Employee volunteering

Community Champions
Yell is committed to supporting and encouraging people who get involved in fundraising for local causes. This year, Yell Group contributed more than £675,000 to the communities in which it operates through cash, time and in-kind support. In Yell UK we have a network of ‘Community Champions’ – volunteers based at offices across the UK who arrange support for local charities through fundraising and in-kind support. By adopting this approach, we are able to support local communities as well as our national charity partner, the Woodland Trust.

Supporting national charities
Since 2008, we have match-funded any money raised for Marie Curie Cancer Care by our people which supports our Community Champions network and gives our people the opportunity to raise money in any way they want. We continue to support the Woodland Trust through the Yellow Woods Challenge and increasingly through the fundraising efforts of Yell UK people.

In September 2010, Yell UK entered into a partnership with Red Balloon – a unique charity providing vital alternative full-time education for youngsters who have been so severely bullied in school that they drop out of mainstream education. Yell is setting up a new Red Balloon Learner Centre in Reading.

We run a payroll-giving scheme in the UK called Give as You Earn. Last year, Yell UK people donated more than £45,000 through their salaries, to charities of their choice. Yell covers the cost of administering the programme.

In June 2009, a team of 13 people from Yell UK joined together with one aim – to raise at least £20,000 for The Prince’s Trust as part of its ‘Million Makers’ challenge before the end of January 2010. They held a number of events across the eight months including quiz nights, a Christmas market, a wine tasting evening, a stall at Reading festival, and a black tie ball. The team far exceeded its target, raising more than £90,000 and were the London and South East Regional Winners.

In the US we continue to support United Way, a national charity which aims to improve people’s lives by supporting volunteers involved in health and education. A US-wide campaign organised by a committee of Yellowbook people raised more than $267,000.

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, our people in Yell Publicidad donated €9,926 to The Red Cross for the relief efforts and Yell Publicidad matched this amount. In addition, we donated advertising space to The Red Cross and UNICEF on www.paginasamarillas.es.

Local initiatives
In March 2010, 85 Yell UK volunteers manned the phones at our Reading call centre to take donations for Sport Relief. We have manned a call centre for Comic Relief since 1993 and for Sport Relief since 2008.

Our Yell UK head office has been based in Reading for 26 years and we have sponsored the Reading Schools Athletics League for 24 years – thought to be the longest sponsorship agreement in schools athletics in the UK.

In 2009, Yell Publicidad people donated €10,000 to Aldeas Infantiles SOS Espana to assist them with projects supporting human development. The charity offers care for children who have lost their parents or who have been estranged from their families. As part of the Builders of the Future campaign, Yell Publicidad supports a children’s village in Mar de Plata in Argentina. The village consists of ten family houses, a training centre, a play area, and sports centre and a kindergarten which cares for 100 children from the village and surrounding areas.