FAQs

More about Community Investment at Barclays

• Community Investment at Barclays

  • Why is community investment important to Barclays?

    Being a responsible bank means being honest about our successes and failures, in touch with the public mood and sensitive to the expectations of our stakeholders.
    
    Despite the uncertainty of the economic outlook, and despite the events of the last three years, the people of Barclays are motivated to help with these challenges.
    
    Investment in our communities is an integral part of Barclays Responsible Banking strategy. We use the term “Responsible Banking” because we believe that the words capture what our stakeholders expect of us.
    
    Barclays has a long standing tradition of supporting the communities in which we operate and we are approaching global community investment as a core part of our corporate objectives and values.
    
    Read the Responsible Banking Review 2009

  • Does Barclays have a role in society beyond profitability?

    Investing in our local communities is a key part of Barclays Responsible Banking strategy. Our business benefits from contributing to the development and sustainability of the communities around us.
    
    Barclays was one of 21 pioneering companies to achieve the Business in the Community ‘Community Mark’ – a national standard which recognises companies that are the best investors in their communities.
    
    In 2010, we invested £55.3 million in communities around the world and more than 62,000 colleagues in 37 countries were involved in fundraising, volunteering and regular giving.

  • Who do I contact if I want Barclays to support my organisation?

    The Barclays community investment programme has been developed to reflect our knowledge and expertise as a financial services organisation, focused on areas such as financial inclusion, money education and supporting disadvantaged people into employment and self-employment. Through these programmes, Barclays has chosen to proactively seek a small number of partner organisations to enable us to have the greatest impact on local communities.  For this reason we are unable to provide funding to many of the individual requests we receive.
    
    For more information, please contact the community manager in your area.

  • What is the Barclays Community Investment donations policy?

    Barclays has a community investment exclusions policy which identifies types of initiatives and causes that we do not fund. Community Investment is not used to support:

    • Political parties or political bodies
    • Promotion of religious beliefs (we do consider projects led by religious organisations providing the whole community benefits)
    • Sponsorship of individuals
    • Rotary, Lions Clubs and other third-party giving organisations
    • Hospital costs
    • Medical charities including medical treatment and research
    • Capital appeals (for example, for buildings)
    • Educational institutions (unless the donation provides direct support to a disadvantaged group)
    • The arts (unless the donation provides direct support to a disadvantaged group)
    • Microfinance loan fund capital (donations can be used to support the establishment and operation of community-motivated microfinance programmes, but can not be used as capital for on-lending direct to clients).

• Barclays Global Community Programmes

  • How is Barclays involved with UNICEF?

    As part of Banking on Brighter Futures, Barclays and UNICEF joined forces to launch the Building young futures programme in 2008. The three-year programme aims to empower thousands of young people across the world by providing them with the support and skills they need to achieve a brighter economic future for themselves and their communities.
    
    Individual projects seek to raise the educational attainment of disadvantaged children, and to increase the number of young people gaining employment or starting their own business by providing them with the necessary skills and opportunities, via mentoring, microfinance and training.

    Read more about the UNICEF programme.

  • How is Barclays partnering with CARE International and Plan International?

    As part of Banking on Brighter Futures, Barclays committed to a global partnership with NGOs CARE International and Plan International in 2009, in order to extend innovation and accelerate sustainable access to basic financial services.
    
    The three-year initiative aims to reach more than 500,000 people across Africa, Asia and South America and represents a £10m commitment by Barclays. The partnership combines the NGOs’ experience and understanding of local communities with the financial expertise of Barclays. This enables us to promote and train community groups on savings-led community finance and develop bespoke financial channels, products and services to fulfill their needs. The initiative gives individuals the opportunity to save regularly and provides communities with a way to manage their money, increase their ability to deal with life emergencies and invest in their own and their children’s future.
    
    Read more about Banking on Change

  • What is Barclays Spaces for Sports?

    Barclays Spaces for Sports is a community sports programme, part of Looking after Local Communities, that uses sport to revitalise disadvantaged communities in countries around the world where Barclays operates.
    
    It was launched in the UK in 2004 and has delivered 200 sustainable sports sites, giving more than half a million people in disadvantaged communities the opportunity to benefit. Following its success in the UK the programme was extended globally in 2008, bringing the total investment by Barclays to more than £37m. Additional investment of more than £30m from our partners the Football Foundation brings the overall total to more than £67m.
    
    Additional sites and projects are already established in South Africa, the United States, Spain and Zambia.
    
    Read more about Barclays Spaces for Sports

  • How is Barclays involved in the Katine project?

    In 2007, Barclays entered into a new partnership with the Guardian newspaper and AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) hoping to address the socio-economic issues that affect people’s lives in Katine, where more than 77% of the population live on less than $1 a day.
    
    The project was highly innovative with Barclays bringing its business capability and the skills of its colleagues to an initiative that benefited both the community and the business. Barclays targeted a previously un-accessed group – aiming to impact positively on their lives and develop a sustainable commercial model of rural banking. The partnership brought together the skills and expertise of the community, financial inclusion and commercial parts of the business for the first time.
    
    Barclays has committed $3 million over the last 3 years, which has enabled the partnership to genuinely change the lives of 25,000 people living in Katine.

    Read more about the Katine project

• Colleagues involvement in Community programmes

  • How does Barclays support colleagues community work?

    It is important to encourage and inspire Barclays colleagues to support the causes they most care about. To that end, Barclays offers a range of resources to harness the energy and skills of colleagues all over the world, helping them to give and gain by being involved in their local communities. This includes grants, matched fundraising, a time-off policy to undertake volunteering activities and payroll giving mechanisms.

    Read more about the Barclays employee programmes

    

  • I'm a Barclays colleague, how do I get involved?

    If you're a Barclays colleague, you can take part in Barclays-led programmes, please contact the community manager; in your area to find out more. If you'd like support for your own cause, you can apply online for grants, matched fundraising and volunteering; please see the link below.
    
    Apply online at  https://barclays.givingforce.com

  • What are the benefits of Barclays colleagues volunteering?

    Many of the skills that are gained or developed through volunteering can be transferred back to the workplace and will invariably benefit the volunteer and the business.
    
    Volunteering opportunities through programmes such as Banking on Brighter Futures are a good way to complement/supplement learning and development opportunities that already exist through more formal classroom or e-based training programmes.
    
    In 2009 we conducted an internal survey about our volunteering programme. The responses were impressive with evidence that volunteers developed a wide range of skills as a result of taking part in community activity including: Team Leadership; Coaching; Emotional intelligence.

  • Why does Barclays encourage colleagues to support their local community?

    At Barclays our community investment programme exists to achieve a three-way win: a win for the community, for our colleagues and for Barclays. A benefit to all parties enables a positive and sustainable impact.
    
    As an organisation, we have a responsibility to ensure the good health and prosperity of the communities around the world where we live and work. It’s important to us that we engage those communities in how best we can support them, by:

    • partnering with the charities/community organisations best placed to understand local needs
    • involving partners in stakeholder research to shape future strategy
    • using expertise from the voluntary sector to develop Barclays community policies
    • employing a team of 60 community managers globally to manage local stakeholders.
      
      We don’t want to be the organisation that just writes the big cheque. Instead we want to embrace the skills and time of our colleagues as they have a huge amount to give – and gain – by being involved. So do Barclays. So we:

    • enable employees to decide how they want to get involved – personal choice is a powerful motivator
    • listen to what they have to say through ongoing feedback and research
    • regularly communicate the support and opportunities available
    • engage colleagues as community champions to coordinate and drive activity locally
    • help colleagues build on their skills.