The currency blog

2010 has come to an end, and with it the list of charities that we had previously voted to support through our CSR contributions in the UK office - final amounts will follow in a separate blog, so keep your eyes peeled!

CSR contributions are made by the employees of Currencies Direct, and so it is only fair that the charities that we support are chosen democratically by the employees! I asked for the names of any charities that are close to peoples heart and we had a great response meaning a voting sheet containing 30 different charities! As always there were a variety of different causes ranging from animal welfare, to sickness to overseas charities all of them worthy of a vote - but which were your favourite 9 charities? Below I have put the winning charities, the amount of votes they received and the month in 2011 that we we will be raising funds for them!

January/February

Gaura International 171
Spinal Research 76
Richard House Children’s Hospice 127

March/April

Happy Africa Foundation 83
Cystic Fibrosis Trust 72
Concern Worldwide 57

May/June

Salaam Balak Trust 68
National Animal Welfare 50
Tommy’s 64

A big thank you to everyone that took the time to vote. Here’s to another year of CSR Donations!!

Well, November is now over - or should I say Movember!!

Which means the gentlemen of Currencies Direct have packed away their face grooming equipment, dusted off their razors and are now clean shaven!! NOT before I got to photograph them all though, so please enjoy the delightful MO’s that the boys have grown!!

There is still time to sponsor the boys via the link below:

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/726228/

At the moment, they have raised a very impressive £698 for Prostate Cancer and the Everyman Institute of Cancer Research.

Well done to everyone that took part, and to those that put their hands in their pockets and sponsored the hairy volunteers!

The past two months have sped past and now that the nights are getting longer we are well and truly on the sparkly road to Christmas!!

Watch this space for more information on the fun activities and fundraising plans that we have for the festive season!

But how much did we raise over the past 2 months?

Bobby Moore Fund £187.00
Amnesty International £127.20
Centre 56 £133.20

This means that we have a new wall total of £6790. Well done everyone for your contributions over the past few weeks!

For the months of November and December we will be collecting for:

Anti-Slavery
Ndoro Children’s Charities
Food For Life - Vrindavan

Also we have the Currencies Direct Mo Bros Team who are growing moustaches for Movember and raising funds for Prostate Cancer. All donations welcome through the link:

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/726228/

That’s all for now - thank you for reading!!

Sara

A few of the gentlemen of Currencies Direct have decided to set up a team for Movember. This is an initiative where gentlemen grow a moustache or ‘mo’ for the month of November - hence Movember! All proceeds from Movember go towards Prostate Cancer and the Everyman Institute of Cancer Research.

The brave and plucky volunteers are below. These are the ‘before’ photographs! And I must say that some gentlemen have a clear advantage over the others and I will be expecting great facial hair achievements from them!!

The Before Photos!!

You can find out more about Movember and about sponsoring individuals in the Currencies Direct Mo Bros Team or sponsoring the team as a whole by copying the link below into internet explorer.

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/726228/

Please get behind the team with some sponsorship money for a great charity, and watch this space for more information (and photographs) of the teams progress!

Thank you for reading!

Sara

Well summer has come and gone, and despite the dip in attendance in the office due to holidays we have managed to raise the princely sum of £381.80 during July and August. This is a great achievement as we haven’t had any additional activities, this is just good honest donating on Dress Down Friday!

So how did each of the charities do?

Marie Curie Cancer Care - £184.60
Wilderness Africa Trust - £106.00
Right To Play - £91.20

Marie Curie Cancer Care then was the favourite charity this time in the office and I do think that was partly due to the fantastic talk that we were treated to by Jane Shufflebotham who took the time to come to the office and tell us more about the good work that Marie Curie Cancer Care do! A big thank you to Jane and to Marie Curie, and watch this space as I hope to be arranging some more fundraising activities over the coming months to help their cause!

So, who are we supporting over the next two months?

Bobby Moore Fund
Amnesty International
Centre 56

There is more information about each of these charities on our co-operative wall in the office, which has now been updated so please do take the time to stop and have a look.

As always, don’t be shy in coming forward with any fundraising activity ideas and happy Dress Down Friday!

It’s been a while since I updated the co-operative wall, but the new structure that we are moving to of supporting 3 charities for 2 months at a time, does mean that we are giving more money to every cause that we support.

So over the period we had the usual Dress Down Fridays, a Dress Down for England and also a sweepstake on the outcome of the World Cup. There are just 4 runners left in the sweep which are:

Mayank Patel - Uruguay
Anthony Colocasidou - Spain
Imran Khan - Holland
Sam Blaney - Germany

So, how much money did we raise for each charity:

Face The Future - £157.05
David Shepherd Foundation - £107.85
Smile Foundation - £113.65

So Face The Future proved to be your favourite charity of the two months, but I have to say that we have raised a healthy amount for each of these causes and the co-operative wall total has been pushed up to a whooping £5961!

Well done to everyone that helped us to reach that total, as always please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any suggestions for fundraising ideas!

Thank you for Reading!

Sara