Susie
Nicholas

Q&A with Susie

How do you support the Beaverbrooks family to get involved with charitable activities?

“There’s three of us in our Charity Team and really our role here is to support all our colleagues across the business in a whole manner of ways - and they do get involved in so many things.

So, we look after things like our Payroll Giving scheme, which allows our people to choose which charities to donate to every month. We’ll work with people on volunteering opportunities, fundraising events – a whole raft of different things that our people do. We also match the funding raised by our people, meaning we’ll donate the same amount they’ve raised during fundraising events. This helps to encourage members of our Beaverbrooks family to take part in fundraising activities, as well as raising more funds for the charities of their choice.

Our role here is to really support our people, whether that’s by helping them to find a charity they feel passionate about, or helping them find a way to give back that works for them.

Then personally, another part of my role is to work very closely with the charities directly and maintaining relationships with the 500+ charities we support each year."

Where did your passion for enriching lives come from and what does it mean to you?

“I started my career working within HR and it developed when we were getting more involved as a business with our charity work, and somehow I ended up with this fabulous role that I’ve got! It means the world to me and it’s lovely to be able to come and do a job each day that makes such a difference to other people.""

Can you explain a bit about how charity supports not only our Beaverbrooks family, but wider communities too?

“I think what’s very special about Beaverbrooks is the fact that we support so many charities, so we support well over 500 charities each year. This means we can choose to support charities and causes close to our colleagues’ hearts. I think, as well, it enables us to support communities throughout the UK, and our people just love getting involved with things that they care so passionately about."

What is your favourite thing about your incredible role as Charity Manager & Trustee of our Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust?

“I love my job and my role as a Trustee because it does a lot for me personally but also it enables me to support so many fantastic charities and a lot of charities that are close to our colleagues’ hearts."

Tell us about your proudest moment within Beaverbrooks.

“I feel very fortunate that I get to witness and see first-hand how the charities benefit from Beaverbrooks’ support, along with what our colleagues benefit from being involved as well. So, I feel like I’m very proud of myself and everybody within the business.

I would say my personal proudest moment would be being made a trustee of The Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust in 2015, I felt like that was a really special moment for me."

What advice would you give someone who is starting their journey to do more for charities?

My advice for anyone looking to get involved with charity is to choose something you feel really passionate about, something that means a lot to you as an individual. I would just get on and do it, and think your focus is to do some good!