Sir Robert McAlpine: Creating a positive impact in target locations

The challenge

Sir Robert McAlpine wanted to engage with the communities around their construction sites. The company routinely sets up in new locations to deliver construction projects that take around 3 years to deliver. That’s enough time for them to get embedded in the local area. In line with the company’s mission to Proudly build Britain’s heritage to deliver a positive, long-lasting legacy they wanted to create a positive impact in the communities around their sites. They also wanted to share that impact with employees, clients, and supply chain partners to strengthen relationships.

The solution: Strong Foundation Grants

Sir Robert McAlpine launched an initial phase of funds in 2020, targeting communities around 3 major construction sites. Since that pilot phase, the company’s scaled its efforts and launched 20 site-specific funds. Each of the funds has targeted communities around construction sites and engaged stakeholders (including employees, clients, and supply chain partners) in the project selection process.

After huge success in terms of direct, tangible impact and stakeholder engagement from the 23 funds launched so far, Sir Robert McAlpine is aiming to integrate the Strong Foundations Grants into the delivery of multiple new construction projects.

“Now we can connect to more people, do good and get commercially usable impact reports. I’ve never seen anything instil more pride and connect more of our people to who we are as a business than our work with ActionFunder”

• Lynda Thwaite, Director of Brand, Bids, Marketing at Sir Robert McAlpine

“Community projects make comparatively small amounts of money go a really long way. Donating to bigger charities also makes an impact but it’s not as fast or direct. We can physically see the results of supporting community projects within months of sending out funding.”

• Nic Errol, Comms Executive at Sir Robert McAlpine