Building community capacity
bp is committed to supporting activities that strengthen the skills and abilities of people and community groups to take effective action in the development of their communities. This is part of making bp a trusted part of the local community
Employee volunteering
bp’s sites in the UK focus on key stakeholder relationships that support and enable bp’s presence in that local community. These relationships may include charities and other non-profit organisations, where the business is working with these organisations for a business rather than philanthropic purpose.
These relationships provide a foundation for a variety of employee volunteering activities related to a business need or context. In addition, employees can benefit from up to $5,000 per year of matched funding from the bp Foundation for individual volunteering with eligible organisations.
Youth development
bp employees work with young people through a range of programmes with local community partners as part of our Schools Link programme, with a particular focus on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This builds on the legacy of earlier work during bp’s sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Young Leaders Programme.
Charitable giving
In the UK, we do not make arbitrary charitable donations. However, we support charitable institutions through our Employee Matching Fund, administered by the bp Foundation.
The Employee Matching Fund supports charitable causes chosen by employees. Each employee can access up to US$5,000 (in total) per year of matched personal contributions, volunteer time and funds raised in sponsored pledge events. This encourages active fund raising and volunteering, as well as enabling employees to feel that bp values and rewards their energy, enthusiasm and time in working with charitable organisations and community groups. The Matching Team Time scheme of the Fund provides a further incentive for team volunteering.
UK communities benefited from just over $3.4 million in 2019 of employee contributions matched by the bp Foundation, and just under 51,600 hours were volunteered by UK-based employees.