Community investment

At Telefónica Europe we believe that companies who respond to the needs of communities are most likely to thrive and survive.

As a provider of mobile communications to consumers, businesses and the emergency services, we want to harness our services, skills and the active involvement of our employees to help others and to enrich lives.

We talk to and work with various charities and community bodies in the countries where we operate and we offer support, know-how and technology. Many of our employees are involved in mentoring and volunteering.
  
In 2006, our charity sponsorships and donations reached just under £2 million.

'At O2 we aim to live out our role in society as a responsible corporate citizen – by working in partnership with local communities, charities and international organisations to address social challenges.'

'Our policy is to make it easier for our people to bring their energy and enthusiasm to a range of projects by supporting their donations, fundraising and volunteering.'

'We make this commitment at the grass roots. Our operating companies have complete autonomy to play their part in society by responding to their own employees’ social concerns and the needs of the local community.' Richard Poston, Telefónica Europe Community Investment Champion.

We are very keen on projects that use mobile and other wireless solutions to address social concerns. But we also pick campaigns for their social value, rather than any commercial gain. We canvass our people to find out how and where they want us to invest in projects.

Our efforts focus on our Can Do in the Community programme, which we launched in 2002. This includes our employee Can Do Matching fundraising commitment and our Can Do Giving scheme.

We are proud of the strong community spirit at O2, and we are naturally drawn to causes in four main areas: Youth, Education, Health and the Environment. Separately, each of our operating businesses selects its own individual initiatives within this framework. We also encourage our people to contribute to a wide variety of public service commitments, in some cases providing paid time off.

Community involvement, we believe, can improve the lives of many people and support building O2’s reputation. We will continue to build partnerships with charitable and community organisations, both nationally and internationally.