Fujitsu and Autistica Partnership

In 2018 Fujitsu chose Autistica as their first small charity partner. Little did we know that this partnership would take us through one of the most unprecedented times in recent history. In the first two years of the partnership, we reached an amazing £755,020, with £150,000 of staff fundraising and over 4,000 hours of time volunteered which helped fund vital autism research into key areas of need such as mental health, language and communications and epilepsy. The partnership also leveraged each other’s areas of expertise to develop a digital citizen science platform to help autistic people navigate public spaces. At a time when all support was redirected to the Covid-19 emergency crisis, and medical research charities experienced a 38% loss in their fundraising income, Fujitsu stood by Autistica’s side and extended the partnership for another 2 years to ensure no autistic people would be left behind. Now in its third year, the partnership continues to build on each other’s skills to tackle the inequalities autistic people face, including one of the lowest employment rates in society by building an innovative autism employment programme within Fujitsu.