Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today announced that four UK-based charitable organisations will benefit from the Firm’s first UK Strategy Challenge. The Strategy Challenge is Morgan Stanley’s signature skills-based volunteer program, which provides non-profit organisations with pro bono strategic consulting.
The first four organizations to take part in the UK are:
• Community Links, an innovative East London charity working with 16,000 people each year.
• East London Business Alliance, the leading social regeneration charity in East London.
• Magic Breakfast, which delivers free, healthy breakfast foods to UK primary schools with more than 35% free school meals.
• The Prince’s Trust, the UK’s leading youth charity which helps disadvantaged young people get their lives on track and gives vulnerable young people the practical and financial support needed to stabilize their lives.
“Giving back is a core value of Morgan Stanley and its employees,” commented Colm Kelleher, President, Institutional Securities and Chairman, Morgan Stanley International. “The Strategy Challenge demonstrates our determination to ensure Morgan Stanley’s philanthropic efforts go above and beyond fundraising, and we’re looking forward to providing our charity partners with the business skills and knowledge to help them achieve meaningful and impactful results”.
To facilitate the Strategy Challenge, Morgan Stanley has teamed up with Pilotlight, a non-profit organisation which helps small, ambitious charities function more effectively. The Strategy Challenge pairs each of the charities with a team of five Morgan Stanley employees for eight weeks. During this time, the employee volunteers will use their professional expertise and skill sets to develop business strategies that will help the charities fulfill their objectives in a more effective and efficient way.
Gillian Murray, Chief Executive of Pilotlight, added: “Charities have the expertise and determination to support their beneficiaries, but often cannot afford the time to focus on their strategic goals. Working with Morgan Stanley’s employees, this initiative will help these four charities address key challenges, enabling them to become more sustainable and ultimately reach more people in need.”
Morgan Stanley’s US Strategy Challenge, launched in 2009, has cumulatively delivered more than 32,500 hours of service to 61 non-profit organisations over the last five years, providing charities with significant assistance while giving valuable skills training to over 280 Morgan Stanley employees.
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.
About Pilotlight
Pilotlight is a unique, capacity building charity offering tailored strategic planning support to charities and social enterprises that are tackling disadvantage in the UK. They match directors from charities and social enterprises with teams of senior business people who coach them through the process of planning for sustainability, development and growth. Each charity and social enterprise also has a dedicated Pilotlight project manager who coordinates and facilitates the process. For more information please visit: www.pilotlight.org.uk.
About Community Links
Community Links is an east London social action charity working with 16,000 people each year. It has over 35 years' experience working in one of the most deprived, diverse and vibrant areas in the country. Today Community Links runs 40 social action projects, five social enterprises and three national campaigns. In 2013, projects provided challenging and inspirational activities for almost 8,000 children and young people; advised almost 5,000 people with benefits, housing and debt problems at a time when funding for this work is shrinking; supported around 4,000 unemployed people over a third of whom found sustainable jobs, many more have gone onto further training and voluntary work; worked with 177 young people excluded from mainstream education in its own Ofsted-registered school, Education Links, increasing the GCSE pass rate by 7%; and supported over 200 vulnerable ten- and eleven-year-olds to make a successful transition to secondary school though its Opening Doors project. Community Link’s work is done with a staff team of 304 permanent and sessional staff, many of whom are former service users, and 1,300 volunteers from the local community and beyond.
About East London Business Alliance
East London Business Alliance (ELBA) is the leading social regeneration charity in east London. With 25 years’ experience, it facilitates corporate involvement in community organisations, education and employment across the east London boroughs. Working with over 100 City and Canary Wharf companies, ELBA enables successful cross-sector partnerships between companies and the community, placing more than 12,000 business volunteers into more than 300 local organisations, schools, colleges and universities every year, and helping several hundred local people into work.
About Magic Breakfast
Magic Breakfast delivers healthy breakfasts to 252 schools across the country, enabling 8,500 children to receive a good breakfast as fuel for learning. The charity has delivered over 6 million free healthy breakfasts to schools where child hunger is a barrier to learning. It has achieved this with key corporate partners including Quaker Tropicana, Morgan Stanley and Pearson. Child poverty is the biggest single barrier to children being able to realize their rights in the UK. It is estimated to cost £25 billion a year through costs to business, the police, courts and health and education services. UNICEF CEO, Dec 2010
About The Prince’s Trust
Youth charity The Prince’s Trust helps disadvantaged young people to get their lives on track. It supports 13 to 30 year-olds who are unemployed and those struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. Many of the young people helped by The Prince’s Trust are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness or mental health problems, or they have been in trouble with the law. The Trust’s programmes give vulnerable young people the practical and financial support needed to stabilise their lives, helping develop self-esteem and skills for work. Three in four young people supported by The Prince’s Trust move into work, education or training. The Prince of Wales’s charity has helped 750,000 young people since 1976 and supports over 100 more each day. Further information about The Prince’s Trust is available at princes-trust.org.uk or on 0800 842 842.
Media Relations Contact: Hugh Fraser, 020.7425.3923