Charity & Community

Charity and Volunteering

We are passionate about giving back to the community. We believe in supporting local charities and causes that are important to us and our customers. We are proud to make donations to local charities, volunteer our time, and support other organisations that are making a difference in the world.

Some of our activities

• Individual employees join sponsored fundraising activities
• As a company, we have donated to food banks near client schools
• We donate used computers to children in deprived areas through organised schemes
• Our employees give their time and expertise to refurbish donated computers for reuse
• Several of our consultants are also school governors, giving their time and knowledge to support and help schools

Employee charity days

We encourage employees throughout the company to give their time for charity work by offering them an extra “charity day” off work in addition to their holiday allowance.

The photo shows our CEO and one of our Nexus consultants on a charity bike ride in 2022.

Flywheel IT’s Charity of the Year

In 2023 our charity of the year is The Talent Foundry. We support them absolutely free of charge with managed IT services from our IT helpdesk, some strategic upgrades and advice on getting the most from their technology.

Why did we choose The Talent Foundry?

The Talent Foundry is an education charity on a mission to increase social mobility. It does this by helping young people from a range of backgrounds – mainly in underserved communities – to develop new skills by discovering career opportunities that live up to their real abilities, so they can achieve their full potential.

Flywheel CEO Matthew White comments:

“Every child deserves the same opportunities no matter who their parents are, and Talent Foundry is clearly doing a great job with that. Unfortunately, with so many underserved children, it is a huge job they have. There are so many more children that will miss out unless this charity is supported to grow. That is why I’m very happy to offer help to them, so they can keep doing such necessary work.”

Achieving Net Zero

We promote carbon neutrality through innovating and designing solutions that others can copy.

Nexus Associates, our subsidiary that designs ICT infrastructure, have worked on a number of Biophilic, Gen Zero and off-site projects. These look to improve the sustainability of new school buildings but also ensure investment is going into the right areas.

We designed the ICT for Britain’s first Gen Zero school

We manage to reduce carbon emissions, water usage, and waste in all the schools whose ICT infrastructure we design, aiming to exceed the Department for Education’s goals for net zero. We designed and delivered the IT infrastructure for the UK’s first GenZero entirely carbon neutral school, UCL Academy in Camden, London.

Passivhaus Trust Patrons

As a Passivhaus Trust Patron company, we embrace the range of approaches this organisation has defined to deliver net-zero-ready buildings. Passivhaus buildings provide a high level of occupant comfort using very little energy for heating and cooling.

We strive to minimise our environmental footprint in the work we do for every single client, through energy-efficient practices and reducing waste.

Training the Next Generation

We enjoy training and developing new talent at Flywheel. One of our goals is to create opportunities in the areas where we support schools with managed IT services.

Mentoring & training for qualifications

We routinely mentor and coach junior staff and career changers on the job in technical, sales and other roles. We also sponsor and support employees who want to work towards formal qualifications. These include national apprenticeships and even M.A. courses and other level 7 qualifications.

Apprenticeships at Flywheel

We have nurtured IT support apprentices on our central helpdesk and onsite in our client schools. Helpdesk Engineer Alistair completed his Level 3 Infrastructure Technician Apprenticeship at Flywheel in 2022.

“I’m currently exploring which area of IT I may want to specialise in. Whatever I do, I love IT and my apprenticeship at Flywheel was a great way to get started in this career.”