Social Purpose
At Andrews, we have a proud heritage that is truly one of a kind. Our founder, Cecil Jackson Cole, not only set up globally renowned charities such as Age UK and Oxfam, but also transformed the way that business and charity are able to work together in harmony.
For Jackson Cole, the purpose of his business was to make money to fund his charitable initiatives, which aimed to tackle poverty and housing issues on both a national and global scale. Before he died, he transferred the ownership of Andrews Property Group over to our shareholder, Andrews Charitable Trust.
Our history is a proud one, and we are delighted to be continuing the work of our founder, adhering to his vision over 70 years after he initially pioneered it. Our social purpose is about far more than the sales and lets we are able to achieve within the walls of our branches, it’s about protecting the legacy of Andrews that has withstood the test of time for over 70 years already.
Andrews Charitable Trust
A guaranteed proportion of our yearly profits go towards our shareholder, Andrews Charitable Trust, allowing them to continue the work they do on local, national and global scales.
Andrews Charitable Trust (ACT) is our main shareholder, and their focus is primarily on the difficult issues that surround housing and poverty nationally and globally. While a Christian charity, they are faith based not faith biased and support organisations of all faiths.
ACT deliver their charitable support in 3 ways. [establish], Housing and Poverty and Christian Community Grants.
Establish
In 2016, we launched our [establish] project, an initiative that would help to combine the expertise of the business and the charity to give back to our local communities. This enduring project aims to provide homes, working alongside local charities with the goal of providing homes to young people in need of housing.
This project has been described by one of our chosen charities as “an interwork project with accommodation included” and it indeed the aim of [establish] to offer support and guidance in the hope that the young people will be able to find work, either within Andrews or another industry, and eventually move on to become independent. We have already hired one resident from this project who now works for us as a financial adviser, with the hope of many more joining us in the future.
Housing and Poverty
When Cecil Jackson-Cole first set up Andrews Charitable Trust, he set it up in order to help those less fortunate. A major element of this was helping those in need of housing and those living in poverty, reflecting the relationship with Andrews Property Group whose purpose was to bring people and property together. It therefore makes sense that ACT funds organisations built around tackling the cycles of housing and poverty.
Christian Community Grants
Our founder was motivated by Christian concern and love for all people so we have always put a small amount of our funds into explicitly Christian social action projects. In 2022, however, the merger with our two smaller Christian trusts has significantly boosted our ability to support the ways in which Christians support their communities. These are currently brought together under our two main programmes:
Speaking Volumes
We offer grants for Christian books to any library whether it’s in a school, prison, hospice, church - anywhere really that a book can be borrowed and read by lots of people. The aim is to provide good, uplifting literature that will help someone in their moment of need.
This programme started after our founder’s first wife died and he couldn’t find any literature to help him in his moment of need. As a man of great faith, he didn’t want anyone else to suffer in the same way so ensured that books from a Christian perspective would be available to borrow, when needed.
Visit the Speaking volumes website here.
Grants for church starting a Social Action project
We partner with Cinnamon Network who receive funding from us to distribute our grants to churches that apply for a micro-grant to start up an approved social action project. Churches can be anywhere in the UK and receive £2,000. This often helps them attract further funding and support from other sources. Churches can also access the excellent resources from Cinnamon Network such as their advisors, webinars and forums.
