Investing in our communities

Supporting Turkey and Syria

When news broke in February 2023 about the devastating earthquake that struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria, our colleagues wanted to come together once again to show our support to affected communities. A campaign was launched to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal.

Find out more about our fundraising

Supporting Ukraine 

We are deeply saddened by the ongoing situation in Ukraine and our heart-felt thoughts continue to be with everyone affected. In April 2022, our colleagues launched a campaign to fundraise for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. From bake sales and raffles, to summer strolls and sunflower growing competitions, £43,000 was raised which included our Charity Matching. 

 “It's great that so many of our LV= teams across our offices worked collaboratively and creatively together to raise money for this extremely worthwhile cause." – David Hynam, LV= Chief Executive 

Foodbank donations 

At the end of 2022, our Regional Community Committees arranged food collection points in each of our offices. Our colleagues donated vital supplies to local foodbanks in time for the festive period. 

The committees are voluntarily run by our colleagues and they play an important part in supporting local charities and good causes. We have committees in each of our UK offices in Bournemouth, Exeter and Hitchin.

LV= Kidzone

During the summer of 2022, our longest partnership was back in action for the 16th year. LV= KidZone is a beach safety scheme that helps to prevent and reunite lost children and vulnerable adults. Spanning across our local seafronts from Sandbanks to Southbourne, the scheme is run by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. 

• 349 loved ones were reunited with their families.
• The average time to reunite a loved one was under 18 minutes.
• Seven years old was the average age of someone who was lost on the beach.

Charity Matching

To support our colleagues and their fundraising efforts for charities close to their hearts, we match pound for pound what they raise through our Charity Matching scheme. This is capped at £500 per colleague and at £1,000 for a team.

Pennies for charity

Another long-running and popular initiative is Pennies for Charity. We take the odd pennies in our colleague’s net salary and send these to a chosen charity. To show our support to Ukraine our pennies have been donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. 

Over 97% of our colleagues are signed up and in 2022 our donations totalled over £5,000.

We’ve been part of the scheme for over a decade which is administered by Pennies from Heaven. In 2023 we won their Platinum Award.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic we recognised the need to help financially vulnerable members who were experiencing financial difficulties and struggling to pay their policy premiums. In March 2020 we introduced payment breaks to support eligible members. Since it was introduced, our support has totalled nearly £80,000 in waived premiums for 445 members. 

We’re committed to providing this support and therefore payment breaks will be permanently open to those unable to pay their premiums, subject to certain eligibility criteria. Members can apply for a maximum of three months. 

Member benefits and additional support services also continue to be available for our members, one of which is our Member Support Fund that can provide financial and practical support. For one particular member we covered car repairs so they could get to hospital appointments. We also gifted food vouchers, contributed to funeral costs and purchased a wheelchair to name just a few other ways we’ve supported members. 

We want to create a lasting positive impact through a programme of activity, not only by way of donations, but by harnessing the power of our own people volunteering their time and fundraising.

Our people consistently get out and about in their community and donate to fundraising events hosted in their office. Many of them have also completed their own challenges like running the London Marathon.

Our people can take up to two days each year via our ‘time off to volunteer’ policy if they’d like to do something for their local community during their working week.