What we do

Workshops

“As an older, more jaded, more war-weary practitioner I found the session energising and inspiring. We all came away having made at least one connection that will benefit our own programmes; the mix of business sizes and sectors threw out such a range of creative ideas.”

"Inspiring and well-pitched; very beneficial to hear other companies experiences "

"Very valuable content, great networking opportunity to share ideas. Really relevant to what I am currently doing. I think you have got this just right"

"Every angle looked at, very informative. Presentations were excellent! ...Persuasive, informative and motivational"

“Very slick, topical workshop and … I found the workshop extremely beneficial. Since taking up my CSR role 6 months ago, HotC has proved to be invaluable as a 'One Stop Shop' for resources, enquiries and assistance and I'm really looking forward to the next workshop.”

Click here to listen to Richard Hardie's (Vice-Chair at UBS Ltd) thoughts on how mentoring has helped UBS.

“The Heart of the City Programme helps provide context and practical support. As we navigate a new relationship of this type, the Heart of the City team and my Heart of the City mentor, Richard from Herbert Smith, have helped me to learn what challenges to expect, how best to overcome them and, very importantly, how to manage expectations within my own business environment as we take this relationship to the next stage.”

“The support from my Mentor, Mike Kelly from KPMG, was invaluable, he provided really helpful guidance about how to find and forge and effective partnership with a charity partner, as well as how to structure our programme to maximise engagement in this partnership across our entire workforce. It took us time to get things off the ground but I’m incredibly proud of all we’ve done since joining the Heart of the City Programme. With help from both Mike and also from his German colleagues, we’ve forged partnership with key charities in both London and in Hamburg."

"What has also been excellent is the opportunity to build a network with other CSR practioners. The CSR community is willing to share knowledge, but Heart of the City provides the key to accessing that knowledge. I am still in touch with the "mentor" that HOTC offered me and we still have lunches every couple of months, despite the arrangement no longer being a formal one."

"We were mentored by Julia Fuller at Reuters. She was extremely friendly and approachable and very willing to answer all our questions - no matter how basic they may have seemed! It was great to have such an experienced person at the other end of the telephone, and our expectations and targets for our programme were much more realistic as a result of her great advice and guidance"

“The Heart of the City community visits included a very thought provoking tour around the Whitechapel Mission in Tower Hamlets, which works with homeless people, trying to help them in their struggle against hunger, poverty, disease, prejudice and exclusion. If I’m honest, the difference between my ‘reality’  both in my home and in my professional life and that of the people helped by the Whitechapel Mission felt pretty uncomfortable, and so I wanted to know what my business could do to help. As a result of the Heart of the City visit, and their subsequent advice and encouragement, we built up a programme of support for Whitechapel which is now in its third year. Through our partnership, we provide funding, practical items such as clothing and toiletries, volunteers, creative input, business ideas and mentoring for the Mission team and its clients”.

“We always try and help our partner charities become more sustainable, and the Heart of the City programme is an excellent way of broadening the pool of receptive businesses to whom we (as a Mentor) can introduce our partner charities”

"Wiith the collective experience of the Heart of the City team and their members, we had access to a fantastic set of people and tools to use on every stage of our Community Engagement programme, a real A-Z of personalities and products for your CSR journey"

"Heart of the City provides encouragement and inspiration, AND an environment in which to share best practice and build relationships"

"Heart of the City has provided an invaluable forum in which to share experiences with other companies. Although our programme is relatively young, we’ve had opportunities to share ideas and details of our community engagement with other firms. Hearing of inspirational projects can spark a plethora of ideas"

"Instrumental to the successful launch of our community involvement programme. Starting with a blank sheet of paper is difficult and the HoTC workshops and case studies gave us a basic framework which we developed to suit our business. A year on, Heart of the City continues to be an extremely valuable resource that we can call upon for advice and ideas"