Nottingham Building Society has a long history of supporting communities and since launching our formal community programme in 2011, we've donated more than £1.5million to support those that need it most.

As a mutual building society, it’s important for us to have a meaningful and lasting impact on our local communities spanning across our branch locations, head office and our colleague’s home locations through fundraising, donations to support charities and non-profit organisations and volunteer time. Overall, in 2023 our teams have given over 1,850 volunteer hours.

Throughout 2023 we aligned our society’s purpose with our community impact strategy and programmes to focus on supporting people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to access emergency and longer-term services to help them towards a safe home.

This strategy has manifested into two charity partnerships, the first with Emmanuel House, a Nottingham-based independent charity working to support people who are homeless, rough sleeping, in crisis or, at risk of homelessness in and around the city. This partnership has included a donation of £100,000 to help them develop their portfolio of temporary accommodation and support services to those at immediate risk. In 2023 our colleagues gave over 300 hours of volunteer time to Emmanuel House, providing practical help such as painting and donation sorting at their support centre as well as cooking meals at the charity’s winter shelter.

Our second charitable partnership is with UK-wide homelessness charity Shelter. We have donated £50,000 to support the running of their Sheffield-based emergency helpline which provides vital support to people impacted by unfit housing and at risk of homelessness. Our team members also fundraised for Shelter through our ‘Step Out for Shelter’ campaign taking part in sponsored step challenges, bake offs and a festive knitwear day to raise money. 

Additionally, throughout 2023 we have worked with Chayah Development Project, a charity dedicated to making a lasting impact through tackling social issues such as providing food banks and supporting mental health in local communities. We offered our former Stapleford branch to the charity and donated £3,000 to support them in establishing their services in the area. Our facilities team also gave over 70 hours of volunteer time to help get the hub ready and host an opening event.

As we look to the months ahead, we’re excited to develop our purpose-led community mission, to support people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to access essential services. We’ll do this by furthering our charity partnerships and continuing to support causes and issues impacting our local communities through empowering our colleagues to continue giving their time to make a lasting difference.