Amidst the doom and gloom of the Covid-19 pandemic, finance firms are trying to do their bit to help those in need.

AJ Bell’s ‘Wage War on Covid’ fund raised £150,000 in its first month through donations from staff, customers, advisers and the general public.

The firm has also donated £30,000 to local foodbanks in Manchester and London through FareShare and Salford CVS, as the first initiative of its Wage War on Covid campaign.

It launched the campaign at the beginning of April under the umbrella of the AJ Bell Trust, a UK registered charity, with all funds raised going directly to charities or other causes supporting people affected by Covid-19.

FareShare Greater Manchester head of developments, Miranda Kaunang, said that they “welcomed” the donation, which is “needed now more than ever as we work to get intercept more surplus food from the food industry and get it onto the plates of those who need it most”.

Salford CVS chief executive, Alison Page, added that the food bank was “hugely appreciative” of the AJ Bell donation “to support our efforts to ensure local people can access nutritional food during and beyond lockdown”.

Other firms are also doing their bit to support those in need, with Premier announcing the ‘Premier Challenge’, aiming to cumulatively walk 10,000km to raise £10,000 by 10 May 2020.

The company’s staff, and their families and friends, will be walking the 10,000km to raise money for Cavell Nurses’ Trust, which has seen a 300 per cent increase in demand.

Premier has launched a Just Giving page (https://justgiving.com/fundraising/Steps4Cavell) for those that wish to donate, while the walk’s progress can be followed on the firm’s Instagram page.

In addition to firm’s fundraising, the Personal Finance Society (PFS) has launched a website to provide free financial educations for schools.

Part of its ‘My Personal Finance Skills’ programme, the website features four free online sessions, which each last roughly 25 minutes, covering staying safe from scams, moving on from school, my future finance and how to make financial decisions.

The sessions are available on demand via www.mypersonalfinanceskills.org and are designed for students aged between 14 and 18-years-old who are studying key stage four and five material at school.

The workshops are based on the Financial Education Planning framework and compliment financial education provision for students in their teens.

More than 900 PFS members have signed up to be ambassadors of the professional body’s initiative, which delivers financial education and awareness workshops to schools across the UK utilising gamification to support active engagement.

“While in-school workshops are currently on hold due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, the PFS has adapted our in-school material to offer students free online financial education,” said PFS chief executive, Keith Richards.

“We hope teachers, parents and pupils find these online sessions useful in educating the nation’s teenagers about money matters while school buildings remain closed to pupils whose parents aren’t identified as key workers.”

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