Pro bono work: not just for the legal sector

Financial donations and volunteer days is often the main way that acts of charity take place in the corporate world. When we hear of pro bono work the concept is often in the realms of the legal sector as opposed to the built environment. Fay McEwan, marketing manager and head of the charity committee at Colliers, shares how pro bono work can also work in the built environment sector.

Often we think of charitable acts to be big memorable actions: the challenge of three days cycling through the Peak District, arranging a group clear up of a local building, or chopping a long length of hair off (hands up, been there, done that).

But what we forget is that actually our expertise is incredibly valuable to charities. Sometimes when starting out in our careers we may have undertaken voluntary work in order to gain experience in the sector we want to specialise in. Then as we secure our first roles, and start to progress in our careers that voluntary experience ceases. But actually maybe this doesn’t have to be the case and there’s still a way to offer your services in support.

As part of the Colliers Gives strategy we ask those proposing or sponsoring a charity to support to consider the three ways that the business and staff can offer to help: fundraising, volunteer days as well as pro bono work, and set this out in a charter which is approved by the charity committee.

As a business we’re balanced in the workstreams we have and have a lot of advisory and consultancy services which are perfect for providing pro bono work, whether its negotiating dilapidations fees, writing a survey, or producing a sustainability report, there’s lots that can be done – which will save charities not only professional fees, but most likely additional cost savings because they got the right advice from the right people.

One such example is our support for Over The Wall (pictured) – a charity which provides residential adventure camps for children with serious health conditions. This year we’ve committed to providing at least £7,000 of financial support for the charity through fundraising initiatives, as well as striving for our people to take part in 23 volunteer days helping to set up camps and prepare them, but also by conducting pro bono work to support the establishment of their first dedicated camp site in Ockbrook, Derbyshire

Having been established since 1999 in the UK historically the charity has hired out schools and facilities across the UK to provide their residential camps. These camps are completely free at the point of use, and also include a full medical team to support the various complex needs. The concepts behind the camps are to provide challenging activities for the children to take part in, and they recognise that the barriers faced by the children are as much mental as well as physical.

Over The Wall has secured a former school in Ockbrook which will be their first dedicated site, and as part of preparations to convert the property for the charity we are working with the charity’s professional construction team to identify the most efficient and sustainable energy delivery system for the campus. The work will require a full sustainability survey, examining the ways that the campus can be converted to ensure that it is as energy efficient as possible. In later stages, we will also look at the charity’s sustainable approaches to their build programme.

Overall this is saving the charity consultancy fees, but the value of the saving will ultimately be more than this. If the charity is able to fund the advice outlined in the report then hopefully it will also be able to save money on energy costs in the future, which will mean that the limited funds it has can be spent on welcoming more children to the camps.

One of the challenges of pro bono work though is ensuring that progress is being made. It’s very easy to let timelines slip as there’s not a bottom line that needs to be met, but ultimately at Colliers our values are to do what’s right by our people, our clients, and our communities, pairing this alongside having a workforce that’s focused on exceeding expectations it’s not that difficult to remind people of why they agreed to do this work in the first place.

Typically for pro bono work legal firms will allocate a percentage of a fee earner’s time towards a project, while we don’t quite have a number attached, the charity’s charter has to be approved to ensure that a reasonable amount of resources are allocated. The charity sponsor is then expected to raise awareness of the charity within the business and get others involved whether it’s fundraising, volunteering or pro bono work.

Fay McEwan, marketing manager and head of the charity committee at Colliers