Community and charitable work

Giving back to the local community and supporting talent through company sponsorship has been at the heart of Reuben's philanthropic principles from the company’s start. Some examples of our support are highlighted here:

  • One of the local business sponsors and supporters of the first ever Highworth Jazz Festival that took place in June 2024. It was a fantastic community event, spread across 5 venues centred around the Highworth High Street, with 20 Artists from across the UK performing Live jazz (read more in our June 2024 updates below). And it's back for 2025 - bigger and better.
  • Proud supporter of Luke ‘The Duke’ Watkins, professional cruiserweight boxer from 2015-2024, supporting Luke with the design, building, hosting and ongoing management of his website
  • Proud sponsor of 17 year old Domonic Newbury, one of the young rising stars of British Motocross, currently competing in the British Championships
  • Built and hosted the original website for the Keep Highworth Green project, when the old Council-owned golf course was earmarked for housing development until the decision was overturned in 2022
  • Complimentary hosting services for local Swindon voluntary organisation, Dial a Ride, which has been providing door-to-door transport services to provide a lifeline to help people get out more and be more independent.
  • Ray's lifelong passion for Jazz has led to a meeting of minds and a new friendship with the very talented and award-winning jazz saxophonist and author Simon Spillett. Reuben Digital has donated the creation of a formal blog and fresh new website to become a fitting permanent digital home to Simon's historically and culturally-significant writings, pictures and archive material. Ray has also provided financial support (in addition to a crowd funding project), to enable the first new Big Band recordings of the arrangements and compositions of one of the UK’s most important modern jazz musicians, Tubby Hayes, to be made in 50 years. Acting in the capacity of “executive producer”, Ray was privileged to attend the recording session at the fabulous studios at the Trinity School, Croydon.

Having moved offices back to Highworth High Street in 2023, Reuben Digital is looking forward to contributing to this vibrant market town and participating in some of the local events and initiatives.

    1. The second Highworth Jazz Festival took place in May, bringing over 20 great jazz musicians to the town. This year’s theme was ‘women in jazz’ and the performances were inspiring and truly world-class. Reuben Digital was proud to be one of the local businesses sponsoring the event, which brought some great energy to our Cotswold town.

    2. We have started a monthly food collection for the Swindon Food Collective, who help local people who can’t afford to eat every day. ‘Food bank Thursdays’ is entirely voluntary for our team but helps us contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) ‘No Poverty’. It is our aim to positively impact all 17 of the UN’s SDGs – we are now just one SDG from achieving this!

      16 out of the 17 UN SDGs

    1. Recently, we’ve enjoyed designing and building a website at our lower charity rate, raising money to fund the restoration of the Douglas C-47 Dakota aircraft which stands outside 47 Air Despatch Squadron at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. With the marking of the 80th anniversaries of D-Day and Operation Market Garden in 2024, the restoration of the “Gate Guardian” Dakota is more than just preservation—it’s a duty to honour its legacy. She’ll never fly again but the Dakota requires a deep clean and re-paint to restore her back to full glory, and Ray has also been rolling up his sleeves and getting stuck in with the sandpaper. Check out the website - all donations are most welcome.

    2. Our work with local charity superwoman, Dr Rosa Matheson, over the past 6 months reached a milestone in February, when the first website raising funds for underprivileged women in Nepal went live! The 100 Women Book Project is a book written by Rosa to raise money to help Nepalese women through the provision of education opportunities and help starting new business ventures. Through the website, provided free of charge by Reuben Digital, the books may now be sold online reaching a much wider audience.

June 2024

  1. Underpinning our principles of purpose before profit, Reuben Digital had the opportunity, along with other great local businesses to be the main sponsor and supporter of the first ever Highworth Jazz Festival that took place on 1st June 2024. It was a fantastic community event, spread across 5 venues centred around the Highworth High Street, with 20 Artists from across the UK performing Live jazz.

    The headline acts were staged in the 14th century St Michael’s Church, with other performances being held in the Wine Bar, The Highworth Hotel, The United Reformed Chapel and of course the centre of the town / community, the Podium in the market square.

    Not only providing financial support to the festival, Reuben Digital also created the event website, and supported the festival with digital marketing, including social media content, publishing and paid advertising. The event was a huge success, co-event organiser and managing director of Reuben Digital, Ray Stephens commenting that there was 100% positive feedback from all that attended the invent, including the musicians themselves, and also local business expressing what a fantastic day they had, with the local chip shop stating it was their best Saturday ever!

    Congratulations to all involved in the event, and we look forward to being able to support you again next year.

September 2024

  1. In July, Reuben Digital started working with a charity called Friends of Angel’s Orphanage, set up by Highworth residents Drs Rosa and Ian Matheson in 2009. The charity supports a group of 22 orphaned and abandoned children in Kathmandu, Nepal who were living in desperately circumstances and poor health. Over the years, the Friends charity has supported the children with healthcare, education, housing and emotional support, to see them develop into healthy and confident young adults. Reuben Digital will be providing this extraordinary charity with a new website to help them reach more supporters to further their important work out in Nepal.
  2. We shall shortly be commencing on a new website development project for a Dakota airplane restoration project based at RAF Brize Norton. The Douglas C-47 Dakota, a powerful symbol of history, stands outside 47 Air Despatch Squadron at RAF Brize Norton as a poignant tribute to the heroic role Air Despatchers played during WWII. RAF Ground Engineers have already restored the broken tail rudder, and now, with the help of a dedicated team of volunteers—including former dispatchers, local businesses and members of the public—fundraising has started to fund a full-body repaint. The website, built at our special charitable rate, will help the fundraising efforts and will follow the Dakota’s restoration journey. The team here at Reuben Digital is looking forward to getting involved with this historic project.

December 2024

  1. Ray met with Earthsea in Indonesia this autumn, an environmental organisation dedicated to addressing environmental challenges by transforming waste, particularly used cooking oil and plastic, into renewable resources. We will be collaborating on a new website project with them in the New Year.

December 2023

  1. We will shortly be going live with an all-new website for Brighter Futures, the charity for Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Working in partnership with design agency Jazzbones, we have built this website at a special charitable rate.
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