Our community

We nurture long-term relationships with charities, public service providers and schools to identify their needs and align our skills and resources as lawyers and business professionals. We aim to reduce the pressure on our community partners and work collaboratively to organise successful volunteering days or use of our office space. Our regular activities include providing gifts and festive food hampers at Christmas for families who cannot afford them, reading with children at our local primary school and supporting the running of local groups.

We identify partnerships where we can join forces with other organisations within our region to make a greater impact. We believe that by truly collaborating, the corporate sector can make a positive difference. We are determined to make this a reality by exploring initiatives, connecting people and sharing our experiences.

Everyone who works at Cripps is given ‘be the difference days’. This is paid time off to allow us all to support causes that matter to us. The commitment we make to our people is to give them meaningful options enabling them to give back as a fundamental part of their working lives and well-being. We have also found that regular short volunteering enables charities to rely us for some on-going support that helps them plan ahead.

We believe we can make a bigger difference when we work together and commit for the longer term.

Our people choose an overarching cause for us to support over a three-year Community Investment Period. This gives us the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with organisations, better understand the issues affecting our communities and focus our time, skills and resources where they can have the greatest impact.

Prior to supporting an overarching cause, we selected charity partners annually, and these have included Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS), Demelza, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Myeloma UK, CLIC Sargent and Rethink Mental Illness.

Our current overarching cause is ‘Ending poverty and hunger’. Until the end of 2027, we are supporting organisations that provide emergency food and practical support, as well as those working to improve the social security system so people have the protection and dignity they need to cover life’s essentials.

Our support goes beyond fundraising. Our people contribute through volunteering, pro bono support, fundraising and other help-in-kind, and we match-fund the money they raise.

Our ambition is to give 2% of our profit to charity and community investment activities, helping charities and other purpose-driven organisations make a positive difference.

Read our latest Impact Report to find out more about what we have achieved and where we want to make a difference next.

Our current charity partners supported under our current overarching cause are as follows:

• Firmwide partner: Meals & More
• London local cause: Home-Start UK
• Tunbridge Wells local cause: Nourish Community Foodbank
• Horsham local cause: Horsham Matters

As a firm we are committed to having an impact through the sharing of our expertise. As lawyers we utilise our core legal skills and undertake legal work, on a pro bono basis, for causes that are important either to us as individuals or to the business. We support and encourage an ever increasing number of our people to make a difference by taking on roles as trustees and board members for purpose-driven enterprises.

We are committed to supporting our local Citizens Advice Bureau both financially and through pro bono advice, corporate support and membership on their board. We also have an on-going pro bono project with the charity Carers First. We take away the burden of form filling, to  help unpaid carers across the UK access the financial support they are entitled to and so need.