At the start of the year we launched The Ghyston Foundation and made an exciting new commitment to donate 10% of profits each year going forward. This year was also our first time selecting two charities of the year – a “community partner” and a “mission partner” – in a model we will continue from now on. This allowed us to realise two key focuses of the Foundation: supporting our local community in Bristol and improving equality and sustainability in the tech sector.
Our community partner this year was Bristol North West Foodbank. As the cost of living crisis continues, foodbanks are sadly in high demand, and we were honoured to be able to work with one of several local foodbanks over the course of the year. We set up a collection point in the office to take food donations from employees, which was also topped up weekly with some items added onto our usual office “lard” order.
A couple of employees organised sweepstakes to raise additional funds for the foodbank, following the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, and in December a team from Ghyston headed to the foodbank to help pack Christmas hampers for families in need.
Our mission partner this year was Codebar Bristol, the local chapter of an international charity that empowers under-represented groups to get into software development. Among other things, they host monthly workshops where “students” pair up with experienced developers for help working towards their coding goals. In February we hosted a workshop at the Ghyston office for the first time.
Later in the year we collaborated with the Codebar Bristol organisers to run a mock technical interview event, helping prospective developers prepare for coding interviews in a supportive environment (with pizza!).
In addition to these charity partnerships, we also continued to offer pro-bono software development to a number of charities. We provided ongoing website support to Deki, a Bristol-based microfinancing charity powering global sustainable development, and The Elephant Group, who support underprivileged school students to access higher education.
This year we redesigned the website for Baby Bank Bristol, who redistribute pre-loved baby essentials to families in need. The new donations page streamlines the previously long-winded process of arranging used item donations, saving staff and donors a lot of time.
We also built a brand new website for Grassroot Communities, who help young people in Bristol achieve their potential through initiatives like the Grassroot Activators Programme which we supported last year.
