EMC hands out a £20,000 birthday gift

EMC has marked its twentieth year in business with a £20,000 donation to the Sussex Community Foundation.

The firm has joined other Foundation Donors, including the Duke of Richmond, BAA Communities Trust and West Sussex County Council, in pledging to support the work of the Foundation.

The money will be paid over the next three years to help cover the Foundation’s ongoing development costs, thus ensuring that all other individual and corporate donations it receives will be passed on to local community groups and worthy causes.

The Sussex Community Foundation was launched in 2006 and is part of the Community Foundation Network which manages permanent funds of £140 million and awards £70 million in grants every year to thousands of community groups.

Community Foundations are the fifth largest funder of charities and the fastest growing philanthropic movement in the UK.

In three years the Sussex Community Foundation has awarded £1.6 million to more than 700 charities in Sussex and has built a permanent fund of £900,000 to provide enduring support for local communities.

EMC chief executive Nik Askaroff said: “In these tough times we wanted to celebrate our twentieth year in business by helping those less fortunate than ourselves. The Community Foundation does just that.

“We could have celebrated the landmark in the traditional way with a big bash for clients, but everyone at EMC thought this was far more worthwhile.”

Although EMC’s operations now spread across a large chunk of the South East, the firm has its strongest links with Sussex. Nik Askaroff was born and bred in Eastbourne and has lived in the county all his life. He is a former chairman of Sussex Enterprise and a director of nine Sussex-based companies with 28 worldwide locations employing over 1,000 staff.

He said: “EMC was formed in Sussex, has its head office in Eastbourne and three other offices in the county. So I was keen that we should support a major Sussex charitable initiative and give something back to the community. The Foundation fills a major gap in local charitable giving and enables donors to give knowing the full benefit will go to a local charity and be managed with care and concern.

“The Foundation does a truly professional job in supporting local causes and ensuring that the lesser known charities receive support that they would have trouble obtaining elsewhere. A small amount can go a long way and the Community Foundation makes this happen.”

November 2009