FUNDING for more than 198,000 days of access to clean, life saving water has been provided to Malawi villagers by a Scottish business advisory.
In partnership with Buy 1 Give 1, one donation was made by accountancy firm Russell & Russell for every customer who provided their tax return information earlier than the scheduled deadline.
The incentive has supplied the villagers with the equivalent of 545 years’ water support in a bid to highlight the company ethos.
Managing director Stuart Clark said: “One of our core purposes is to change lives-the lives of our team, our clients, and complete strangers-and this initiative has helped us to achieve all three.
“Improving access to clean water is a sustainable gift that will benefit people in villages across Malawi for years to come, rather than just providing a one-off hit. This is a gift for life.”
Around one million tax returns are not sent before their deadlines. The incentive helped the firm bring in double the tax return information by the September 30 deadline than it did in the previous year.
“I think a stick rather than carrot approach can work in the short-term, but you have to ask yourself whether that client is going to be with you next year or the year after,” Clark said. “We favour a nudge and the carrot rather than the stick and that really seems to be working.”
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