Giving back

Relationships and responsibility lie at the heart of Cairn's culture. For us, that includes giving something back to the communities in which we work, not only through focused social investment but also by supporting a range of charitable organisations and initiatives.

How It Works

Our Group Charities Committee, reporting to the Chief Executive's Committee, co-ordinates our charitable giving processes, including dealing with applications, fund administration and making budget recommendations. In 2009, the Committee was expanded from five to eight members, and now oversees an increased budget of £450,000, up from £200,000 in 2008.

We also sought the advice of a third-sector specialist to explore ways of increasing the effectiveness of our charitable giving programme.

Employee Support

Cairn encourages its employees to support charities of their choice by matching any funds they raise, up to a maximum of £2,500 per team or £500 per individual.

Our Give As You Earn (GAYE) scheme allows employees to make a monthly tax-free donation to a charity of their choice through payroll deductions, and we also support employees by providing up to three paid days of leave per year for each individual to participate in voluntary programmes or events. In return, employees are expected to give an equivalent amount of their own time.

Who We Support

Our charitable giving programme is largely focused on supporting not-for-profit organisations that support people living in the Midlothian area of Scotland, where Cairn is headquartered, and which reflect our values of teamwork, fostering individual potential and encouraging entrepreneurial spirit. Charities that are selected are expected to demonstrate transparency, sustainability and measurable indicators of what charitable funding will achieve.

In 2009, we provided charitable funding to the following organisations:

Opportunities For Young People

Project Scotland offers 16–25-year-olds full-time placements of up to six months in non-profit organisations working in the arts, sports or the environment. Young people gain experience which makes a positive difference in securing a job or getting into further education or training.
Fairbridge Scotland works with young people from deprived urban areas who are not in education, employment or training, equipping them with life skills and facilitating routes back into mainstream society.
Inspiring Scotland aims to improve the lives of Scotland's most vulnerable people through partnerships and collaborations designed to tackle tough social issues.

Community

Four Square looks after the rights and needs of homeless people in Edinburgh, the Lothians and other areas of Scotland.
Circle is a Pilton-based charity that works with families to provide support to marginalised children.

Arts

Traverse Theatre is supported by Cairn to run Scribble, a new writing and theatre skills programme for 14–17-year-olds from less socially and economically advantaged backgrounds.
Lyceum Theatre is supported by Cairn for a variety of projects including the Lyceum Connect Festival, a new programme that promotes social inclusion for approximately 160 young people in work experience programmes based at the theatre.

Education and Learning

Edinburgh Science Festival receives funding from Cairn to support its Generation Science schools touring programme and sponsor the 'dino dig' activity at the 2010 Edinburgh International Science Festival.
Scottish Mining Museum uses funds from Cairn to develop an interactive educational show based on the discovery and development of hydrocarbons in Scotland, which will be offered to schools across the Lothians.
University of Glasgow is receiving sponsorship over three years, beginning in 2009, to support the five-day 'Advanced Sequence Stratigraphy' course for final-year geology students.
Edinburgh University receives a donation towards the School of Geosciences Graduate School conference.
Heriot-Watt University – see below.

Sport

Winning Scotland Foundation, previously known as The Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation, has a three-year funding agreement with Cairn to support its Winning Talent Programme, helping Scotland's emerging elite athletes to achieve success on the world stage.

Health

Prostate Cancer Research is undertaking a research programme to develop a new approach to the treatment of prostate cancer.
Sight Savers Bangladesh Childhood Cataract Campaign (BCCC) has received $150,000 over three years from our Bangladesh operations to help fund its work to restore the sight of many cataract-blind children.
MAMATA is an NGO near our Sangu site in Bangladesh that Cairn has supported for six years.

Strategic Alliance With Heriot-Watt University

Cairn has an ongoing strategic alliance with Heriot-Watt University, one of the UK's leading universities for business and industry. The university is at the forefront of innovative technology and research-based science, and its Institute of Petroleum Engineering operates one of the largest research programmes in its field.

Our partnership included a £1.4 million donation, which will help to fund a new Postgraduate Centre and the appointment of the first programme co-ordinator for Innovation and Enterprise.

As part of the alliance, a new Chair of Petroleum Engineering has also been endowed.

A Joint Oversight Group meets regularly to oversee the alliance and explore new opportunities that may benefit both parties.

In addition to expenditure on charitable donations from the UK increasing significantly:

Cairn India has maintained a significant expenditure on social investment;
expenditure associated with Greenland last year was in support of a planned expedition that was not realised; and
expenditure in Bangladesh fell as our operations, and the projects we have supported in the past (such as turtle conservation in the Bay of Bengal), mature.