CSR IS Our Business Strategy – Search Seven

At the end of July, Search Seven were named as winners of the CSR excellence awards at the Brighton & Hove Business Awards.

They were also finalists for Best Professional Services and MD and owner Gavin Willis was named as a finalist in the Businessperson of the Year category.

Search Seven was the ONLY company to be up for three awards on the night.

It may come as a surprise that at the start of 2018, they were only a team of three, and had big plans for a year of fundraising to try and hit an ambitious 17k target.

We have featured their #share7 charity campaign a few times before, so this time we wanted to hear a little more about why CSR is such an important part of their business strategy and what they have planned next?

Tell us why CSR is important to you?

The agency was built to make a difference. As such, and the inspiration behind the name, we pledge to give back up to 7% of our profits to charity through fundraising each and every year.

We place purpose above profit and spend a lot of time and effort organising and hosting engaging events that brings the community together to have fun and raise much needed funds for some great local charities.

We fully engage the search seven team in our charity events (we are now up to seven) to add that extra meaning in their work too, hence our slogan ‘digital marketing with meaning’.

We have significantly improved our benefits packages to improve the wellbeing of our team and are always looking at new ways to support the community.

Our events also provides an opportunity to strengthen relationships with clients and partners, and invite prospective clients and partners to get a feel for what Search Seven is about. This approach has meant that our purpose driven approach, including our charity events, has firmly become an integral part of our business strategy, showing that you can place purpose before profit and be successful.

Are there any other businesses that inspire you to make a difference?

I previously worked at Propellernet and their ethos is people first. They know that by investing a lot of time and energy in the team and making them happy, means they are more aligned to the business and are more passionate and driven to help the company be successful – by caring about their work and supporting their colleagues. This was a great lesson to see first-hand.

More recently, Gary Peters and his Love Local Jobs Foundation has really impressed me. With the addition of Jack ‘The Lad’ to the ‘Dare to Dream’ programme, with the aim of encouraging kids in schools to keep dreaming and to not give up, is incredibly inspiring.

Jack talks of his story of coming from a broken home and not doing well at school, both of which I can resonate with completely, and I would love to be able to collaborate with them on a project to give something back to the kids of Sussex and support the programme in some way.

What does winning the award mean for you and Search Seven?

 

GW – It means a lot to win the CSR excellence award – The work we are doing as a small company and the impact it is having, is incredible. To be recognised for our efforts is very humbling whilst extremely motivating at the same time. I love organising events and raising money for charity, and it’s become a trait that every new team member must adhere to as well. Our charity ethos is built into our DNA and something that makes us who we are, and helps us to stand out from the crowd in a crowded marketplace.

 

 

SBT – What’s next for Search Seven and your CSR efforts?

 

GW – this year we have had our charity golf day (raising £7,000) and at the end of November we will have our charity quiz night (Thursday 28th November at Tiki), and we are aiming to raise £10,000 in the year.

We also have several team building events we have entered this year, from race events to quizzes and banquets, even the i360 drop – and we are creating an S7 CSR committee (which every s7 team member is a part of) to ensure we keep planning more and more great events the we can either organise or get involved in.

In November 2021, this will mark 10 years for Search Seven, and we are making yet another ambitious fundraising target – this time setting a total target of raising £77,000 over the ten-year period. So please look out for our events in the next few years and be great to get more and more people involved.