Goings on at Softwire, technical and otherwise

“Software development” and “charity” aren’t usually two phrases you hear combined, so you might be surprised to hear that here at Softwire we have a Softwire Charity Scheme to make sure that we’re doing our part. In fact, we’re so active in our charity work we even have a specific post to co-ordinate our efforts, that of Charity Officer. The current incumbent is Ed Smith (below).

The Charity Officer looks after the Charity Budget, a yearly allocated sum that Softwire are prepared to spend on good deeds. Each Softwire employee can organise a charitable event, and match up to £500 raised from the Charity Budget. We also offer matched time off for charitable work, so if you take a week’s holiday to go and teach in Africa, Softwire will give you another week off so you can stay for two.

The Charity Officer organises charity contributions for company-wide events, such as our annual company birthday party (which is worthy of a blog post of its own) and Oxstock where we all take to the stage for Everychild. And finally, he has to ensure that any unused resources (e.g. old PCs etc) are donated to charity where possible.

The great thing about the Charity Scheme is that in addition to supporting our employees who are doing good deeds, it’s prompted lots of great charity events that wouldn’t have taken place otherwise. Such as when four of us agreed to go parachute jumping for Interact Worldwide.