Social impact at Pan Macmillan: Making a Difference

A child reads The 143-storey Treehouse
Child reading The 143-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths (Author) and Terry Denton (Illustrator). Reproduced with permission (instagram.com/luvweshare).

Our mission and values together underpin the three pillars of our social impact programme, Making a Difference.

Our mission

To publish the very best authors and illustrators successfully and sustainably because we believe that books enrich people’s lives and help build empathy and understanding.

Our values

To ensure that everyone who works at Pan Macmillan delivers on our mission and shares the same goals, we have developed a set of values that define our working culture and are the foundation of our publishing. These values were derived in consultation with the whole company and they are deliberately illustrated in a circle to underline a lack of hierarchy in importance.

Making a Difference

Our Making a Difference programmes comprises three pillars:

Reading for Life

We work together to build awareness of the life-changing power of reading and listening. We employ our knowledge, resources and skills to improve the lives of adults and children from disadvantaged communities.

Projects include:

  • In partnership with the CLPE we launched The Big Amazing Poetry Project to mark thirty years of Macmillan Children’s Books’ award-winning poetry list. To embed poetry fully both into classrooms and in children’s choices when reading for pleasure, professional training was delivered to thirty primary school teachers across the country.
  • We’ve donated half a million books so far through the Marcus Rashford Book Club. A collaboration between iconic international football player and child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford MBE and Macmillan Children's Books, the book club aims to encourage and nurture a love of reading in children and get free books to the children who need them the most.
Three children stand in a row reading one of Marcus Rashford's Breakfast Club Adventures
The Marcus Rashford Book Club at Whinney Banks Primary School. Copyright: Magic Breakfast (www.magicbreakfast.com), reproduced with permission.

Building an Inclusive Community

We reach out to communities traditionally underrepresented in publishing. We are a vibrant and inclusive working community and we are committed to publishing books that reflect and represent readers from all ages and backgrounds.

Projects include:

  • We are the headline sponsor of the Black British Book Festival which fosters inclusivity in the publishing industry and engages with marginalised communities and in 2024 launched a new mentoring programme for Black British Writers, Writers on the Rise.
  • We are demystifying careers in publishing through The Secret Life of Books programme, particularly welcoming candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. The programme runs for thirteen weeks offering a unique insight into all aspects of publishing. 

Read our diversity, inclusion and equity statement.

A crowd watch an event in an auditorium
The Black British Book Festival. Copyright: Toyin Dawudu, reproduced with permission.

Protecting the Planet

We foster an ecologically minded approach to our publishing and encourage everyone who works at Pan Macmillan to do their bit for the environment at work and around the office and for the wider planet. 

Actions include:

  • A founding signatory to Publishing Declares, the Publishers Association’s sustainability pledge, we are working towards net zero by 2050
  • As a publisher we are committed to making a difference through the books that we publish and helping to inspire small steps towards a more ecologically-minded approach

Read our sustainability and sourcing policy.

Nancy Birtwhistle stands surrounded by trees
Nancy Birtwhistle, author of Clean & Green (2021); Green Living Made Easy (2022); The Green Gardening Handbook (2023); and The Green Budget Guide (2024).

Our Making a Difference programme is supported by our colleague networks Ability, Pride and RISE. 

Everyone who works at Pan Macmillan is encouraged to contribute both at work in the community through paid volunteer days.