This year has been exceptionally challenging for The Conservation Volunteers versus how we have traditionally worked with many of our corporate partners such as NatWest, intu, Sky, PwC and Wates – but to name a few.
For a charity committed to connecting people and green spaces, the impact of COVID-19 such as the lockdown and social distancing have unsurprisingly proved a real challenge to being able to work in close proximity to 1000’s of people on our community projects.
Usually by this time of the year we would have been delighted to host around 5,000 of our corporate partner employees, volunteering at TCV projects across the UK; laying paths, building fences, creating wildlife habitats, the list of work and tasks they would usually support goes on and on.
This summer our incredible partners at Wates Group would have been in full swing with no end of fundraising activity taking place across the country – not least a very ambitious water-based challenge that is now on hold, perhaps signalling what could be an even bigger and better fundraising year in 2021?
Since the start of COVID-19 and the suspension of our volunteering activities, TCV have been overwhelmed by just how supportive our corporate partners have been at a time when they, like all of us, are facing their own unique challenges.
Dialogue and communication has continued to be open and positive as we explore how we can kick start our volunteering activity, resume fundraising challenges and plan new ways of working together, such as virtual volunteering – more to follow on that one!
There is going to be lots of exciting news to share in the months ahead, all of which will continue to help TCV to connect people and green spaces, because as we transition into the easing of lockdown measures, we know there will be more demand than ever for TCV to support our local communities.
Many new ideas, projects and commitments are in the final planning stages, but one huge piece of brilliant news is confirmation from OVO Energy of 370,000 free trees for this the 2020 I Dig Trees programme.
This incredible pledge brings the total number of new trees in the UK through I Dig Trees to almost 1.5 million in the past 6 years.
While the past 6 months has undoubtedly been a struggle, we are looking forward and we do feel extremely positive for the rest of 2020, with big plans for 2021.