Our Christmas campaign: giving back

As we move from one ‘new normal’ to the next, each version of ‘normal’ comes with its own unique challenges. One challenge that isn’t going anywhere? People in need of others’ support. In fact in 2021, the number of people donating to charity fell for the fifth year in a row to 62%.

Against this backdrop, we felt strongly that we ought to lend our support where we were able. Back in December 2020, we decided to forgo traditional Christmas gifts for our clients, and instead asked them to pick which one of our nominated charities we could donate to on their behalf. We crossed our fingers, hoped that nobody missed getting a flashy hamper or latest gadget and prayed for a positive response.

We were nothing short of overwhelmed by the reaction, so there was no way we could step back in 2021! To keep spreading the love, we handpicked some new local and national charities and once again asked our clients to choose where their donation went.

On behalf of our team, our suppliers, and our wonderful clients, Asgard were able to donate £3300 this year. It may feel like a drop in the ocean to some, but to most charities (in the everlasting words of Tesco), every little helps.

So, who were 2021’s chosen charities?

Our local heroes

We chose to once again support Alcester Day Care. The lovely Carole and her team run a day centre and café in Alcester that gives some respite to dementia sufferers and their carers, family and friends. They rely on donations and volunteers to keep their sessions running, and to keep providing invaluable care in our local community. We hope our donation will help them do this.

Between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021, the number of emergency food parcels being distributed by food banks increased by 11% compared to the same period in 2019. Acts of Kindness (AOK) is the charity that works tirelessly to run our local foodbank. They don’t stop there, though. They also help people living or working in Redditch and the surrounding districts by providing free services such as debt advice, financial relief, and other goods.

National champions

When asking our clients to choose from our selected charities, it was vital to us that we offered causes a broad range of people would feel connected to. So, we offered a variety of charities serving a range of important causes that are close to our hearts. We’re so pleased to be donating to the following charities:

• Crisis: £725.00
• Medical Detection Dogs: £240.00
• Ocean Conversation Trust: £235.00

Kicking off our year of giving

We’re putting kindness firmly on the to do list for 2022. As many of you know, we’re currently in our tenth year of business and we’ve chosen to celebrate with our ‘10 good deeds’ initiative.

As part of this initiative, we’ll be looking to support our chosen charities in other ways outside of financial donations, so watch this space to see what we get up to. Our lovely Kya might not forge out a new career as a professional Medical Detection dog, but she certainly works her paws off at entertaining us all in the office.

We’ve got lots of good deeds coming up, big and small, so let us know if you’d like to know more, or even get involved in any way.