2020. A year that’s given us a new US president elect, the first female POC US vice-president, a baby named X Æ A-12 and Meg-xit (not to mention actual Brexit). However, milestones aside, it’s also been a year that has seen a tragic explosion in Beirut, Latin America devastated by hurricanes, the Black Lives Matter movement come into its own, and let’s not forget to mention the virus that has left the UK facing more tiers than a royal wedding cake.

Here at Incubeta, we started the year with big dreams and big goals. However, as events were cancelled, offices shut, and lockdowns enacted we were forced to step back and rethink. What resulted was a myriad of activities – both online and off-line. From a 100k run in May, to Baby Bingo and everything in between, we supported a range of charities, both local and international throughout the year. As the days grew shorter, temperatures plummeted and England returned to a status of national lockdown, we knew that we would have to up the ante with our efforts for the festive period.

As the old age adage goes, ‘charity starts at home’, and we couldn’t agree more. After many successful partnerships, we once again joined forces with East London Big Alliance, helping Santa to fulfil his backlog of unanswered letters and donating over £1500 worth of toys to those in a less fortunate position, who otherwise may not receive a gift this Christmas. With the success of the letter writing campaign, many employees also took part in another initiative – led by ELBA – to reach out to the lonely and vulnerable in the Islington area, providing an all-essential lifeline during the quarantine. 

Of course, charity may begin at home, but it certainly doesn’t stop there and neither does our ambition. Next in the festive run up was Christmas Jumper Day, where the entire company donned their cosiest, chintziest knits to raise money for Save the Children. This saw everything from ironic sweaters to hand-made wonders that wouldn’t be amiss at a Bridget Jones turkey dinner, adorning Colin Firth and Renée Zellweger. As secret Santa’s and annual client Christmas dinners took place (albeit in a new and more digital format) we also offered clients the opportunity to choose to donate money to charity in place of their annual Christmas gift.

With Black Friday and Cyber Weekend behind us, and the countdown to Christmas slowly coming to an end, so does the final push to our last large fundraiser of the year. In conjunction with the People & Culture committee, and after the success of 100K in May, collectively as a global company we’re pushing ourselves one step further and attempting to reach Lapland, through a combination of walking, running and any other means necessary. With a week to go we’re over half way there, so are well on our way to meeting our goal!

If you do wish to follow our progress, or keep up to date with our future fundraisers and partnerships be sure to follow us on our Instagram pages: NMPi, Joystick & DQ&A.