This is the Place’, brought the creative community of Manchester together to reflect on the tragedy. Each creative was given one line of the poem and the challenge of creating one page of the book. Every penny from the book sales is split equally across three charities: Forever Manchester, We Love Manchester Emergency Fund and The Greater Manchester Mayor’s Homelessness Fund.
Our idea wouldn’t have been possible without the support of IPAF, which provided a cherry picker to capture the image of a heart of yellow umbrellas outside Manchester’s Central Library. Thank you to James Torry of Doodledo Motion for getting in touch and giving us the opportunity to mark the moment and to look forward with hope.
“Get yourself a copy of This is the Place. It's beautifully put together and is the perfect way to support some fantastic charities making a real difference in our city. Choose love Manchester."
— Chris Dessent, Managing Director
Salford Food Bank
The extent of food poverty in our city continues to shock us. Salford Food Bank is part of a nationwide network of food banks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK. We wanted to help promote their work and offered to put a film together for them to showcase the vital support they give to local people in Salford.
Watch the film and support them if you can.
