Solihull based software business Phoebus Software Limited (PSL) donated £10,500 to charity last year with £7,500 going to Acorns Childrens’ Hospice.

The other £3,000 was donated to charity initiatives carried out by PSL’s clients including children’s charities My Shining Star and Winston’s Wish. The amount raised was more than five times the target set by its charity committee and the staff have already voted to support Acorns Children’s’ Hospice again in 2020.

Acorns is based in Selly Oak, Worcester and Walsall. It provides palliative nursing care and support for to babies, children and young people aged 0–18 years. All the children it looks after have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions and associated complex needs, and it provides tailored nursing care to each child with support for their families including short breaks, emergency and end of life care.

PSL staff voted for Acorns to be its charity of the year. In order to get its staff more engaged in its charity work, PSL leadership team invested in a charity committee at the beginning of last year. Six staff members were voted onto the committee and now devote time during work hours to focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and community. The PSL Charity Committee set a fundraising target of £2000 for 2019 but instead raised £5000, more than double the target.  PSL itself then added £2,500 to the amount raised by staff and contributed to a number of its client’s charities.

The charity initiatives organised by the committee aimed to involve as many staff as possible. They included charity football, the mentally and physically challenging Wolf Runs and 3 Peaks Challenge.

Wanting to ensure everyone can be involved, other less physical challenges have included Movember, pool and table-tennis competitions, fantasy football, sweepstakes for the rugby and grand national, a swap shop and a bake-off.

Other events have included:

• Five collections for local foodbank ‘Sparkhill’, including one around Diwali
• PSL giving staff more time to participate in charitable activities – e.g. days out of the office to participate in community gardening projects
• Company sponsorship and donations
• Company prize donation to numerous client charity raffles and auctions
• Staff volunteering time to teach coding skills to disadvantaged young people
• PAYE donations from staff who want to contribute to charity directly from their pay.

In addition to its local and national fundraising, PSL also supports charities across the world. This year will be the tenth year it has supported not-for-profit organisation Kiva. Kiva helps alleviate poverty by providing small loans to improve the working or living environment of people in the developing world.

Richard Pike, Phoebus Software Limited’s sales and marketing director, said: “Doing the right things in the right way is at the heart of what Phoebus is about. We have always taken our commitment to the community and to charity very seriously but the appointment of the PSL Charity Committee has really focussed our efforts.

“The committee have done an outstanding job over the past year and staff throughout our business have been fully engaged not only in raising money but also giving their time to help charities and those less fortunate than ourselves.”