Community engagement

In 2022 we asked of our colleagues to vote for an aligned charity partnership across the UK, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and Americas. We have established two-year partnerships with the selected charities and are funding localised programmes in further support of tomorrow’s generation.

We require all our strategic partners to outline project-specific objectives and to estimate the contribution of the project towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We do this so we can better understand how our contribution translates to support for sustainable outcomes for people and planet over time.

Throughout the year we receive updates from our partners, which we collate and report on annually. Impacts take time to measure, with our partnerships often being multi-year programmes that reflect the specific nature of a project. Our 2022 impact chart reflects the estimated contribution of 8 of our partnerships towards the SDGs. This is based on impact reports received as of 31 December 2022 related to approximately £1 million of funded projects.

Our partners self-report using a standard template and we aggregate these inputs to give an illustrative view of the SDG alignment of our contributions. We are therefore reliant on the accuracy of this reporting and the information should be treated as an approximate illustration of focus areas, and not as an absolute contribution.

Our Sustainability and TCFD report includes more detail, with project specific case studies for some of our strategic partners.

We encourage colleagues to be part of our local communities and to develop meaningful connections with our partners. Our policies enable this and include three days volunteering leave in the UK, and matched contributions up to £200 for fundraising ¹. Our volunteering policy is flexible and allows colleagues the opportunity to claim time back for volunteering done in their own time.

In 2022 our colleagues spent 2,800+ hours volunteering, and we illustrate how this time was spent in the related chart. Its important to note that the disclosing nature of volunteering time is a voluntary disclosure for colleagues; therefore, the disclosure rate is not 100% and is presented based on available information as of 31 December 2022.

Over time, we aim to increase the time that colleagues spend in our communities, and we engage directly with our charity partners to find opportunities for our people to make an impact. This is an important component of our giving strategy, and we see a clear alignment with our people and planet focus areas in how our colleagues choose to spend their time.

¹ As of 31 December 2022 our volunteering policy does not include colleagues in interactive investor, which joined the abrdn Group in 2022 with a separate benefits package.

We create powerful partnerships with the intention to support partner charities to deliver transformative impacts aligned to our strategy. We also look for opportunities to collaborate and support our partners beyond our financial contributions.