Volunteers collect record £628,000 in two days for British Red Cross Philippines appeal
Howard Lake | 13 January 2014 | News
Volunteers have raised £628,000 in just two days collecting at their local Tesco stores across the UK for the British Red Cross Typhoon Haiyan appeal. This is the largest amount of money ever raised by the public for a British Red Cross emergency appeal in 48 hours.
The collection took place on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November 2013, after Tesco allowed the Red Cross to hold bucket collections at every Tesco Superstore and Tesco Extra in the UK.
As a result volunteers, including many from the Filippino community, gave up a few hours of their time to help collect at more than 700 Tesco stores across the UK.
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Mark Astarita, British Red Cross Director of Fundraising, said:
“We have been overwhelmed by the response to our nationwide Tesco collection for our Typhoon Haiyan appeal. More than 2,000 volunteers including Tesco staff from around the UK gave up their weekend to help those whose lives have been devastated. We have heard amazing stories of generosity from the British public who gave an incredible £628,000 over the two days. We would like to thank Tesco for giving us such a fantastic opportunity and everyone who volunteered or made a donation.”
Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on 8 November 2013. It killed thousands and destroyed vital infrastructure leaving millions of people homeless and in dire need. Red Cross teams have been on the ground since before the storm hit, helping with evacuation plans and have continued to work after the disaster struck.
Haiti collection at Tesco
Tesco made possible a similar collection over two days following the Haiti earthquake in 2010. This raised £495,881 for the British Red Cross appeal.
Tesco has supported the British Red Cross for over 13 years. In 2009 the organisations launched a new kind of emergency partnership in which Tesco undertook to provide support for the work of Red Cross emergency teams at a local, national and global level.
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.