Giving back

Part of the plan for Centre Stage Money has always been to give back, and to do that at global, national and local level. Building that methodology into a business in the early stages of it’s journey has been really interesting.

Currently, giving back exists as planting a tree for every session I do through the Trees for Life organisation.  Their mission is to reinstate part of the long-lost Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands, and they are doing fantastic work in that area. So with each financial coaching session, Centre Stage Money gets to be part of a Scottish project that has regional impact (by supporting wildlife including the red squirrel, for example) and global impact in terms of each tree absorbing carbon.

I’m aware that there isn’t an obvious ‘financial’ link about planting trees, but I wanted to put the climate emergency front and centre in terms of the business’ priorities, as it feels very important to me to do everything possible in terms of offsetting the carbon footprint of running Centre Stage Money. This week, by my calculations, I’ve reached the target of having planted enough trees for the yearly emissions of the business to be covered and that feels like a good landmark to reach.

Having said that there is no obvious financial link, planting trees does fit with the business’ fundamental values of sustainability, security and growth. And the idea that for every session that I client and I sit at either end of a video call and spend time changing their financial life for the better, there is tangible, living marker of that moment, which will live and grow to make the planet a better place, one day at a time… I care for that idea very much. For me, each one of those trees has a client’s name on it, and I suppose if I follow that follow that thought through, my name ought to sit there too.

So, that is giving model, for now. There are other types of giving that I plan to do as I reach various targets, and I very much look forward to writing about those in the future.