John Lewis gives staff more time for volunteering

Howard Lake | 12 June 2013 | News

Retailer John Lewis will encourage its staff (or 'partners') to spend more time volunteering in the community. It will allocate more than 33,000 working hours a year to volunteering, an increase of 70%.

Each full line John Lewis shop has a community liaison coordinator who works with local community groups and charities. This can involve product donations, financial support and the use of community rooms and volunteering time.

Christine Kasoulis, director, brand development at John Lewis, said: "Volunteering is a key way in which many of our branches already assist and benefit the local community. By pledging to increase our volunteering commitment and enabling Partners to be released from their day jobs for increased amounts of time, we seek to extend our support even further."

Many John Lewis shops recently joined in Craft and Design month, with haberdashery departments leading workshops for charities, schools and community groups. The parent support group of Cubitt Town Infant and Junior Schools in Stratford attended the John Lewis Stratford branch for an arts and craft event which saw 11 parents create a three metre panoramic view of London from left-over fabrics from the shop's haberdashery department.

Photo: Andy Kowalik on Flickr.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.