Charity
Working within the community is far more than a set objective we need to fulfil - it's part of who we are. The ethos of giving something back to the community began 30 years ago in Sheffield, and continues at our overseas sites in Strasbourg, Chicago, Kobe, Ontario, Warsaw, Aßlar and New Delhi today.
The Gripple Foundation
The Gripple Foundation is a progression of our former Charities Team and is now responsible for all Gripple charity and community activity.
We annually donate a percentage of our profits to charity and the Gripple Foundation meets regularly to discuss fundraising events and decide which worthy causes may benefit from future funding.
The main aims of the Gripple Foundation are to
- Support smaller, lesser known local charities as well as larger national charities.
- Fundraise for our chosen Charity of the Year.
- Get involved with ‘people power’ projects and encourage people to volunteer.
- Form long standing community partnerships
The Gripple Foundation operates globally, with members elected to be site representatives.
Gripple Charity of the Year
Each year we choose a Charity of the Year which for 2023 is Create A Dream Foundation. This is a small registered charity set up to help seriously ill children and young people in the Sheffield and South Yorkshire region.
Their aim is to provide support to children and their families during a child's illness, as well as ensuring that families are still able to make wonderful and long-lasting memories by helping make their child's dreams come true through funding gifts and experiences.
The Create A Dream Foundation is run completely by volunteers and relies entirely on donations, so our fundraising will have a huge impact. We’re already well into our fundraising activities and look forward to the year ahead, hopefully exceeding last year’s total for this wonderful charity.
Gripple and the Community
We have recently organised a river clean up and litterpick close to our sites with large groups of our volunteers getting involved, as part of our commitment to sustainability.
We’re dedicated to helping charities that offer support, advice and activities to local people. We are currently supporting SAGE Greenfingers, a charity that offers therapeutic horticulture programmes for people whose lives are greatly impacted by mental illness. We are also continuing our support of Ethel and, more recently, Pearl barges which provide residential canal and river experiences for the most disadvantaged groups in South Yorkshire.
We like to get involved in community events. Last year we volunteered at, and helped fund, an afternoon of entertainment to celebrate the Queens Jubilee for SCCCC, an organisation providing support to older people in our region.
We also helped the wider community by supporting a different foodbank every period with a donation.
"Everyone at Ethel felt quite humbled by the enormous effort. What a wonderful group of people you are."
Enable ‘People Power’ Project
Enable Sheffield is a charity based training organisation for people with disabilities. Their aim is to offer quality care and learning opportunities to meet individual needs. They offer support and encouragement in living, social and practical skills to help people with learning disabilities enjoy independent lifestyles.
Enable recently obtained a large house which they will use to teach practical life skills. This building is in addition to their current community centre which is used to teach a range of skills such as crafting and computing, as well as being a social place for people to meet up. A large team of our volunteers worked at renovating all rooms in the house and landscaped the large garden area.
Fundraising Driven by our People
Our people organise a multitude of events every year in support of a wide range of charities, including our charity of the year. Recent events have included sponsored sky dives, a bungee jump, a boxing match and even making smoothies powered by cycling
Here you can view our 2022 charity activity review.
Why use Gripple?
- Significant time and cost savings on your project
- Complete, off-site solutions which minimise health and safety concerns
- Innovative, patented solutions designed by an in-house team of engineers
- Considerable reductions in packaging, vehicle movements & embodied CO2
- A range of support services at every stage of your project, provided by a dedicated technical team
- Aesthetically pleasing solutions; lightweight and virtually invisible