Home / Responsible business / Charitable Giving

Charitable Giving

Supporting charities across the world

We work with a range of charities in creating holistic partnerships that go beyond fundraising to include volunteering, in-kind and pro bono support. We also support the firm’s corporate foundation and support our staff with their individual charitable giving. Each CMS office has its own dedicated CR team that proactively creates the conditions for new activities and initiatives, and which also focuses on current developments and responds to society’s current needs.

Lékaři bez hranic (Médecins Sans Frontières) – our global charity partner

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, provide emergency medical relief in areas fraught by crisis, war or natural catastrophe. The international organisation helps people quickly, effectively and unbureaucratically, irrespective of their race, religion or political orientation. MSF became the CMS Global Charity Partner in May 2020. One of the previous global partners was Amnesty International.
  
The Prague office has dedicated a great deal of time and effort to several initiatives, while always obeying current epidemiological restrictions, in support of MSF’s Prague office. We have organised several small events, including an online discussion with Tomáš Šebek, voluntary donations by our employees, online office quizzes and (virtual) sports challenges, such as the CMS Around the World challenge. One of our most significant activities, which we undertook in the second half of 2020, was the CMS Lockdown Cookbook project. Our staff in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in cooperation with MSF, prepared and published a cookbook listing their favourite recipes of soups, main courses, salads, desserts and cocktails. For each recipe published in the cookbook, CMS donated a specific amount to MSF. The proceeds raised from the sale and distribution of the cookbook are also donated in full to MSF. In order to support MSF, CMS’s offices across CEE organised a “Lucky Night” fundraising event. All proceeds from this event went to MSF and the firm contributed by trebling the amount raised. Further support includes members of the CMS Prague office participating in the Missing Maps project organised by MSF via virtual mapathons.

CMS Social Impact Fund

In 2021, CMS launched the CMS Social Impact Fund which aims to support organisations that make a positive social impact in communities where CMS staff live and work. CMS staff across CMNO can nominate community organisations to receive funding, focusing on three themes from the UN's Global Goals: climate action, reduced inequalities and peace, justice and the rule of law. In 2021, the following Czech NGOs received a grant from the CMS Social Impact Fund:

  1. Via Foundation 
    The Czech community and philanthropic development foundation intends to use the financial proceeds from the grant for its three Living Communities projects across the Czech Republic in support of local communities and increased biodiversity.
     
  2. Letokruh 
    The Senior Companion project, organised by Letokruh, aims to tackle the social isolation of elderly people. They help seniors find a new purpose in life and support their community life through volunteering, be it tutoring, reading story books to children, or through organised events.
     
  3. IT People Foundation 
    The goal of the IT People Foundation’s project Computers for Children is to provide equal access to education via direct technical help and support to children whose parents are not able to provide them with the technology required for their studies. 
     
  4. Rubikon Centrum 
    To help people with a criminal past and their families to get a second chance and get back to a normal life, Rubikon provides counsellors, organises retraining courses, and connects ex-convicts with future employers. 

Klub svobodných matek (Single Mums’ Club)

In recent months, our Prague office has cooperated with Klub svobodných matek (the Single Mums’ Club). We organise collections of clothes and other items that single parents lack and struggle to afford. We are delighted that many of our colleagues have donated, and keep donating privately even when our offices are closed due to Covid, which enables us to support a number of single parents who are currently struggling.

Počítače dětem (Computers for Children)

CMS Prague directly supports a project called Počítače dětem (Computers for Children) organised by the IT People Foundation. The goal of this project is to provide equal access to education via direct technical help and support to children whose parents are not able to provide them with the technology required for their studies. The Prague office has recently donated tens of computers to the Computers for Children project. These computers help children to have an equal opportunity in education regardless of their social background.

Dobrý anděl (Good Angel)

Our local Czech charity partner in previous years was Dobrý Anděl (Good Angel), a charity that supports families of people with serious illnesses. To raise money for Dobrý Anděl, the office ran Christmas jumper days, raffles and also a dress-down day on Fridays where staff could opt to wear casual dress by making a donation into one of the office’s two “charity piggy banks”, called William Shakespig and Cupig! 

Vienna Marathon

Teams from across our offices in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine join our colleagues from CMS Austria to take part in the Vienna Marathon. This exciting experience has become an annual tradition for many of our CEE offices and is now our flagship CR event for the region, triggering many charity initiatives across participating offices, such as bake sales, BBQs and other events in support of charitable causes. All funds raised from our teams’ participation in the Vienna Marathon go to support various local initiatives.

CMS Cameron McKenna Foundation

 The CMS Cameron McKenna Foundation is a grant-making charity supporting charitable purposes in our communities across the world. Every year, staff can nominate charities to be considered for the Foundation’s grant programme.

The Foundation pays particular regard to “charitable purposes connected with children, with persons who are mentally or physically handicapped or disabled, with the aged, with deaf persons and with medical research”. There is no geographic restriction. Historically, the Trustees have very much favoured applications for small or local concerns where there is a personal connection and where modest donations can make a real difference.

4. Quality Education

10. Reduced Inequalities

17. Partnerships for the Goals

For full details on our Charitable Giving programme, please take a look at our CR Review.