A selection box of Christmas corporate spirit
Melanie May | 4 December 2020 | News
Lots of companies are teaming up with charities this month to offer some support over the festive season. Here’s a selection.
DF Capital & Wood Street Mission
DF Capital is planning to walk, run, dance or cycle (virtually) the distance from the Manchester office to Lapland this month to raise money for its nominated charity, Wood Street Mission in Manchester. Everyone that has signed up to the challenge will each ‘travel’ part of the 3,187km (1,980 miles) between the two locations. If the destination is reached DF Capital will donate £1500 to the charity to buy gifts to distribute to families in need during the festive period. In addition, the company will also match any donations made by individual staff up to a total of £500.
Diageo & WaterAid
Diageo has launched a digital campaign to raise funds for WaterAid. The Balance Challenge is an augmented reality Instagram filter designed to encourage people to swap an alcoholic drink with water and raise money for WaterAid in the process. The challenge demonstrates the importance of balance, allowing users to balance virtual water vessels on some parts of their bodies by matching a series of on-screen poses. To date the challenge has seen bartenders around the globe take part in the fun campaign, helping remind people over the festive period about the importance of drinking in moderation as part of a balanced lifestyle. All participants are encouraged to donate the cost of an alcoholic drink to the charity.
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Buy a £1 ticket for your chance to win a Mulberry prize and help us provide 100,000 meals across London through @thefelixproject.To enter just head to https://t.co/upKOyhGXdZ pic.twitter.com/h5FOWTmSbf
— Mulberry (@MulberryEngland) December 1, 2020
Mulberry and The Felix Project
Luxury fashion company Mulberry has teamed up with The Felix Project for Christmas to help the charity rescue and redistribute enough food for 100,000 meals.
They have a weekly raffle on their website, offering some of their bags for just £1, and this raised £5,000 on its first day. Their social influencers are joining in by undertaking the #festivemulberrychallenge, and taff are also volunteering for the project. Customers are invited to take part in daily sponsored jogs in support of Felix.
WiFi SPARK & NHS hospitals
WiFi SPARK is offering a bespoke package of its entertainment platform, SPARK Media, to NHS trusts and health boards that already have its WiFi services installed over Christmas, without any additional costs. Hospital radio, interviews with musicians, BBC archives and more than 600 healthcare information videos are among the services that patients will be able to access free of charge over Christmas in hospitals signed up to WiFi services by WiFi SPARK. Hospital charities will also benefit from being supported on the SPARK Media platform, in a drive to help boost funds and raise awareness.
River Island & Newlife
River Island has chosen Newlife to fundraise for this Christmas, starting with a chance to raise money through social media on 3 December. The Wonder Island campaign will see River Island support Newlife in a number of ways this December, both online and in stores across the UK, with shoppers able to donate by texting WONDER to 70500 to donate £5, donating via collection tins located within select River Island stores, and donating online. Celebrations will reach a high on Do Something Wonderful weekend taking place on 5 and 6 December, with River Island staff actively promoting the campaign in-store. On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which took place on Thursday 3 December, River Island donated 10p for every ‘like’ it received on a dedicated social post on the @Riverisland Instagram page to mark the day. The campaign supports the charity’s Play Therapy Pods service.
McKesson UK & Alzheimer’s Society
McKesson UK, the parent company of LloydsPharmacy, has donated more than 400 free flu vaccines to its charity partner, Alzheimer’s Society. Appointments and vaccines were available to book online for the charity’s frontline Dementia Advisers and Dementia Support Workers between 25 November and 2 December. After partnering with Alzheimer’s Society in 2015, more than 28,000 McKesson UK colleagues have become Dementia Friends, a Memory Tree has been installed in the company’s Head Office in Coventry and teams have raised over £680,000 by taking part in national Alzheimer’s Society fundraising events such as Elf Day and Dementia Action Week. McKesson UK has also been able to fund research projects in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society, including a study looking at how early signs of dementia can be detected in speech patterns and a project investigating how to help people with dementia better manage diabetes.
