Findel launches foundation to give £200,000 a year to support children’s education, wellbeing and environment causes in the UK

Educational resources supplier Findel has launched a long-term initiative to provide ongoing support to a range of children’s education, wellbeing and environment causes throughout the UK.

Called the Findel Foundation, its ambition is to give back more than £200,000 per year and has started by making volunteering support, donations and funding available of £100,000 this year. In addition, the company will invest its people’s time spent running the Findel Foundation.

The Foundation comprises of six pillars. The first is ‘charities’ where fundraising will take place for a nominated annual charity which is due to be announced in the first quarter of 2023. Additional donations to other charities will be given by the Foundation where a demonstrable benefit to children and their education is identified.

The second is ‘breakfast clubs’ where the Foundation will build on its work with the Greggs Breakfast Club Programme to create additional breakfast clubs for more than 500 children a year at schools located throughout the UK.

Thirdly, there is the ‘Findel Forest’ initiative which will see the Foundation involved in the planting of trees to reduce the carbon footprint of Findel’s people and customers.

The fourth pillar is ‘volunteering’ with the goal of more than 30 per cent of Findel’s employees volunteering on projects that will positively contribute to the education of children and benefit the environment.

The fifth is ‘careers’ where the Foundation will aim to provide experiences of work to more than 300 children over the next three years.

The sixth pillar is called ‘Leading Positive Change’ and relates to the Foundation actively supporting Findel’s customers, schools and nurseries to become more sustainable.

Commenting on the launch of the Findel Foundation, Chris Mahady, Findel’s chief executive, said:

“As a business that cares, we are totally committed to doing good things for education, the environment, the community and each other.

“We have created the Findel Foundation to lead positive change in the educational supplies sector. It is solely focused on positively impacting children and their education because that’s what motivates and inspires our people and customers every day.

“The Foundation and its six pillars are an important part of our environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy. Our Foundation team have done an extraordinary job taking it from concept to reality and we are excited to now launch and start delivering against our ambitions for it.”

Findel’s origins as an educational resources supplier can be traced back to 1817. Today, its brands and websites offer more than 32,000 products to educators and parents based in the UK and overseas with the business exporting to 130 countries.

Headquartered in Hyde, Greater Manchester, Findel also has a distribution centre and offices in Nottingham and employs around 300 people.

Findel is backed by Leeds-headquartered private equity firm Endless, which supported a management buy-out in April 2021.

In January this year, the company announced it had rebranded and introduced a new brand positioning line of ‘Growing education for generations’ which reflects the company’s heritage and future evolution. Findel’s brands comprise Hope, GLS, Davies Sports, Philip Harris and Scandibørn.