Marketing team volunteering day

At PKF Francis Clark, we are all given a volunteering day each year – time set aside to support local communities, charities or the environment. It’s an important part of how we live our ESG commitments and our responsibilities as a Certified B Corporation™.

This year, the business development and marketing team decided to use that time in a way that played directly to our strengths.

Rather than traditional volunteering, we spent the day using our skills and experience to support one of our charity clients, Go Beyond – applying what we do every day to help a cause doing incredible work.

Using our expertise to support a charity we believe in

Go Beyond provides free residential breaks for children and young people facing serious challenges in their lives. Their impact is powerful but like many charities, they’re working hard with limited time, budget and resource.

Sara Shearman, director of fundraising and communications at Go Beyond, asked us to focus on two specific priorities:

1. Raising awareness of Go Beyond, particularly following their rebrand from their former name, ‘CHICKS’
2. Improving legacy giving, helping supporters understand and feel confident about leaving a gift in their will

We split into groups and treated the day like a focused strategy session but one with a very different purpose.

For the team, this was the first time we’d worked together on a dedicated ESG initiative, stepping away from deadlines, client emails and meetings and focusing collectively on supporting another organisation. That change of pace made a real difference.

A fresh perspective and space to think differently

The day was full of open discussion, analysis and creative thinking. We looked at Go Beyond’s brand, website, campaigns and messaging through the eyes of new audiences – especially people who may never have heard of CHICKS and are encountering Go Beyond for the first time.

We also spent time unpacking legacy giving. It’s a sensitive and personal topic, so our focus was on how Go Beyond could approach it in a way that feels reassuring, human and emotionally grounded – using storytelling, clarity and real-life impact rather than complex language or process-heavy explanations.

The ideas that came out of the session were practical and realistic, shaped by the realities charities face. They included ways to strengthen storytelling and accessibility, creative awareness campaigns, and fresh approaches to legacy messaging that connect gifts in wills to moments and memories created for children.

ESG and B Corp values in action

As a B Corp, we’re committed to doing business responsibly and contributing positively to society. Skills-based volunteering is an important part of that. It allows our people to give something meaningful, while providing charities with access to professional expertise they might not otherwise have.

For Go Beyond, the day offered an opportunity to tap into a collective marketing skillset, challenge thinking and gain a fresh external perspective on their work and priorities.

Something we’ll build on

We brought the day together by producing a clear, structured set of recommendations, which were later shared with the Go Beyond team. Many of the ideas were deliberately low-cost and designed to be flexible, providing options rather than a fixed plan.

Just as importantly, the experience brought our own team closer together. Working collaboratively on an ESG initiative, away from the usual commercial environment, sparked new energy, different conversations and a strong sense of shared purpose.

Using our volunteering day in this way felt like a natural fit. It aligned with our values as a firm, our commitment to ESG and our belief that professional expertise can be a powerful force for good when it’s shared.