BELONG To Everyone

Corporate Citizenship or, in other words, the gift of self-giving

• COMMUNITY
• SUSTAINABILITY

Creating value beyond profits by engaging employees in virtuous initiatives benefitting the community. Over the last years, the business dictionary grow with new words and new expression and acronyms can be found on the pages of financial newspapers and specialized magazines: Corporate Citizenship, or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), which are meant to highlight the sense of responsibility a company has towards society and the environment. A trend that is not something new to Teddy, but that actually marked its path since the beginning, thanks to the insight and experience of its founder, Vittorio Tadei, who had understood how the experience of self-giving and supporting those more in need and more vulnerable was not just a moral duty but a benefit, an act that is good for the soul and adds meaning to people’s life. And this “stirring of the heart” still goes on today in a more systematic and structured way as it is proper for a big company. 

Ida Tucci, head manager of the Corporate Citizenship Scheme at Teddy, explains it. “The scheme turned out to be a tool useful to us to reorganize and share a heritage we already had in the Company. It made possible to focus the attention on what listed in the Dream written by Vittorio, in an even more concrete way”. 

The challenge launched in 2022 as a reaction to one of the hottest topics of present times, Sustainability, was not only the occasion to set out a plan for our environmental. economic and social impact, but also the perfect context to trace new paths, useful to engage company collaborators increasingly more in the support to charitable organizations. A step forward compared to the activity of Gigi Tadei Foundation, the charity created to cherish and develop Vittorio’s vision, which has been working on education and solidarity projects both in Italy and abroad for several years by now. Among the most important ones the Rainbow project, operating in Zambia, Kenia, Tanzania and Burundi, where it aims to give support in response to the HIV epidemics those areas are suffering and to the thousands of children who were made orphans because of it after 1980s.

Over the last few years, the Corporate Citizenship Scheme involved hundreds of collaborators in the initiatives proposed, with the aim of building a corporate community where people are aware of the needs of the others, giving value to the social commitment of everyone as to create a better world, following operating procedures and criteria whose core value is the gift of self-giving.

There have been many proposals: the Corporate Food Drive, which is organized in collaboration with the Italian charity organization Fondazione Banco Alimentare, is the one that registered a growing response with corporate staff. “The initiative was first launched at our corporate headquarters in Rimini, Bologna and later extended to Gatteo, Fano and San Marino. We started to involve directly-managed flagships two years ago and franchised stores last year. All those who participated in it provided a positive feedback on it”. The experience of self-giving, of risking your own humanity and skills outside your “working zone”, can lead to taking different roads in line with new topics raising awareness such as beach cleaning in collaboration with Fondazione Cetacea, the national non-profit organization promoting the protection of the marine ecosystem.  In addition, since the beginning, the project “Teddy support the ones you care for” (Teddy Sostiene Chi Ti Sta a Cuore) was launched. The project allows collaborators to submit their proposals for projects regarding initiatives, organizations and charities they are already directly or indirectly involved and that might be entitled to a financial support up to € 2,000. In 2023 12 projects were funded, which were actions that allowed our collaborators to meet those who cherish solidarity values as well as to experience them.  

Another project we support is Portofranco, a non-profit organization managing a study-support center for lower and upper-secondary school students, open to anyone and free, where “study tutors” are volunteers. These are the words of a Teddy collaborator who volunteered as a study tutor:

“I joined Portofranco with the idea I would help students with their English homework and preparation for sitting exams in September. However, during my experience I understood that, even though they do need help with studying a subject, what they need most is someone who roots for them. Besides studying, I encouraged them to find their own study method, keep their notes tidy and understand that going to school can be an amazing learning experience.
They were lovely with me, well-behaved, relaxed and motivated. No one forces them to come to afterschool activities, it is clear they come to learn and they cared listening to me.  We established a good and healthy relationship.
Now I go to Portofranco at least once a month when I manage to squeeze it in my busy schedule at work and as a mom, but I often hear from the other volunteers.
It has been a very important experience to me: my parents are both teachers and have always helped many students with their homework and study method.
When those children used to come to our house, they always told me the same thing, “how lucky you are”. I can say that, thanks to my experience at Portofranco, which I learned about through the corporate voluntary work scheme at Teddy, I wished to give back to others what I was given”.