At Copart, we’re proud to have established a culture that is committed to charitable giving. It’s a culture that’s continued to strengthen and grow across our 19 UK locations and it forms a major part of our ongoing Copart Cares 💙 commitment to caring about good causes.
As we enter our 15th year in the UK, we’re reflecting on how we’ve worked consistently with a range of different charities in our efforts to make a positive impact alongside our customers, communities, and teammates.
Local Charities
Supporting local charities is a great way for us to make a difference in the communities close to where we operate.
It also enables us to give something back to causes which are important to our teammates, perhaps through local connections, volunteering, groups, or something they have been personally affected by.
Just some of the local good causes we have recently supported include:
- Bedford Foodbank – local area to our Wootton Head Office
- Fountain Foodbank – local area to our Belfast Operation Centre
- West Lothian Foodbank – local area to our Whitburn Operation Centre
- Make 2nds Count Cancer Charity – which a teammate has been personally affected by
- Samaritans Kettering – where one of our teammates works as a volunteer
- Bedford Polish Club (Ukraine Appeal) – local area to Our Wootton Head Office
Industry Charities
Working for, and with, industry charities has always been a priority to us. We’re always keen to help respond to the challenges facing our industry by working closely with the relevant charities to ensure that all members of our extended automotive family have access to the support they need when they need it.
Ben Automotive Charity
We’ve been a proud advocate of the Ben Automotive Charity for many years, having adopted them as our company charity in 2015.
As part of the automotive community, we feel extremely fortunate to have access to Ben’s wide range of health and wellbeing support services, so we’re always keen to give something back whenever we can.
- A group of teammates took part in a 3 Peaks Challenge for Ben, tackling Ben Nevis (1,345m), Scafell Pike (978m) and Snowdon (1,085m) over the course of one weekend.
- We took part in the Ben’s Big Breakfast event across our nationwide locations, raising funds through the sale of breakfast treats, games, and wearing pjs for the day.
- We regularly promote and signpost teammates to Ben’s free support services – including their online resources, live chat, and helpline – alongside our own company support tools and programmes.
- Over 125 managers from across our business have undertaken Ben’s ‘Managing Mental Health in the Workplace’ training.
- We collect donations for Ben at internal company events.
- We regularly raise funds for Ben through individual initiatives across our nationwide locations, such as dress downs days, tuck shops, and raffles.
Open Road West Norfolk
We’re also keen supporters of charities that are focused on engaging young people into pursuing a career path within the automotive industry. It’s important to us that we invest into engineers of the future and ensure we have a long-term sustainable workforce for the future.
Since 2013, we’ve worked with Open Road West Norfolk, a charity that provides training to young people with an interest in motor vehicles and helps them to gain recognised qualifications and improved employment opportunities.
We’ve committed to loaning the charity four modern repairable vehicles per year for the students to work on. This helps the students to gain practical hands-on mechanical skills on the types of vehicles they would typically be working on in a real-life bodyshop scenario.
Autoraise
In 2021 we began an official partnership with Autoraise, a UK vehicle industry charity that works with businesses to boost technical apprenticeships for young people.
At Copart, we’ve made significant investment into apprenticeships within our business and are strong advocates of all forms of personal development, making this a perfect fit.
Helping to solve a well-reported skills gap in the vehicle repair sector, Autoraise works with a range of repairers, training providers, companies and the wider industry supply chain to promote careers in vehicle repair to schools and colleges as an alternative to other further education options.
Supporting the charity’s work on behalf of vehicle repair sector is something that feels close to home for us, as we know how important it is to focus on safeguarding Copart’s own repair network through investing into apprenticeships.
In addition to an annual paid partnership package, we are discussing a range of initiatives to make a difference including advertising opportunities, event attendance, and the promotion of our own Vehicle Damage Assessor apprenticeships to the Autoraise student network.
National Charity Events
National charity events are a perfect opportunity for all of our teammates, who are spread across our 19 UK locations, to come together and work towards a shared fundraising goal. It boosts morale across the business and helps our teammates to feel connected to each other.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
Every year, our teams all across the country organise bake sales, competitions, and games, to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Even throughout the pandemic, we continued to support this event by holding virtual coffee mornings.
We’ve held Macmillan Coffee Mornings for many years and our teammates always put a huge amount of effort and passion into raising money for this very worthy cause.
At our last Coffee Morning, our Head Office and Customer Excellence Centre in Bedford also raised additional funds through a special Management Makeover session, where some very brave managers agreed to dress up and walk the red carpet!
Christmas Jumper Day
Another favourite annual event for Copart is Christmas Jumper Day, where we put on our festive knitwear to raise money for Save the Children.
Every year, teammates make a £2 donation to wear their jumpers and often raise additional funds through bake sales, raffles, and games. Remote and field-based teammates also love to join in the fun, thanks to Zoom and Teams video calls.
Customer Charities
Another important aspect of our Copart Cares commitment is caring about our customers, not just from an ethical and best practice perspective, but also to demonstrate a strong alignment of values.
Therefore, we are always proud to support good causes that are important to our customers and maximise exposure to those causes by joining forces to promote them and raise much-needed funds.
ILC Day (I Love Claims)
Now in its tenth consecutive year, ILC Day is an annual event where members of the insurance claims industry come together and wear something red to raise funds for ILC’s official charity, the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity.
ILC (I Love Claims) is a leading networking forum for UK claims professionals and Copart became a Corporate Partner in 2020, joining a group of leading UK insurance companies including Aviva, LV= and Zurich.
We have supported ILC Day for many years and we always enjoy teaming up with other companies from the insurance claims industry to raise funds for the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity.
Our teammates wear something red on ILC Day and make a donation to this amazing charity, which provides bespoke support to families with a seriously ill child.
Insurance Endurance
Copart’s National Account Managers always look forward to taking part in the annual Insurance Endurance go-karting event, competing with teams from across the insurance industry to help raise money for The Insurance Charities.
The popular networking and racing event is not only a great opportunity to spend some quality time with our customers, but it is also a major fundraising event for The Insurance Charities which provides help to current and former UK and Irish insurance employees and their families in times of need.
This includes financial assistance and practical support to those with health, money, and housing concerns.
We love working closely with our insurance partners and customers to support this worthy cause and of course it’s also great fun!
Jane Pocock, Managing Director of Copart UK & Ireland, said:
“I’m extremely proud of the culture we have at Copart for charitable giving and our teammates always show fantastic creativity, enthusiasm, and generosity towards the wide range of fundraising events we take part in throughout the year.
It’s important that we always act in the right and most responsible way, enhance our local communities, and have a positive impact in everything we do. We’ll continue to work closely with our teammates, customers, and communities, to identify good causes and make a real difference wherever we can.”
Find out more about our Copart Cares 💙 commitment.