Our Communities

Charitable giving

Humanitarian causes

During the year, Bloomsbury UK provided financial support to humanitarian appeals and charitable causes across the globe, including:

• £50,000 to the Trussell Trust, a UK national network of food banks which provide emergency food and support to people facing hardship;
• £25,000 to Inter Mediate, a negotiation and mediation charity which brings together some of the world’s experts on dialogue and negotiation to mediate in the most difficult, complex and dangerous conflicts in the hope of contributing to a sustainable resolution;
• £25,000 to Médecins Sans Frontières, an international, independent medical humanitarian organisation providing medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare;
• £20,000 to the UK for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, providing life-saving support to families displaced from their homes;
• £6,000 to Save the Children, the international organisation dedicated to supporting children around the world transform their lives and reach their full potential by providing life- saving short-term help and pushing for deep-rooted social change; and
• £5,500 to The Book Trade Charity, which was established to support colleagues across the book trade and their families, providing grants and housing when they need it most.

Bloomsbury India continued its support of local community organisations by donating to charities supporting vulnerable, marginalised and deprived groups:

• £2,500 to the Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre Society, a community-based non-profit service.
• £2,500 to the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which strives to eliminate classroom hunger by serving nutritious food to disadvantaged children studying in government and government-aided schools across India.
• £2,500 to the Salaam Baalak Trust, which provides care and protection to street children through child-centric programmes.
• Bloomsbury has also continued to contribute a portion of its proceeds from sales of the Dishoom cookbook by Kavi
• Thakrar, Naved Masir and Shamil Thakrar to charities providing healthy school meals to hungry and malnourished children in disadvantaged areas of the UK and India, donating the sum of
• £377 to each of the Akshaya Patra Foundation in India and Magic Breakfast in the UK during the year.

Promoting literacy and education and supporting creators and colleagues

During the year, Bloomsbury also continued to support initiatives aligned with its mission and purpose by making financial and in-kind contributions to organisations working to increase access to books and education and enrich lives through reading and literacy, and to initiatives aimed at supporting authors and illustrators from diverse backgrounds.

• £50,000 to the National Literacy Trust (“NLT”) saw a continuation of our support of the NLT’s work to give children and young people from disadvantaged communities the literacy skills to succeed in life.
• As part of our ongoing relationship with The Black Writers’ Guild in the UK, we donated £20,000 in support of the Guild’s work, designated to support the hardship measures to assist writers in the Black Writers’ Guild.
• A donation of £25,000 was made to the Charleston Literary Festival and £20,000 to The London Library. The Charleston Festival provides attendees with the opportunity to engage with books and illuminating ideas through a programme of talks, conversations and performances. The London Library is one of the world’s leading literary institutions and lending libraries, housing a collection of over one million books, and hosts regular literary events throughout the year as well as an annual Literature Festival. The Library offers an Emerging Writers Programme open to anyone over the age of 16, which provides one year’s free membership of the Library and includes writing development masterclasses, literary networking opportunities, peer support and guidance in use of the Library’s resources.
• In the UK, Bloomsbury made donations of £25,000 to each of The Bodleian Library, The British Library and Cambridge University Library, to be designated to purchasing digital resources from any publisher.
• In Australia, Bloomsbury continued its support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) with a donation of £5,000. The ILF works to address the educational disadvantages faced by indigenous Australian children and young people in remote communities across Australia. Donations of £5,000 were made respectively to Story Factory , a creative writing centre for underprivileged young people, and The Smith Family’s Literacy and Learning for Life educational programmes, which provide emotional, practical and financial support as well as books and resources to support disadvantaged children and young people with their literacy and education.

We recognise that not everyone in society has equal access to books, and we work with various organisations to reach people and communities who may not otherwise have the means or opportunity to enjoy the benefits which reading brings.

During the year, the Group donated books with a total wholesale value of £1,534,567 to multiple organisations promoting literacy and early education. These include:

• The SOHO Centre in the US, which promotes children’s literacy, school readiness, and school success by distributing free books to schools, libraries, hospitals and other child- related programs. Through its long-standing partnership with the SOHO Centre, Bloomsbury has donated over 2m books to date to disadvantaged children and their families across Virginia.
• Book Aid International, which works with partner organisations around the world to share the power of books to help create a more equal future by providing access to free books where they are most needed, in libraries, schools, refugee camps, hospitals, prisons and other institutions around the world. Bloomsbury also made a cash donation of £50,000.
• The NLT in support of its ongoing projects to promote literacy within deprived communities.

