We want to be involved in our local communities and to contribute to their development and sustainability.
We try to make sure the projects we support are really useful - to the communities themselves, and to O2.
Our community investment programme - Can Do in the Community - supports charities and creates the link with the social, environmental and ethical responsibilities we face.
We encourage employee involvement through our Can Do Matching and Can Do Giving schemes and local programmes of volunteering.
The O2 businesses each select their own charity partnerships. We realise that employees want to see our schemes make a difference in the areas local to where they work and live.
Since Telefónica's acquisition of O2 in January 2006, we have identified some shared interests and focus areas with other parts of the Telefónica Group. Telefónica O2 Czech Republic is also being integrated with our community reporting processes.
There is a strong community spirit across all our business. We aim to enable active involvement from O2 people at all levels, and we recognise exceptional commitment in the annual O2 Community Awards.
We use an online data-management tool, which notes cash and in-kind donations as well as paid hours from employee volunteering across the whole Group. We adhere to the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) model for the measurement of our corporate community investment.
In 2006, our total cash donations for Telefonica O2 Europe was £1,642,242 (February to December 2006). The total value of our in-kind donations was £85,748, and the total time in paid hours was £226,220 (employee volunteers measured in paid hours at the value of £20 per employee, per hour).
In line with the LBG community investment measurement model, 84 per cent of our contributions are regarded as cash, 4 per cent as in-kind donations and 12 per cent as employee time.
Our community investment is also tracked through a grant-monitoring system, which shows us how our contributions are benefiting charitable organisations and their causes.
The system provides a third-party assessment of community projects, allowing us to understand how our relationships with charities are evolving. This year, we concentrated on major projects valued at £10,000 or more, and surveyed a number of charities, including Weston Spirit and Schola-21.
Every quarter we report our community investment activity through the Corporate Responsibility Forum to the recently established Governance Board Committee. The Telefónica O2 Europe Board is briefed on community investment activities every six months.
1 February - December 2006. Excluding Telefónica O2 Czech Republic and Telefónica Deutschland.
1 February - December 2006. Excluding Telefónica O2 Czech Republic and Telefónica Deutschland.
