Hi All

Every Christmas, we are surprised and humbled by the number of gifts that we receive from a broad selection of suppliers and customers.  They are unexpected but always gratefully received and shared amongst all of the team.

As we’ve grown the business over the years, the amount of presents has increased too – to the point that now we have to acknowledge your festive generosity and decide how best to manage the situation in the future; partly because of the commitment to our sustainability policy and partly because some of us are just too tempted by lovely chocolates!

So, this year, having asked everybody here what they would like to happen, the consensus was to select a charity and encourage any gifts to be by way of donation: our chosen charity for 2009 is Oxfam.

Oxfam Novib was set up in 1956, as an organisation to allow Dutch people to help others in need globally, after we as a nation received so much kindness and assistance from the rest of world after our own natural disaster in 1953.  Today, Oxfam Novib is part of Oxfam International – an alliance of 14 national charitable organisations that are working together to end poverty and injustice, through proactive campaigning and reacting to emergencies.  If you would like to donate this Christmas, you can do so online via their website at http://www.justgiving.com/UBMdonation

Oxfam is also a chosen charity of UBM group chief executive David Levin and we are happy to support one of his causes.

Please don’t think that we’re forcing anyone to donate; rather, if you were going to send us a gift, we would prefer it if you gave the same amount of money to charity.  That way, both of us will still enjoy our celebrations but someone else less fortunate will also benefit from some festive kindness.

Whatever you decide to do, thank you for helping us to make this year another successful one for UBM International Media and we look forward to speaking personally to as many of you as we can over the coming weeks to wish you a Happy Christmas.

 

With kind regards,

UBM International Media