Pitney Bowes donates over £17k to National Literacy Trust

Howard Lake | 6 February 2007 | Newswire

Mailstream technology company Pitney Bowes last year raised £17,170 through fundraising activity and donations for charity partner the National Literacy Trust.
In October Pitney Bowes ran its annual ‘Pushing the Envelope’ online auction of envelopes designed by top celebrities, raising £5,439. Stars such as actress Kate Winslet, Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry, author Joanne Harris, and children’s illustrator Raymond Briggs, put pen-to-paper and came up with original designs for auction. A desktop calendar using twelve of the celebrity-designed envelopes was sold internally at Pitney Bowes raising a further £211.
Following the auction, Pitney Bowes ran a Christmas card competition with local primary schools. Pupils were asked to design cards and the winning design was used as the corporate Christmas card. Internal sales of the card raised an additional £2300 for the NLT.
As part of its ongoing support of the NLT’s activities Pitney Bowes donated a £9,000 lump sum to aid the charity’s Reading is Fundamental scheme. The money will be used to support projects in two UK locations, which help encourage young people to read and provide them with books.
Finally, a further £220 was raised when Pitney Bowes took the opportunity to display the Barclays’ Premier League trophy for a day at their office. Employees were charged £1 to have their picture taken with the trophy, with all proceeds going to the NLT.
David Denney, Vice President Human Resources, Pitney Bowes, comments:
We are delighted to continue our support of the National Literacy Trust. For Pitney Bowes, the link to the NLT is clear. The charity is concerned with raising literacy standards across all age groups and improved literacy will always mean improved communication. Our own solutions help to make mailstream communication simpler and more integrated. We look forward to working with the NLT again this year and raising more funds for this good cause.”

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.