Each year Iain Scott, the managing director of Base Creative, a web design and digital marketing agency, offers one charity its services pro bono. It’s a significant commitment for a six-person business but, apart from the feel-good factor, it offers big commercial benefits. “I wanted to start talking to local London-based charities to start a dialogue to make sure that they were aware of us as well as us being aware of them,” he said. “Working with the charities gives us a referral base — if they benefit from us they are in a position to refer us to their contacts and other charities that they work with.”

Mike Thornton takes a similar view. He’s the client director at Broadgate Estates, a property management company that works with Cambridge House, an anti-poverty charity. “It [the partnership] has been very good for our brand and has provided networking opportunities,” he said. For example, Cambridge House includes Broadgate’s involvement in its annual report — something that has an increasing reach since the Southwark-based charity recently won contracts to provide services in 13 other London boroughs. Broadgate also mentions its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme when tendering for work. “I can’t say hand on heart that it has helped us to win business, but we have continued to grow over the past 18 months despite the recession,” Mr Thornton said.

Interestingly, 28 per cent of the 59 companies that entered this year’s Dragon Awards for corporate community involvement — British Land and Base Creative both won awards — told the organisers, the City of London Corporation, that they had increased their community activity in response to the recession.

Long-term community involvement, for which British Land, the property group, received the Lord Mayor’s award at last night’s event, can also have long-term commercial benefits. Since the early 1990s it has worked with the West Euston Partnership, a neighbourhood organisation, to regenerate an area of London that it owns near Warren Street Tube station. Projects, developed in consultation with residents, include a crèche and a community theatre.

“Because of what we do as a property company there are real commercial benefits to it,” Sarah Cary, a sustainable developments executive at British Land, said. “We have investments in the area ... [and] we see land values going up and that does affect our bottom line.”

• This year’s Dragon Award winners:

Economic regeneration award — Base Creative’s Working With Us programme; Education award — British Airways Community Learning Centre; Education award (small business) — Lovell’s Partnership in Action programme; Heart of the City award — Investec’s Social Investment programme; Heart of the City award (small business) — 8build’s Giving Back Initiative; Social inclusion award — Broadgate Estates and Knightsbridge Guarding’s Reaching Out programme; Lord Mayor’s award — British Land’s West Euston Community Support; Volunteer of the year award — Rosie Spooner, medical student, at St George’s, University of London, for outstanding community work.

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