Funds come from staff giving, such as via round pound, community charity events, challenges which SBG matches up to £500, and company events and conferences.
How much in funds is raised will depend on the particular charity and its needs. With some charities it will be a matter of "raise as much as you can", with others, such as St Ann's, SBG has set a target it needs to raise to be able to fulfil its promise of building the consulting rooms.
Some charities such as Stepchange, are more interested in manpower than financials. Hence total fundraising numbers vary year by year and are solely based on proceeds from fundraising.
Good for business
Howells said there was "huge" appetite from staff to take part in charity events, and crucially, the work was also "good for business".
"We've got this mantra of 'doing good whilst doing well' and actually we found that some of the really important metrics for us improve when you focus on corporate social responsibility," he said.
He said staff engagement for instance had grown "dramatically", with 86 per cent agreeing in its latest survey that SBG was a great place to work.
"We believe part of that is the CSR work," Howells said.
Attracting new people in to the business, especially younger ones, has benefitted too, as well as keeping absenteeism low, at 1 per cent.
"A number of metrics tell us that having the CSR programme benefits the staff and therefore they reflect that in how they are at work. Engaged staff equals happy customers," he said.
He added: "Our net promoter score, which is the annual customer satisfaction score, has doubled in the last couple of years and part of that we will put down to the fact that our staff are much more engaged, and part of that is down to the fact that we run a very serious CSR programme.
"We think it's an integral part of the business doing well."
SBG has always done some kind of charity work but a proper CSR programme has been in place for about five years.
Howells said he'd seen very little effect on fundraising within SBG from the cost of living crisis and looming recession.
"Part of that is because the staff at SBG enjoy giving something back, it's part of the culture, it's part of what being part of SBG is about," he said.
"Maybe it's more important than ever because the acuteness of the problem for people in difficult situations is such now that if you'd had any scope to help them in any way I think people are much more up for doing that."
