Founded in 1989 by the Morris Family who owns the Business Design Centre, The Morris Charitable Trust (MCT) donates to a range of charitable causes, with a particular focus on Islington and local community projects. So far, MCT has donated more than £2 million.
MCT and the BDC are a founding Supporter of Islington Giving. Islington Giving aims to alleviate the effects of poverty in the borough, where some of London’s richest and poorest residents live side by side. Since 2010, it has raised more than £5 million to support local residents.
The Brain Tumour Charity (BTC) funds pioneering research to find increase understanding of and find new treatments for brain tumours. Many of the projects it works on have never been tried before. The funding aims to help increase survival rates and eventually find a cure.
London Village Network (LVN) helps youth and community leaders build a better network for disadvantaged young people in Islington. One of the great things it does is give young people access to careers advice based on their interests.
At the BDC, we are always working to elevate our local community.
Since its opening, the Business Design Centre has always looked outward at the local community, getting involved in many worthwhile projects and initiatives. It’s why we were awarded the EN Award for ESG in 2022 for our work reported in Being the Change.
We are proud to be able to volunteer our space, team and provide funding to organisations across the community we serve. We have long worked with London Village Network (LVN), who use our event space annually for their community event. LVN encourages business people in the local area to donate at least an hour of their time each year to help young or disadvantaged people in the community.
Our team members recently volunteered time at a local school alongside LVN’s Amplify me programme, helping young people learn vital skills for the world of work.
We also work work closely with a number of other charities including Islington Giving, The Brain Tumour Charity and support Islington-wide projects and organisations through our own charitable arm, the Morris Charitable Trust. You can read more about these in our charities section.
Many of our team members are keen charity fundraisers. From London Marathons to treks across the Sahara and even climbing Kilimanjaro, barely a year goes by without a team member taking on a new challenge to raise money.
We also love that we have charities, such as Go Dharmic, based at our venue. Go Dharmic work to support those in need and we are pleased to be able to help them with regular food donations for one of their projects based in Central London.
For more information on our work over the last year, you can read our current impact report, A Platform For Good.
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