Defending freedom of speech

Freedom of expression is a prerequisite for a thriving publishing industry, which, in turn, plays an essential role in a democratic, knowledge-based society by promoting diversity of knowledge and ideas and fostering creativity and tolerance. During the year, Bloomsbury donated £45,000 to each of PEN America and the American Civil Liberties Union to support their work in defence of freedom of expression and civil liberties in a time when increasingly polarised views on political and cultural issues are leading to rising assaults on freedom of expression, including attempts to ban books in schools, libraries and bookshops.

Protecting the environment

Bloomsbury is committed to playing its part in combatting global warming and protecting the Earth’s natural resources and biomes. In addition to taking steps to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, and participating in industry groups which are working towards making the publishing industry more sustainable (see pages 60 to 81 for further information about the Group’s environmental performance), the Group made donations to two organisations dedicated to fighting climate change and pollution:

• The Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, whose mission is to protect woods and trees, preventing the loss of irreplaceable habitat and carbon stores. Bloomsbury donated £20,000 to support the Trust’s work to preserve ancient woodland in the UK.
• Surfers Against Sewage, dedicated to marine conservation and protecting the ocean against pollution and the effects of climate change. Bloomsbury donated £10,000 to support the charity’s work in this area.

Developing partnerships with impact

In addition to providing financial assistance to organisations which promote literature, literacy and education, we provide practical, non-financial assistance. The following examples of our activities in 2023/2024 illustrate the range of Bloomsbury’s support.

Camden and Hastings programme

In 2023, Bloomsbury expanded its LitUp project (which originated in Hastings, the area of the UK with the lowest rates of literacy) into Camden, the home borough of the Company. LitUp is a comprehensive project supporting teachers, engaging parents and helping children to increase frequency and enjoyment of reading. Now in its second year, we are working with year one and two children in seven schools in Camden and year five and six children in eight schools in Hastings.

The project was developed to build on the skills of teachers and teaching assistants, and to engage children and parents as readers. It consists of termly activities that build engagement among families and gift books to children, along with some key moments that help to create a whole school focus on reading.

The schools we are working with in Camden have high proportions of disadvantaged children, many children from refugee and immigrant families for whom English is not a first language and are looking for ways to enhance their work in the classroom. We know from the results of our first year in Hastings that author-led projects can make a real difference. We are focusing on increasing reading frequency and enjoyment by implementing regular fun reading and engagement opportunities through LitUp - with a key element of this being in-person author visits.

Author Sam Sedgman at one of the LitUp partner schools in Hastings

The Bloomsbury Institute

Bloomsbury Institute events in Exeter

In 2023/2024, we continued efforts to refocus the core aims of the Bloomsbury Institute, working with the Writers & Artists team to develop a programme that demystifies the publishing industry for those hoping to pursue a career in publishing. Our focus is on reaching people from backgrounds and parts of the UK currently underrepresented in publishing, to help create a more diverse and inclusive sector. We bring together publishing professionals from all corners of the industry to share their expertise and insight, and offer advice and support to those considering a career in books. We are partnering with organisations, charities and institutions around the country to deliver events all over the UK, supported by online content and resources. The events offer a rare opportunity for interested individuals outside of London to meet and network with publishing experts and get first-hand advice for breaking into the industry. To date, Bloomsbury Institute events have taken place in university towns such as Edinburgh, Exeter, Brighton and Cardiff.

Partnership publishing

Our Children’s team publishes books in partnership with three leading UK charities whose key focus is nature conservation and wildlife: the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and The Woodland Trust. These partnerships involve the publication of titles by Bloomsbury that support the activities of these charities, and embed their public mission statements into the commercial world of bookselling, reaching far beyond their membership pool with titles across all age groups from three years upwards. We are experts at commissioning high profile authors with excellent credentials to work alongside charities we support.

Bloomsbury’s Non-Consumer Division also publishes in partnership with the RSPB, with the Special Interest division publishing the popular RSPB Spotlight series. The charities which Bloomsbury partners with in this way are supported by royalty payments made by Bloomsbury in connection with sales of the relevant books.

Staff volunteering

Employees worldwide are involved in formal volunteer reading schemes and regularly attend schools in their respective markets. They provide supervised reading support to young readers, often from disadvantaged backgrounds where their opportunities to develop reading skills may be hindered.

Many employees are involved in their local communities, typically promoting literacy, literature and education, by sitting on committees, as governors of schools, by supporting special interest groups and as trustees and supporters of publishing industry and arts voluntary organisations. These voluntary activities by employees are often directly, or indirectly, assisted by the business and by Bloomsbury colleagues.