Partner With Our Charity

Thank you for your interest in partnering with Reading Mencap.

There are all sorts of ways your company can get involved with Reading Mencap to form a mutually beneficial partnership.

Volunteering

We have a range of volunteering opportunities for your employees, from fundraising events to supporting our clients to enjoy leisure activities. Your staff will be making a positive difference to local people while gaining experience and developing their skills.

Pro Bono Support

If your staff have skills to share with our staff, volunteers or clients, we’d love to know, whether this is training, advice or technical support.

For example, we have partnered with Dexter Montague Solicitors and Rowberry Morris Solicitors to deliver legal seminars to our family carers.

Charity of the Year

If your company chooses Reading Mencap as its Charity of the Year, our Fundraising Team have plenty of ideas to inspire your employees to raise money to help local people with a learning disability while raising your company’s profile and gaining positive publicity.

Sponsor a Service or Project

By sponsoring one of our services, for instance, our helpline or minibus, your company will be able to see exactly what difference you are making to local people.

Payroll Giving and Match Funding

Payroll Giving (also known as Give As You Earn or workplace giving) is a tax efficient scheme that allows an employee to make regular donations to Reading Mencap directly from their salary. The donation is taken out before tax, which means a monthly donation of £10 will only cost the employee £8 (for basic rate tax payers).

Payroll Giving is one of the easiest and most flexible methods of giving to charity. It is straightforward to set up and is a low-cost initiative to operate. You will have the option of match-funding your employees’ donations. Your payroll department will process the payroll deductions and send all donations to your Payroll Giving Agency, which is regulated by HM Revenue & Customs – examples include Charities Aid Foundation and Charities Trust.

‘Match funding’ means that an employer matches an employee’s donation to charity either partially or pound for pound. Companies can also choose to match fund the sponsorship raised by members of their staff if they take part in sponsored events like marathons.

Other Ways

  • If your company has unwanted office furniture or stationery, we can take it off your hands and put it to good use.
  • Display a collection tin or some of our leaflets in your reception area. For example, ten local solicitors have our ‘gifts in wills’ booklet available for their clients.
  • Run fundraising events such as dress-down days or cake sales and donate the proceeds to Reading Mencap.
  • Offering discounts to our beneficiaries for your services could increase your sales and client base.

Why help us?

Firstly, to make a difference to local people with a learning disability and their families and carers.

There are many other benefits associated with supporting a local charity like Reading Mencap. Positive publicity will not only increase an organisation’s profile by adding value through brand association but boost corporate social responsibility credentials. The relationship between the charity and the company will forge closer links throughout the local community.

An enhanced working environment will also increase staff morale and retention with employee volunteering opportunities and team-building activities. Employees will gain increased awareness of the support offered by Reading Mencap; as a result, they may find that they or someone they know could benefit from our support.

What will your support achieve?

Supporting Reading Mencap will help us to continue delivering vital services in the community, which benefit more than 400 people.

Our Family Support Service is in great demand and is unique in Reading – without us, many families would have nowhere else to turn. Our Family Advisers give personalised information, advice and advocacy to families and individuals to support them with any issue they are facing, whether this is a lack of respite or social care provision, ill health, hate crime, debt or poverty, poor housing or special educational needs. These problems can be complex and long-running but we are there to support people for as long as it takes and make sure their needs are met.

As a result of our support, our clients feel less isolated and anxious, are able to make informed decisions and are empowered to face the barriers they come across on a daily basis.

Our leisure activity and social clubs give adults with learning disabilities the chance to make friends, stay healthy, have fun and learn new skills in a safe environment supported by trained staff and volunteers. Activities include singing, drama, arts and crafts, and trips out in the community. The clubs also give family carers a much-needed break and some time to themselves while their loved one is enjoying themselves at Reading Mencap.

The 4ME Activity Service is our popular day activity service for adults with learning disabilities. It takes place at Alexandra Road every weekday. The project is user-led so the group members are able to make decisions about their own activities and encourage each other to try something new. Members enjoy all sorts of activities including playing tag rugby, dancing, yoga, canoeing, walks in the park and visits to places of interest.

Want to know more? To find out more about how your organisation can get involved, please contact: fundraisingmanager@readingmencap.org.uk