Join us in spreading some magic this festive season. We've teamed up with @actnforchildren to give disadvantaged children, young people and families in the UK the gifts they really need, like warm clothes, food and safe shelter. https://t.co/HYHqBwLusR #MagicMoneyTree pic.twitter.com/EPScTal7Sf
— Metro Bank (@Metro_Bank) December 1, 2020
Metro Bank & Action for Children
Metro Bank has unveiled gift giving Magic Money Trees in each of its 77 stores – to support disadvantaged children across the UK. The initiative is being run in partnership with Action for Children, as the charity’s only corporate partner to host gift giving pop-up locations as part of its ‘Secret Santa’ campaign. Customers and non-customers alike are invited to pop-in to a Metro Bank store, take a ‘magic’ gold coin from the Magic Money Tree and use the QR code to buy a gift online. Gifts include a day’s food for a child at Christmas (£10), a pair of shoes for a child in winter (£25) or warm clothes for the cold season (£40. People can also make a donation for any amount of their choice. While encouraging its customers and colleagues to donate, Metro Bank will also gift the value of 1,000 days of food to vulnerable children to help ensure no child goes hungry.
Over 4,000 young people are likely to be facing homelessness in London this Christmas.
For every person that books November and December, we’ll make a donation of 40p – the cost to sponsor a room at @centrepointuk for a night.
Make a donation here – https://t.co/gFWu8ewuBy pic.twitter.com/YibGmrHVul
— Addison Lee (@AddisonLeeCabs) November 20, 2020
Addison Lee & Centrepoint
Addison Lee has announced a new winter partnership with Centrepoint. The partnership sees Addison Lee directly donate £20,000 to Centrepoint and appeal to passengers to support the partnership through their own donations. Later this month the company will deliver presents to homeless young people in hostels and donate rides to help Centrepoint staff get to work over the Christmas holidays. The launch also saw Addison Lee drivers use the boards that usually contain the name of their passengers to draw attention to the fact that at least 4,000 young people are likely to be facing homelessness in London this Christmas.
Vodafone & Barnardo’s
Vodafone supported the Barnardo’s Kidsmas Live Concert which was broadcast live on #GivingTuesday (Tuesday 1 December) and hosted by the charity’s President Natasha Kaplinsky. The event included performances from singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum and poet Hussain Manawer. Vodafone has also reopened The Great British Tech Appeal and is calling on the UK public and businesses to donate unwanted smartphones and tablets over the festive period and beyond. Vodafone will cover postage and repackaging, add six months free unlimited data connectivity and, via Barnardo’s, redistribute devices to disadvantaged children and families.
Virgin Media & Big Issue
Virgin Media will be donating £25,000 to Big Issue vendors across the country this Christmas, as part of its festive charity giveaway. Daily winners of Virgin Media’s ’25 show-stopping giveaways’ draw will receive a £1,000 cash prize to be donated to a Big Issue vendor in their local community. From 1 December and running for 25 days, £1,000 is being gifted each day, with Virgin Media working with the Big Issue team to connect to vendors across the UK.
Photo credit: Louise Haywood- Schiefer & Virgin Media
Bookshop.org, Penguin, & Neighbourly
Every time people purchase one of a number of hand-selected titles from Bookshop.org this Christmas, Penguin will donate one where it’s needed most. Penguin is working closely with Neighbourly to get books into the hands of grassroots good causes across the country, including food banks, homeless shelters, and community centres. The campaign will run from now until Monday 21 December 2020.
🚨 THE MOSAIK CHRISTMAS SHOP IS HERE! 🚨
Just 3% of refugees make it to university, buying these items will help us to give the gift of education this holiday season ❤️️
Browse the collection: https://t.co/DeL3lYL8Mo#WithRefugees #SupportTheirDreams #ShopSmall pic.twitter.com/4Nei2Icg6e
— Mosaik Education (@MosaikEducation) November 15, 2020
Small businesses & Mosaik Education
16 small businesses are collaborating with London-based charity Mosaik Education to launch the Mosaik Christmas Shop, raising money to support refugees accessing university. Each small business owner has chosen an item from their collection which is featured in the online Mosaik Christmas Shop. With each item sold, the small business makes a donation to Mosaik. The small businesses involved include Glasgow-based jeweller Freya Im, natural skincare brand Tropikal Sundai, and candle makers, Bouclé. Christmas gifts can be purchased from the shop until 15 December.
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.