Slimming World aims for £2m with Big Clothes Throw 2016
Melanie May | 2 June 2016 | News
Slimming World has held its annual Big Slimming World Clothes Throw, which raises money for Cancer Research UK through slimmers donating their old clothes.
The campaign sees Slimming World’s 800,000 group members donate the clothes, shoes and accessories they have successfully slimmed out of to local Cancer Research UK shops across the UK. It takes place for two weeks in May each year, across Slimming World’s 13,000 groups and is open to all 800,000 members, as well as the wider community.
Each bag is worth £25 to the charity: more with the addition of Gift Aid. Official figures are still to come for this year, but 2015’s Big Clothes Throw raised £1.7m for Cancer Research UK, and this year it aims to raise £2m. Since the campaign launched in 2013, it has raised £3.8 million for the charity.
In 2015, the most successful areas in 2015 were the groups in the Wiltshire/East Dorset district, who raised £102,662.38 with 3876 bags, and the South West Wales groups, who raised £115,944.30 with 3759 bags. At the organisation’s head office in Alfreton, 300 staff collected 485 bags, raising an estimated £12,500.
The partnership between Slimming World and Cancer Research UK came about after after Slimming World members and consultants voted for Cancer Research UK to benefit from their fundraising activities through Slimming World’s charitable foundation SMILES (Slimmers Making It a Little Easier for Someone).
The partnership aims to raise awareness of the links between cancer and obesity, as well as raise funds, with the key message that keeping a healthy weight could reduce the risk of developing ten different types of cancer. Overall since they started working together in January 2013, Slimming World has raised more than £4.4 million for the charity.
Slimming World has a number of other fundraising campaigns in its calendar. Slimming World does Race for Life encourages Slimming World groups to hold their own activity-based event. The campaign has run for three years and will be repeated in July this year. So far Slimming World does Race for Life events have raised more than £555,000 towards the fundraising total. In January 2014, Slimming World also launched a charity donation box, encouraging members to donate the 5p change from their weekly group fees. This activity has raised £109,000.
Picture: Slimming World Medway team.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.