In 2007, we donated £6.75 million to charitable and community activities worldwide, an 8% increase over 2006. Until now, decisions about how and where to help have been made at a local level by individual businesses.

Aviva's global community investment for 2007

To make it easier for employees to give to causes they care about, some of our businesses offer company-matched giving schemes, which double the money they raise. We also enable UK employees to donate money, in a tax-efficient way, directly from their monthly salary. To raise awareness of our payroll giving schemes, the Hands on Helping charity visited some of our UK sites. On average, take-up increased by 6%, but among Aviva UK staff, scheme participation rose by 32%, with 1,700 employees now supporting 500 charities.

Last year, the Aviva Charitable Foundation was born out of the AmerUs Group Charitable Foundation, following Aviva’s US acquisition. One organisation to benefit is United Way, an independent body that encourages individual and corporate giving and volunteerism to help others. Aviva Romania also started a partnership with United Way in 2007, and within a month, almost one in three employees (32%) had committed to regular monthly deductions from their salary.

Case study

bluecycle’s recycle schemes

bluecycle, a subsidiary of Norwich Union, has donated a range of items to help community projects, including IT equipment to Oxfam and Age Concern, a car to Felixstowe Port in Suffolk so that officers preventing the export of stolen cars can cover the whole site efficiently, and scrap vehicles to The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre for use in Automotive Technician Accreditation tests.