YMCA Achievement. Read more

Big Ideas. Read more

YMCA case study/strong

In the US we collaborate with many local chapters of the YMCA to support after-school enrichment, youth leadership and development, mentoring and tutoring programs for at-risk youth.

Experian’s donations of $30,000 to the Orange County YMCA and $25,000 to the Ashford Dunwoody (Atlanta) YMCA this year directly impacted thousands of children. By providing computer access, leadership activities and mentoring opportunities the YMCA programs help to improve homework, life skills and family relations. Increasing the number of after school clubs and activities gives children a greater sense of community, interpersonal and leadership skills. Experian will be taking a closer look at the possibility of partnering on a financial literacy and entrepreneurship education program at these centres in the future.

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Big ideas

Microfinance

  • We are in the early stages of developing a partnership with The World Bank and CGAP (The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor - a consortium of 33 development agencies that support microfinance) to research the market, develop skills and answer some key questions that will enable our business to tailor products to support micro-finance institutions in offering access to credit at more realistic rates and to wider audiences.

Financial education

  • Creditability: A computer-based game which aims to help raise awareness of credit-related issues among 14 to 16-year-old children. It was developed by our Consumer education team with input from the target audience, has been tested with excellent results and is now ready to be launched in the UK. We also have an option to make the game available in other countries where Experian has a consumer credit bureau.

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Project focus

One strand of our CR strategy states that we will focus our community programme on projects that help improve financial management skills and encourage entrepreneurship, especially among disadvantaged communities.

We already support projects that have this focus to a certain extent, for example, in the UK we support Young Enterprise: company volunteers support young people of school age in setting up a business and trading for a specific period. A national competition rewards the best for their business acumen and entrepreneurial potential. In the US we collaborate with many local chapters of the YMCA to support after-school enrichment, youth leadership and development, mentoring and tutoring programs for at-risk youth. And in Brazil we are involved in an award scheme that stimulates academic discussion among undergraduate and postgraduate students on social responsibility and sustainable business known as ‘The Future Managers’ award.

In future we will look at how we can both improve and build on projects we already engage with but also uncover innovative new partnerships where our skills in financial education and awareness and supporting developing businesses can be used to the full. Our Group funds will support this focus while local, regional funds can be spent on projects of a more diverse nature that encourage employee engagement.

The second strand of our strategy looks at how we intend to create some ‘Big ideas’ and use CR to help us infuse the business with a spirit of creativity and enthusiasm for causes of social importance. Already funds of over $450,000 are being channelled into two potential projects which will be further developed during 2008 and 2009.