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14 ways businesses are supporting UK charities: from fundraising to donations of goods & campaign support

Melanie May

Melanie May | 23 October 2020 | News

From UltimateVisor’s donation of PPE to The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, to Tesco Pharmacy’s partnership with three charities to boost take up of flu jabs, and Leeds Building Society’s fundraising for Dementia UK, here are some ways businesses across the UK are supporting good causes.
 
Sainsbury's Furniture Store & Michelle Herd

Sainsbury’s Furniture Store & AberNecessities

Sainsbury’s Furniture Store is supporting AberNecessities’s ‘No Child Should Go Without Sweet Dreams’ campaign, which aims to help raise awareness and funds to provide underprivileged children with a good night’s sleep. The charity aims to raise enough funding to provide at least 50 beds for some of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire’s most vulnerable children. To help, Sainsbury’s Furniture Store is providing children’s beds and mattresses at cost price and supplying a free delivery and set-up service for each bed purchased.
 
Call4Fish and RNLI

Call4Fish & RNLI

This month, Call4Fish is supporting the RNLI’s Fish Supper campaign (9-25 October) by encouraging people to use locally sourced fish, host a Fish Supper with friends, and donate to the charity. Call4Fish was set up during the lockdown period in March this year to enable people to buy safely and have fish delivered to their door, while helping UK fishermen and local traders. By getting involved, supporters are helping to promote fish as a sustainable food source, while also ensuring that the RNLI’s volunteer crews can continue to help those in peril at sea. Fish Supper hosts can visit the Call4Fish website where they can search their region for local fish shops and merchants to place their orders.
 

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Vida & Crisis

Mortgage lender Vida has announced a three-year partnership with Crisis. Vida is committing to donate at least £150,000 to Crisis, while a circle of charity champions in the business will pioneer the cause and seek to inspire its people, intermediary partners and customers to take action to end homelessness. The partnership will involve employees at all levels, including Vida’s leadership team, who will be taking part in fundraising activities throughout the year. This includes World Homeless Day and the Edinburgh marathon, as well as Crisis at Christmas.
 
leeds mind

Futures & Leeds Mind

Leeds-based recruitment agency Futures is delighted to announce its charity partnership with Leeds Mind. The year-long relationship between the agency and Leeds Mind sees several events planned in including a “Carry the Burden” event later this month which will see staff members carry an item of their choosing for a full 24 hour period, representing the invisible burden that those suffering with mental health issues experience. All proceeds raised will support the running of Leeds Minds’ Online Peer Support Programme which helps the Leeds community through support groups and skills workshops.
 

Virgin Money & Mencap

Virgin Money and Mencap’s Charity of the Year partnership has raised over £440,000 including Gift Aid – a record-breaking amount – exceeding the original target of £300,000 and any previous charity partnerships to date. Over the last 18 months, Virgin Money colleagues’ fundraising efforts have included taking part in challenge events such as The Great North Run, holding bake sales, raffles and auctions. More recently, virtual activities such as step challenges, quizzes and bingo have raised vital funds for the charity. Throughout the partnership, Mencap and Virgin Money have also been raising awareness of learning disability and promoting diversity and inclusion together through a range of activity, and as Virgin Money’s Charity of the Year, Mencap was also the official charity for the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon.
 
Lidl Northern Ireland Charity Partnership With NSPCC Blossoms

Lidl Northern Ireland & NSPCC Northern Ireland

Lidl Northern Ireland has announced the second extension of its charity partnership with NSPCC Northern Ireland. The partnership will continue until 2022 with Lidl Northern Ireland increasing its fundraising commitment to £600,000. Established in 2017, the partnership has already delivered fundraising of more than £400,000 for NSPCC Northern Ireland through a range of activities and initiatives driven by staff members across 39 stores and supported locally by Lidl’s customers. Most recently, to recognise World Mental Health day on Saturday 10th October and the work the NSPCC does for young people across Northern Ireland, Lidl Northern Ireland launched a special seasonal bouquet to promote positive mental health with £1 from every sale going directly to NSPCC Northern Ireland.
 

