Active citizenship
Pearson people are active citizens of any community we operate in, and keen partners of other organisations also wishing to engage in activity to promote access to education and literacy. Across the company, we focus our charitable giving and activities on improving teacher quality and education leadership, and in support of literacy and youth engagement projects around the world.
We get involved not only through the products and services each of our businesses provide, but also through our charitable arm, the Pearson Foundation. In 2009, Pearson's charitable giving totalled £10.5m through the Foundation and our businesses (2008: £7.7m). Many of our businesses work regularly with local partners, forging good links with the neighbourhood to achieve common goals. We also provide in-kind support such as books, advertising space and publishing expertise, as well as opportunities for staff to support their personal choice of charities through payroll giving schemes. Pearson people have proved to be fiercely devoted to volunteering their time and skills for free, and we support their efforts wherever we can through matched fundraising and volunteer programmes that encourage our people to give their time to community initiatives during the working day.
Fast fact:
Penguin Group staff fundraising
Penguin Group UK staff raised more than £66,000 in 2009 (not including company matched funds), benefiting charitable groups for health (£21,000), social welfare (£15,000), education (£4,300), the arts and emergency relief. Penguin Group International staff raised more than $122,000 (US) in 2009 (not including company matched funds).