Social Responsibility
We champion opportunities to give back, from wellbeing workshops for workers, hands‑on volunteering and fundraising to supporting local causes that enrich the community well beyond the working day.
Charity Partner Providence Row
In 2025, the Eastern City BID announced its two-year partnership with local homelessness charity Providence Row, accompanied by a £100,000 funding commitment.
As part of this partnership, Providence Row was named our Charity of the Year, marking a significant step in the BID’s ongoing efforts to support vulnerable communities across the Square Mile.
Located just a mile from the City, Providence Row has been tackling homelessness and poverty in East London for over 150 years. The charity provides essential frontline support including hot meals, healthcare, housing advice, and pathways into work for people experiencing homelessness. During Christmas, through a series of initiatives, events, and volunteering opportunities, we encouraged everyone — residents, workers, and visitors — to give back and help make a difference over the festive season, and the collective efforts enabled Providence Row to continue its mission through the harshest winter months.
Action Funder Grant Programme
We launched its annual ActionFunder grant programme in 2023 to support community organisations making a positive impact across our local area. Through this fund, we back initiatives that help the Eastern City thrive—strengthening social purpose, encouraging collective action and empowering the communities who shape the area every day. Our programme reflects our ambition for a district that is diverse, evolving, sustainable and rooted in local connection.
The Eastern City Community Fund, delivered in partnership with ActionFunder, entered its third year in 2025 and supported nine local projects, reaching an estimated 1,670 beneficiaries and engaging 30 volunteers. This year’s grants backed a diverse mix of initiatives, from St Joseph’s Hospice creating a new therapeutic sensory room for patients in palliative care, to Sona Tech C.I.C. helping refugees access employment through training and mentoring, and Wapping Hockey Club using sport to build confidence and teamwork among young people. Other supported programmes are strengthening food security, nurturing intergenerational connections and widening opportunities for young people across East London. Many of the projects are already underway, demonstrating the fund’s ongoing commitment to empowering communities and driving positive social impact across the Eastern City and beyond.
Bridge Watch
In late 2025, four City Business Improvement Districts joined forces with the Ascension Trust to help prevent suicides on and around the City of London bridges. Eastern City, Culture Mile, Aldgate Connect and Cheapside Business Alliance each pledged £10,000 to Bridge Watch to assist with training and funding volunteers.
Over 5,000 people in the United Kingdom die by suicide each year. That is 115 a week. The Ascension Trust works closely with the City of London Police, RNLI, the City of London Corporation and other key organisations to provide a physical presence of teams of volunteers to patrol areas on and around bridges in the city.
City Giving Day
The Lord Mayor’s Appeal is part of the City of London’s commitment to create a fairer society, and every year runs City Giving Day – a unique event which unites businesses in the City and beyond by celebrating the positive impact their fundraising and volunteering has on charity partners and local communities. 526 companies were involved in 2022 with Eastern City BID sponsoring one of the main fundraising events – the Tour de City Static Wattbike Challenge. In 2023, the same event raised £20,000 from 40 of our corporate teams whilst simultaneously providing us with a chance to engage with our businesses and their employees.
SEEDL Digital Learning Hub
The five City of London Business Improvement Districts –Eastern City, Fleet Street Quarter, Culture Mile, Cheapside Business Alliance, and Aldgate Connect began the launch of their learning platform, in partnership with SEEDL to offer local businesses free access to pioneering learning hub in September 2025. All employees in businesses based within the City BIDs now benefit from free, unlimited access to over 200 live courses across a broad range of subjects, including Sales, Leadership, Customer Service, Mental Wellness, Compliance, Project Management, Diversity & Inclusion, Office 365, Communication and many more. This learning hub offers courses designed to upskill local employees, boost business performance, and contribute to the continued growth and success of the City and BIDs as thriving business districts.
Wellbeing for workers
The Eastern City BID has continuously prioritised and promoted wellness and community connection within its footprint. From hosting a series of wellbeing workshops, offering sessions like Sleeping for Success, Restorative Yin, and Mindful Mixology, plus walking tours, gardening workshops, fitness classes and more and all designed to help participants recharge and reset for the New Year. As part of our ‘Recharge’ campaign, our workshops saw 120 participants in 2024 alone. The walking tours and events often align with cultural calendar moments such as PRIDE, London Festival of Architecture and International Women’s Day, when we hosted a menopause clinic that was attended by 16 women. In total we hosted 17 events with 299 sign-ups from local employees.