British Red Cross’ ‘Shop for Grenfell’ to benefit victims of the fire
Howard Lake | 28 June 2017 | News
The British Red Cross is raising funds for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire by selling the excess clothes donated in the wake of the disaster in its high street charity shops across the UK.
The charity states that ‘Shop for Grenfell’ will result in “every penny raised from the sale of donated items in Red Cross stores [going] directly to help those affected by the fire.”
Specifically the money raised will go to the charity’s London Fire Relief Fund, which has so far raised over £3.2 million.
Upper Grenfell Tower – photo: ChiralJon on Flickr.com
40,000 boxes of donations
The huge response from the local community and from many people further afield has resulted in 40,000 boxes of donations, “the equivalent of three football pitches” in terms of space, according to the charity.
British Red Cross chief executive, Mike Adamson, said: “Over the past week we have taken stock of the scale of the donations and listened to what people think we should do with the excess clothes. ‘Shop for Grenfell’ offers everyone an opportunity to make a difference, either through the items they have already donated or by shopping in one of our many shops across the UK.
“The goods will be converted into cash to help people who have been left bereaved, injured or homeless as a result of the fire. Every penny will go to those people.”
Any items still required by the residents will of course be excluded from the sale. The best new clothes will be sent to affected families to choose from.
Recycling
As with other items donated to the British Red Cross, any unsaleable items will be sold for recycling and the profits from this will go to the fund.
https://www.facebook.com/BritishRedCross/videos/10155062896608124/
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‘Shop for Grenfell’ label
Clothing sold through the campaign will be labelled ‘Shop for Grenfell’.
The Red Cross has set up a UK-wide operation to sort and distribute the clothes.
The charity says that the plan has the backing of local community groups. Notting Hill Methodist Church and Rugby Portobello Trust have already committed to send their surplus donations to the Red Cross to distribute and sell.
The Red Cross will be working with these and other partners in the local community to recruit volunteers to help with the job.
Transporting the donations
The initial work of transporting the large volume of donations to the warehouse for safe storage was co-ordinated by Kensington and Chelsea council with help from M&S, Westfield and The Entertainer.
The British Red Cross has previous experience of coordinating similar retail fundraising campaigns disasters such as the Nepal earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
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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.