Our commitment to volunteering
At RIVA, every colleague receives one paid volunteering day per year. This mandatory day turns our values into action, delivering practical support, strengthening trust, building staff wellbeing and transferable skills, and creating a shared, inclusive culture of purpose – all aligned to our mission of delivering ‘procurement with purpose’.
Every year our team put forward ideas for worthy causes and we pick a new charity to spend the day volunteering with. This year it was the Royal British Legion (RBL) and we collected donations for the London Poppy Appeal!
About the RBL and The Poppy Appeal
The RBL was formed in 1921 and is the country’s largest Armed Forces charity. Their vital work supports serving personnel, veterans and their families throughout their lives with whatever the need, whenever it’s needed.
The Poppy Appeal is their flagship fundraising campaign held every year, where the simple act of wearing a poppy sends a personal message of thanks and support for the Armed Forces community to see. The RBL asks the public not to underestimate the impact that wearing a poppy has for those who serve, and their families.
London Poppy Day
The London Poppy Day is a key fundraising event for the RBL’s annual Poppy Appeal. This one day street collection was a unique volunteering opportunity to donate our time and collect donations alongside over 1,000 currently serving personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force.
Collections took place from 7am to 7pm at over seventy mainline and underground stations across London – where we were stationed at Covent Garden!
Our day - and a fantastic amount raised!
We had a fabulous day! We were collecting donations for a poppy from 11am – 6pm and thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many different members of the public, hearing their stories and feeling the warmth of our generous public!
Our station at Covent Garden raised over £10,000
The London Poppy Day in total raised £1,478,000!!
An amazing accomplishment in just one day!
We very much look forward to where our RIVA volunteering adventure may take us next year!
