Community engagement

Strong community engagement is at the heart of what we do. Through our targeted support for long term charitable partnerships, and by mobilising our thousands of employees, we’re using our scale and expertise to deliver shared value for our business and for our local communities.

Social value

In delivering our services we will ensure that along the way we will take steps that deliver real value to our communities, our environment and our people. This is what we call Social Value. Social value measures the positive value our business creates for the economy, communities, and societies that we serve. A big part of making this is happen is a focus on sustainability.

Charity programmes

Our charitable programmes focus on long-term partnerships in areas that are aligned to our business where we believe we can deploy our scale and expertise to achieve the greatest impact.

We support hundreds of community causes and charitable organisations by mobilising our people to support these partnerships through our charity committees and charity champion programmes, and by encouraging personal commitments like fundraising, volunteering matched funding and payroll giving. Our business-wide support includes donating advertising space and vehicle hires, sponsoring community events and initiatives, and providing space at our stations.

Our partnerships

Our charity partners are chosen by our employees based on their alignment to our business values and proximity to our operations. We have three key partners at a Group level but support hundreds more: 

We work closely with the Samaritans and the wider rail industry to reduce suicide on the railways and to support everyone affected by them.

We support all our frontline people to attend a suicide prevention course which provides training, skills and confidence to approach someone in need, encourage them to talk, and lead them to a place of safety. The course also teaches some of the listening skills that underpin Samaritans services, which are as relevant both at home as they are at work. Find out more about Samaritans here.

Railway Children fight for vulnerable children who live alone at risk on the streets, where they suffer abuse and exploitation. In the UK, society often denies their existence, and in other countries the problem is so prevalent that it has become ‘normal’.

Railway Children race to reach children as soon as they arrive on the streets and intervene before an abuser can. Our pioneering work enables us to get to street children before the streets get to them. Find out more about railway children here.

Macmillan Cancer Support was voted for by thousands of First Bus colleagues to be our charity partner until 2026. Over the next three years, we will fundraise through co-ordinated coffee mornings, gift-in-kind advertising donations.

First Bus will match fund all monies raised by colleagues across the business throughout the course of the three-year partnership. Find out more about Macmillan Cancer Support here.

Matched Funding

We are proud of the fundraising achievements of our employees across our UK operations. Our Matched Funding Scheme recognises and rewards their dedication with up to £200 per person per year available.

From bake sales to endurance challenges, employees can claim to match funds they raise for registered charities that meet the Scheme's eligibility criteria. Once the fundraising event has taken place and all donations have been collected, employees are asked to complete an online form with the required detail and attach evidence of their fundraising. For Team events, only one team member need submit a form in order to apply for matching on behalf of their whole team.

If you are a FirstGroup employee in the UK and would like to apply for Matched Funding, please apply via our online Matched Funding form. 

If you need any guidance completing your application, please contact [email protected].

Employee Volunteering

We have partnered with Neighbourly an award-winning giving platform to connect employees with volunteering opportunities in their local areas. We currently have over 400 good causes connected through the platform across the UK.

Eligible employees simply need to visit the First Group Neighbourly website to sign up. Where there’s a ‘Volunteer’ button you can sign up straight away. Alternatively, you can ‘Register interest’ in an opportunity and then agree a date with the organiser.

Payroll Giving

All FirstGroup employees are eligible to take part in Payroll Giving, the easiest way to make a regular tax-free donation to whatever cause you’d like to support. Donations are taken each month from your salary before tax, which means more money goes to charity.

Payroll Giving is a valuable, long-term source of income for charities. Regular donations help charities budget and plan ahead, helping them make a lasting difference. Help any causes close to your heart with a donation from your pay and make payday even better.

If you are a FirstGroup employee and are interested in signing up, please click here.

FirstGroup have been recognised with a payroll giving silver award in 2024 thanks to the philanthropy and giving of our employees. 

Community Rail Network

The Community Rail Network (CRN) an umbrella body of community groups, partnerships and social enterprises who connect communities with their railways.

The Network represents 75 Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs) and over 1,000 station adoption groups across the UK. These are not-for-profit organisations help deliver social, environmental, and economic benefits through local development by connecting the railway with the communities they serve.

Today, CRPs work closely with train operators across the country, promoting healthy and sustainable travel, bringing communities together, as well as supporting social and economic development.

Overall we work with 41 CRP’s via our DfT contracted TOC’s with 12 at SWR, 12 at GWR and 20 at Avanti. We also support dozens of station adopters including over 100 at SWR.

Find out more about local opportunities on your network:

Avanti West Coast CRN

Great Western Railway CRN

South Western Railway CRN

Find out more about other Community Rail Networks.

Customer and Community Improvement Fund

The Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF) is in place to support schemes across the Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway and South Western Railway networks. The funding looks for ideas that bring benefits to our stations (or a station that we serve) and the communities surrounding them which will help to create a more inclusive, prosperous, and connected community.

Guidance on opening and closing dates and the amounts that can be applied for can be found on the relevant links:

Avanti West Coast CCIF

Great Western Railway CCIF

South Western Railway CCIF

Discover other ways we are benefitting our communities

Avanti West Coast

Great Western Railway

South Western Railway