Halkin is a London based office rental agency; the company was founded in 2015. They’re known for community-driven workspaces and design-led commercial buildings. They focus on turning centrally located buildings into smart workspaces. They don’t create cookie-cutter offices. Instead, every building reflects both the historic building and the business that fills the space.
Halkin didn’t put out a cheesy holiday marketing message like many of their contemporaries. Instead, they raised money for the charity Shelter, a nonprofit that houses the homeless. Shelter offers hot food and a warm bed to many in need, and there is always need in this time of year.
Halkin employees joined the Shelter’s annual London Sleep Walk on December 3, 2019. The ten kilometer trek through London is intended to raise awareness and money. The walk past iconic sights like the Southbank, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Covent Garden helps the rest of us understand what it is like to be out on the streets at night. It also makes the walk an amazing tour of iconic London landmarks. The walk typically takes about an hour and a half. The 2019 London Sleep Walk ended at the graffiti tunnels on Leake Street. Walks in other cities such as Manchester occurred on the same week. (Shelter has offices across the UK, Wales, and Scotland.)
Some companies would use the charitable effort as a marketing gimmick, trumpeting this on social media and the news. Others actually co-opt charitable intentions, such as when they say we’ll donate a percentage of our sales this month to charity when there is really a cap on how much will go to charity. These companies just pocket the profits. Halkin did something truly different. They held the charity fundraising, and they didn’t market off of it. And to take things one step further, they dedicated their Christmas marketing budget to the charity. On top of that, the company matched donations of up to five thousand pounds to Shelter. The effort was advertised via the #Halkinforthehomeless hash tag. However, the company didn’t turn it into a commercial or turn the homeless into props for an ad. They simply provided financial assistance and awareness building.
Halkin isn’t limiting its charitable efforts to the Christmas season. The Centre managers continued to run fundraising events for Shelter, though the Sleep Walk fundraiser is over. They’d raised almost twelve thousand pounds a full week before Christmas Day.
You can learn more at https://www.halkin.com/halkin-for-the-homeless.
Donations came from a variety of sources. We don’t know how much came from Halkin employees, though Halkin managers were providing continuing support for Shelter’s fundraising efforts. As of this writing, we don’t have a total for how much was raised by the end of the year.
Furthermore, the public is welcome to continue to contribute to Shelter year-round. Remember that many don’t have what we consider basic needs met, such as hot meals, a warm place to sleep and being able to literally rest easy because you aren’t afraid for your safety. Shelter provides assistance for those on the streets and in danger of being evicted.