Charity work

Reef works hard to run an ethical business. We also strive to support charity in FOUR distinct ways:

Charity of the year

Over many years, Reef has donated a substantial percentage of its profits to charity. Asking staff to nominate these charities means that there is often a personal connection to the charities chosen.

One example is the Lenny Trusler Children's Foundation (LTCF) dedicated to helping provide the relief of serious illness in newborn babies and infants. Nominated by staff member Natalie Jupp, LTCF was founded by two close friends of hers, violinists Matthew Trusler and Maya Koch, whose baby son died from a rare kidney disease in April 2007.

Reef donated £10,000, which went towards building a family room in the neonatal unit of Whittington Hospital, ensuring that parents with seriously ill children can be close to their child and offer their full support, twenty-four hours a day.

Previous years' charities include The National Autistic Society and DeBra. In the past six years, Reef has donated in excess of £40,000 to various charities.

Promotional film making

Reef also likes to make films for organisations that need charitable support. For example, alongside our ‘Behind Closed Doors’ series, we made a promotional film free of charge, for the architecture charity Open House, in support of their youth campaign ‘My City Too’. This initiative brings young people together, aged 12 to 19, to take an active role in London's future development. Watch the film here.

Good week at the office

Reef runs a scheme called Good Week at the Office, in which any Reef employee who has worked at the company for at least 12 months can take a paid week out to help out a voluntary organisation of their choice. Some years ago Reef employee Colette Hooper spent a week working for the Food Chain, which provides nutrition services including home delivered meals, essential groceries and nutrition advice to men, women and children who are chronically sick as a result of HIV-related illness.

More recently Reef Television helped to fund Unit Manager Claire Gooding’s mission trip to Guatemala.  Claire joined up with a group of people from the Perryville Dentistry Practice, New Jersey to treat under privileged adults and children in the fincas of San Lucas.

The mission of the trip was to educate and improve dental hygiene and team members were effectively running a ‘pop up’ clinic in the villages where they treated hundreds of locals from the ages of two to seventy.

Sponsorship

We love seeing our staff running marathons, doing moonwalks or anything a bit barmy for a good cause and will always support them through sponsorship. Director of Production Paul Hanrahan (quite literally) leads the field, regularly running the London Marathon in support of the Variety Club and can be relied upon to badger staff and suppliers to sponsor him.