M&S' Christmas penny bazaars raise £750,000 for hundreds of charities
Howard Lake | 8 December 2009 | News
Marks & Spencer reports that its Christmas Penny Bazaars have raised £750,000 for hundreds of charities across the country, including £250,000 for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.
The high street retailer held two Christmas charity events in November. The Christmas Penny Bazaar preview event was open to M&S cardholders at 134 stores and raised £250,000 for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal. The main Christmas Penny Bazaar was then held at over 350 M&S stores, and raised £500,000 for local charities that had been selected by the participating stores.
The Penny Bazaar let customers buy a range of traditional stocking-fillers and festive gifts such as socks, mugs, money boxes and ties for just 1p.
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By midday that day, over one million customers had visited M&S stores, more than double the average for a Friday morning.
Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman of Marks & Spencer, thanked customers. “Everyone gave much more than the suggested 1p per item,” he said, “meaning they helped hundreds of charities across the country whilst still getting a great deal.”
The Christmas Penny Bazaars built on the success of M&S’ Penny Bazaars in May, held to celebrate the store’s 125th anniversary. These events offered two million items for 1p and raised £200,000 for hundreds of charities including Cancer Research UK and the RNLI.
www.marksandspencer.com
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.