Filters Alternative Christmas Giving

2020 has been a year of extraordinary uncertainty, isolation and apprehension, testing the resilience, resolve and patience of us all.

Usually, for us, Christmas is a time for giving cards and gifts of gratitude and thanks to our clients and stakeholders alike.

This year, as it’s like no other, we have collectively decided as a business to not send gifts that can’t be shared amongst teams, but instead, we have donated to charity.

Our charity of choice is Big Orange Heart, the world’s first peer support community dedicated to remote workers within the WordPress community. The charity’s aim is to support and promote positive well-being and mental health for those working from home.

With an accelerated change in working patterns and environments this year, the charity has seen an increase in people from the global WordPress community openly acknowledging they are experiencing mental health issues linked to isolation.

The Big Orange Heart community has seen substantial growth this year with more than 16,000 members and are now delivering a variety of support, intended to help reduce social isolation for remote workers on a weekly basis.

The charity provides a variety of education and well-being services from webinars, workshops, mentoring and coaching programmes to their extensive free resource library. Members of the community can also gain access to a wealth of assistance through their peer support and business hubs.

Having adapted to remote working ourselves this year, we are aware of the challenges working from home can bring. At Filter, we have been lucky to be able to support one another with the transition to our new working environments and have adapted well. We are acutely aware however that others from the WordPress community have struggled with feelings of isolation and loneliness.

The Big Orange Heart provides free membership to the WordPress community and are reliant on donations to provide these valuable support services. We are therefore delighted to be able to offer a donation this year that will go some way to supporting freelancers, consultants, web developers, designers, agencies and many more.