 UltimateVisor & The Kaleidoscope Plus Group

UltimateVisor has partnered with national mental health and wellbeing charity, The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, and kitted out the charity’s entire workforce with personal protective equipment. The branded visors, donated by UltimateVisor, will enable the charity’s teams to safely continue their work in the community. The face coverings donated by UltimateVisor are CE certified and trusted by the NHS.
 
MADL £12m

Nisa’s MADL

The total raised for good causes to date via Nisa’s registered charity, Making a Difference Locally, reached the £12m mark last month. Since the charity’s formation in 2008, just over £12.04m has been raised for local communities, with just over £1m raised during the last 12 months alone. Nisa partners have supported local causes with more than 14,500 donations to date, with recipients ranging from foodbanks, hospices and refuges to youth sports teams and community groups, to name a few.
 

Tesco Pharmacy & charities

Tesco Pharmacy, Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK have joined forces to urge people at risk to get the flu jab, with a focus on vulnerable groups that often do not do so. Tesco Pharmacy is aiming to make the vaccination as convenient as the weekly shop, by operating a new online booking system, which makes booking a slot simple and convenient, with opening hours including evenings and weekends. In England a total of 369 Tesco pharmacies will offer the flu jab.
 

Leeds Building Society & Dementia UK

Leeds Building Society celebrated the first six months of its national charity partnership with Dementia UK, with the announcement it has raised over £100,000. Coronavirus meant traditional fundraising plans had to be put on hold and colleagues and members came up with innovative ways to raise money while following social distancing guidelines, often from home. This included online quizzes and a daily sponsored challenge throughout July; with colleagues doing everything from running to hula hooping. In April, the Society kick started its four-year partnership with Dementia UK – which aims to raise £500,000 – with a £25,000 donation.
 

Simplyhealth & Sported

Simplyhealth has launched a free health and wellbeing app, SimplyMe, to encourage and motivate consumers to lead healthier lives and look after their mental wellbeing. The app recognises individual’s habits and behaviours to support, nudge and provide personal motivation for each user. For every download of the app, Simplyhealth will donate £5 to help young people facing disadvantage to stay healthy, safe, and active through sport in a new partnership with Sported.
 
phone

OPPO, giffgaff, & Accord Housing Association

Accord Housing Association is helping to keep its customers connected through a partnership with mobile phone company OPPO, and network provider giffgaff. The new initiative aims to help keep people connected by donating 300 mobile phones and prepaid sim cards to Accord customers. Those benefitting from the scheme include customers who rely on internet access at the currently closed libraries, and people kept apart due to Covid-19 restrictions.
 
 
 

STV & SAMH

Broadcaster STV, and mental health charity SAMH have joined forces to help increase and improve awareness of mental health and wellbeing in Scotland across a three-year partnership. Through this partnership STV and SAMH will seek to increase awareness and improve mental health and wellbeing across a number of target audiences and platforms by creating strong brand association, and increasing the network of support for mental health initiatives across Scotland. SAMH will provide mental health input and guidance for news and production teams, and support STV’s commitments to positive mental wellbeing for its people, production teams, participants in its shows and audiences. SAMH is also the Scottish charity beneficiary of funds raised via the STV/ITV campaign ‘Britain Get Talking’.
 

Halma & WaterAid

Halma plc is partnering with WaterAid with a focus on two areas in north east India: Bhagalpur and Buxar, where only 15% and 3% of the population respectively have access to piped water supply in the community, while 1% of people in both districts have piped water in their homes. As part of the partnership, Halma – which has several water companies as part of its global group – will donate a minimum of £200,000 of funds, as well as its own water quality treatment technology, that will ensure 5,000 people gain access to a safe water supply through the installation of water quality treatment systems, 10 villages have community management of operations and maintenance and water quality monitoring – with Halma also training community volunteers to maintain and operate the systems; and 3,000 people have the resources to safely harvest water.
 

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Melanie May

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.

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