Our charitable giving 2024

Each year our employee-led charitable giving supports a diverse range of fantastic charities, both big and small.

In 2024 our donations helped 38 organisations working in areas ranging from international emergency relief, medical research and homelessness to the arts, local sports clubs, combating human trafficking and supporting those affected by stillbirth.

Commitment to giving back is a core part of our values and our culture of partnership. We spend most of our working life in Southwark, so it’s fitting that we have a special focus on supporting local charities.

Big and small

In response to the continuing conflicts in Ukraine, and in Gaza and the wider region, we continued to make donations from our Global Emergency Fund to major relief organisations, including the British Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.

At the other end of the spectrum there are plenty of smaller charities, some of them right on our doorstep, doing great work away from the limelight. For many of them, our donations can make a substantial difference. Having an employee-led approach to charitable giving helps widen our awareness of the charities that are out there and opens up the debate about where our donations should go.

Beyond finance

Many of our employees opted to use their paid volunteering allowance, and everyone pitched in for our six-monthly STEPS challenges (more on that later).

We engage with charities to understand the impact that our charitable giving can make, for example by inviting them to run teach-ins at our office. Our charitable giving also includes non-financial contributions, such as volunteering or sharing knowledge and skills that we use in our own day-to-day business.

Local impact

Based a short step from our office, The Manna Society is a day centre for homeless people providing year-round food, housing and welfare advice, clothing, and access to showers and computers.

Our relationship with Manna has deepened over the past year, with 26 Meridiem volunteers lending assistance over a period of 14 weeks to provide visitors to Manna with computer and internet access.

International reach

We have also been working closely with STOP THE TRAFFIK, a local charity with an international reach, on a mission to prevent human trafficking before it happens. The key motivation for human trafficking is financial gain, so disrupting traffickers’ ability to move money through the financial system strikes at the heart of their business. STOP THE TRAFFIK has developed a database of trafficking-related financial activities and operators, and an app to enable anyone to report suspected cases of modern slavery.

As an investment management firm, combating financial crime is an area where we have insight and can add a bit more value. Alongside our donations, we have been able to transfer some of our knowledge and skills to help the STOP THE TRAFFIK streamline its operations.

In STEPS

This year we held two firm-wide STEPS challenges, sparking (largely) healthy competition between our STEPS teams in a race to rack up the most steps. Their walking, running, cycling and other activities earned an amount per step of our corporate giving pot, with the leading teams nominating the charities of their choice. Clients visiting our offices also have the option to cast their votes.

Charities benefiting from this year’s STEPS challenges were C4WS Homelessness Project, Greenhouse Sports, The Manna Society, MS Society UK, Sands stillbirth and neonatal death charity, and STOP THE TRAFFIK.

Unleashing the power of cake

No round-up of our charitable efforts would be complete without an honourable mention for our annual bake-off. This ever-popular event harnesses Meridiem’s abiding love affair with cake in support of a good cause — in this case Macmillan Cancer Support.

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