Smarter Giving Generosity In The Quarter

We had so many incredible donations made as part of our Smarter Giving programme back in December, with members donating food, toys, rucksacks for children and even Christmas dinners, as well as many generous financial donations going towards some wonderful local causes. We’ve rounded up the stories from our Smarter Giving campaign below, and if it inspires you then please get in touch.

One of our Baker Street Quarter members, Chancerygate, generously donated their Christmas party dinners to The Marylebone Project, providing 32 three-course meals to the women who use the service, after Kate our Smarter Giving Manager linked them up. The Marylebone Project is an amazing local charity that provides a life-changing service for homeless women. Within The Marylebone Project’s safe environment women rebuild trust, learn to re-engage with society and through empowerment start to re-build their lives through their all-encompassing service provision. The Christmas meals went down a treat with the women of The Marylebone Project, and we were so pleased to have been able to facilitate this incredible donation which also helped support the hospitality industry during an incredibly difficult time in the run-up to Christmas.

Appeals were made for donations to help support newly arrived Afghan refugees in Westminster, and the Quarter’s businesses didn’t disappoint. Many of the refugees were children, who started school in the area in the autumn. To help them settle in with educational supplies, we put a call out to businesses for donations of backpacks, pencil cases, pens, pencils and notepads. Thanks to businesses Aspect Capital, 35 Portman Square, Nobu Hotel London Portman Square and Serica Energy, over 100 backpacks were donated for school-age children, a fantastic result that has helped the children to settle into their new schools.

We had a fantastic response to our annual Christmas Smarter Giving toy and food drives, with businesses donating over 340 toys for local nurseries, 60 gifts for local elderly residents and over 40 food parcels. Our thanks go to the businesses that took part in these Christmas drives: Pimco, 40 Portman Square, Streathers Solicitors, Howard de Walden Estate, BNP Paribas, Colliers, Revcap, Fortius Clinic and Poten.

Our popular annual Christmas raffle and our Marylebone Winter Garden workshops raised over £1,500 for Marylebone FoodCycle. Thanks to the businesses that donated prizes including Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill, Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, Home House, Chiltern Firehouse, Holmes Hotel, Knight Frank, Colliers, Chiltern Street Deli, Aspect Capital, BDO, Derwent London and The Portman Estate, with cash donations from Bridgepoint and Brevan Howard.

Is your business looking for new ways to give back to the local community in 2022? Head to our Smarter Giving page to find out more, or email Kate on smartergiving@bakerstreetq.co.uk.