BID Updates - Charity - Press Releases - Supporting

RSM raises over £19,000 for TAP for Bristol through its workplace charity activity

The Bristol branch of the national firm has raised the significant sum in just six months.

29/01/2024

BID Lead
Paula Ratcliffe
Email Paula Ratcliffe

In September 2019, Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) launched TAP for Bristol in partnership with local homeless support charity, Caring in Bristol, with the aim to make Bristol the city that solves homelessness. In 2023, Redcliffe & Temple BID also became a supporter of the initiative, already having seven contactless donation points in their BID area and the first business to choose TAP as their workplace charity.

In April 2023, RSM UK’s Bristol office confirmed that they would fundraise for TAP for Bristol and over the next six months, the audit, tax and consulting firm raised £13,550 through office-wide initiatives, getting people involved in the opportunity to raise money for the cause.

The RSM team took part in the Bristol Half Marathon in May 2023 and other initiatives such as a wine tasting event, sports tournaments, and afternoon tea hosted in their office, all of which raised over £13,000 for the charity.

RSM Bristol was part of the RSM Together initiative that gave employees the opportunity to give back locally. The offices that raised the most money were awarded a bonus from the RSM UK Foundation to add to their fundraising total. This brought the fundraising total to an incredible £19,418.53 raised for TAP for Bristol.

RSM also hosted a nationwide competition, with each of the firm’s branches choosing their own charity. Bristol came within the Top 10 of the charities chosen which meant that they received an additional £6,000 donation from the company to go towards TAP, taking their already fantastic total, up to an incredible £19,418.53.

Now, Bristol Aquarium has allocated TAP as their work based charity, with work beginning in January 2024. A contactless unit has been installed next to the building’s main till point, to allow visitors to the attraction to more easily donate to the charity and the team will be doing their own fundraising and events to increase the donations even further.

Bristol City Centre BID is inviting applications from local charities for funding emergency homelessness projects. A £10,000 grant is available for projects thanks to the work carried out by RSM.

Vicky Lee, Head of Bristol City Centre BID, said:

“Support from organisations in Bristol is essential to the future of TAP for Bristol. Donations such as the £19,000+ from RSM, alongside the continued support from Redcliffe & Temple BID open up further opportunities for the charity, so that we can continue to tackle the ongoing issue of homelessness in Bristol’s city centre and beyond.”

Steve Bluff, Head of Redcliffe & Temple BID, said:

“Getting behind TAP for Bristol was important to us, as we want to tackle the issue of homelessness in Bristol head on and extend the work that TAP has funded into a broader area. The work that RSM has done, and the work that will be done by Bristol Aquarium, is invaluable in supporting people in the area who are experiencing homelessness, and we hope more businesses in the BID areas will come forward to help the initiative, by nominating TAP in their workplace for 2024.”

Michelle Williamson of RSM Bristol, said:

“We selected TAP For Bristol in 2023 as the issue of homelessness becomes ever more prevalent. Being able to involve employees to undertake various challenges locally was a great way of bringing the team together to work towards a common, charitable goal.”

Sunny Hubbard, General Manager of Bristol Aquarium, said:

“We have allocated TAP as our workplace charity for 2024 to help tackle homelessness in Bristol, an issue we feel passionately about. We hope through our initiatives such as a bouncy castle donation drive and a hot drink scheme where visitors will be encouraged to donate the cost of their hot drink to TAP, we can help raise money to provide essential emergency funding to those experiencing homelessness in the city. Our fundraising goal for the year is £1000.”

TAP for Bristol contactless donation points, are located in the windows of businesses and on counter-tops of various businesses across the city centre, enabling anyone to make a quick and secure donation of £3 by card or mobile. To find out where your nearest TAP point is go to the TAP Map on tapforbristol.org or if you would like further information on nominating TAP For Bristol as your workplace charity, please get in touch.

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All funds raised are managed by Quartet Community Foundation with 100% of donations going to local charities supporting both homelessness prevention and crisis projects. Recent charity recipients have been Next Link Housing and Caring in Bristol’s Z House project. To apply for a grant to fund a local charity tackling homelessness, please contact Luke from Quartet Community Foundation.

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