Our communities are at the heart of what we do...
We continue supporting local charities, events and organisations which contribute to the quality of life in the communities we serve. We’ve come a long way since our inception in 1953 and we continue to maintain our traditional values as we look to the future.
Our CSR programme continues to have two primary purposes and ensures we respond to our communities needs in ways that matter to them the most.
Firstly, by demonstrating our core best practice behaviours as a Building Society:
- Ensuring our commitment to providing responsible financial services
- Serving our customers with honesty and integrity
- Recognising our employees’ contributions and their part in our success
- Striving to optimise benefits for our Members
Secondly, to ensure we have an ongoing commitment to the local communities in and around where we operate.
We take great pride in the work we do in the local communities, our volunteering for local charities and also the fundraising our colleagues do for causes close to their heart. Take a look below at some of the work we have recently done within our local communities.
You can view our 2024 community stories here. Or you can view our 2025 stories below.
The Lea Primary School colour run
On Friday 16th May, I attended the Lea Primary School colour run. This was an event where Harpenden Building Society provided a £400 sponsorship, for which the school were hugely grateful for.
It was the school’s first ever colour run and from the get-go you could see how excited the kids were.
Over 130 children took part. With music blaring and the sun shining, each year group took turns to do two laps of the school field. There were various colour and water stations en route where volunteers were ready to cover the kids with colourful paint and water.
My job for the afternoon was to be at the start finish line to throw paint over the children as they did their first lap and then hand out medals for when they finished their second. Thankfully all wore goggles as some were absolutely covered head to toe in paint.
After the children, it was then roles reversed as willing parents ran two laps of the field whilst getting targeted by the paint stations.
The event was a huge success, and it was great to see so many children and parents enjoying themselves. The school managed to raise an just over £1,600 from the Colour Run alone, an incredible amount. This will go a long way towards much-needed school projects, including the resurfacing of the KS1 Playground.
Elliot Ashby - Marketing Executive
Careers fair
In March, I was delighted to be able to attend my son’s secondary school for a careers fair. This gave me the opportunity to promote our Society as well as the Financial Services Industry amongst the younger generation. I felt privileged to be there, and talk to so many students, of a variety of ages, about all things careers within the industry. It was insightful for me, as much as it was for the students.
I received very positive feedback from the school, the students and even my son! I was able to do this using one of my paid volunteering days all society employees benefit from and I feel this was time very well spent.
Gemma Fient - Director of Operations
Open Door
Across two days in March, colleagues from our Operations and Commercial teams visited Open Door in Berkhamsted, a community garden and café, to visit the amazing volunteers, learn more about the positive impact they are having on the local community and get stuck into some gardening!
This was a great opportunity for our colleagues to spend time with the volunteers and see first-hand the hard work that goes into creating and upholding this strong community space. Our teams were put to good use and the volunteers were hugely grateful for all our efforts throughout both days.
Open Door is a community centre where the goal is to help tackle social inequality and isolation by creating a space where everyone is welcome to connect and contribute, for their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of the wider community. There is a café on site where all members of the community are encouraged to meet friends (new and old!). Our colleagues got the chance to sample the tea and cake within the café during their wellearned lunch break.
There is also a community pantry open 24/7 encouraging the community to “take what they need and leave what they can”, a great initiative especially during the ongoing cost of living crisis.
The Open Door ‘Wellbeing through Food’ project focuses on promoting social connections through food and the benefits that cooking, sharing and appreciating food can bring to wellbeing, often using produce directly from the community garden!
Last year, Harpenden Building Society donated £7,200 to Open Door. It has been amazing to support this positive influence on our wider community. The opportunity to visit the centre and meet and thank the volunteers was fantastic. We look forward to visiting again soon!
Open Door's Website: https://www.opendoorberkhamsted.co.uk/
Charity of the year
This year we have selected Keech Hospice as our charity of the year.
Keech provide free specialist end-of-life hospice care for people of all ages. Caring and supporting adults across Bedfordshire and children and their families across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Milton Keynes with life-limiting conditions. At home, in hospice, or wherever we’re needed.(For more information, please click the attached link https://keech.org.uk/)
View more about our colleague support for Keech so far in 2025 here.
Youth Talk
Youth Talk are a St Albans based charity that provides confidential counselling/ psychotherapy to 13-25 year-olds who live, work and/ or attend school/college in the District of St Albans and surrounding areas.
We have a multi-year commitment with them which allows Youth Talk to provide free counselling, both digitally and in person, to young people with mental health issues. We have also worked with Youth Talk during Mental Health Awareness Week this year. Helping raise awareness of this years topic of 'Anxiety' with fellow colleagues. Youth Talk do incredible work and we are delighted to be able to provide continued support.
You can visit their website by clicking here.
