Having now almost spent a year predominantly working remotely, like so many others, for everyone at FSP the shift to remote working saw us swap our suits, ties, jackets, blouses and dresses for the comfort of casual wear for much of our working time.
In better times as a firm we used to have occasional ‘dress down Fridays’ as one of our many charitable fund-raising activities. Instead of ‘dress down Friday’ we’ve decided Friday 26th March will be ‘Formal Friday’, we will be dusting off our best suit jackets, ironing dresses and polishing shoes and getting back into our smartest office wear for the day. The twist is that, rather than asking our staff to contribute to take part, instead the partners of FSP have agreed to donate £10 to the FSP Foundation for every person who participates – whether a member of FSP or anyone else who joins us (smartly dressed) on this date on a video call. The only limitation is that the donation has been capped at £10,000 – and we’d really like to get as close to that target as possible.
The FSP Foundation is a charity set up by FSP as a way of showing our commitment to contribute meaningfully to the wider community within which we as a firm operate. The FSP Foundation’s main objective is to provide financial support through donations made to deserving registered charities primarily established for the benefit of the Thames Valley community. At the suggestion of everyone in FSP, it focusses particularly in the areas of homelessness and poverty relief, mental health, children and young adults, and physical health and disability.
Since the beginning of lockdown last March, the FSP Foundation has been very proactive in supporting local charities, especially those working hard on the front-line providing Covid related services. Over the last couple of months the FSP Foundation has provided grants to assist in the funding of a charity helping the visually impaired who are most at risk of isolation in training them on how to use technology, and a local children’s hospice who provide regular 1:1 support for children with life limiting and life threatening conditions. The FSP Foundation committee members and trustees are very passionate about providing help where possible, especially in the current period when so many charities could really do with a helping hand.