8 great corporate partnerships helping UK charities
Melanie May | 9 March 2021 | News
From KIND Snacks’s partnership with CALM, to Vodafone’s with Business2Schools, here are eight ways companies have been helping good causes at the start of 2021.
KIND Snacks & CALM
KIND Snacks has partnered with suicide prevention charity, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and is donating 5p from every pack sold in Tesco and WHSmith, who will also match the donation, to the charity. As part of this partnership, in February, KIND Snacks also worked with Dr Alex George to offer people the chance to send personalised billboard messages to loved ones across the country. The Driving Kindness campaign saw vans hit the streets of London, Liverpool, and Manchester, with residents able to submit messages to be sent on the digital van to their family and friends.
Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust & Musto
The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Musto will celebrate 20 years of support after agreeing to extend their long-standing partnership to the end of 2025. Musto have been the official clothing suppliers since the Trust was launched in 2003. Every year Musto supplies young people, volunteers and skippers on the Trust’s trips with essential sailing and sun-protective gear, including UPF 50 long-sleeved t-shirts, caps, waterproofs and salopettes. Staff also fundraise for the Trust through things like office bake sales and entering teams in challenge events, while Musto employees have also joined Trust trips to experience first-hand the difference their support makes.
Theraposture & MS Society
Theraposture, supplier of Rotoflex rotating beds, adjustable beds, chairs, and care cots, has been selected by the MS Society’s trading company ‘MSS (Trading) Limited’ as an official Affinity Partner. From February 2021, the MS Society will be able to signpost people living with multiple sclerosis to Theraposture products at reduced prices. Additionally, every sale will generate a donation from Theraposture to the charity. Theraposture is the first and only product manufacturer to be appointed by the MS Society as an official Affinity Partner. As well as discounted prices, every Theraposture client living with MS will benefit from a full assessment of needs and wants, including a demonstration and chance to try solutions before purchase, a 14-day suitability guarantee and comprehensive warranty.
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We are delighted to see these packs out in supermarkets, thank you for the photo 🙌 https://t.co/gsquWKuvKJ
— Family Fund (@FamilyFund) February 19, 2021
McCain & Family Fund
McCain has announced a £1 million pledge over three years to support Family Fund’s goal to provide 150,000 grants and services per year to families raising disabled or seriously ill children. The partnership comes as Family Fund reveal there has been a 37% rise in families raising disabled or seriously ill children seeking support during Covid-19. The grants will enable the families to purchase essential items critical to easing the strain of their day-to-day lives, from kitchen appliances such as fridges and ovens, to technology such as tablets and computers. The items will allow the families to spend more time together, such as during mealtimes.
Pop Figures & Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice
Funko Pop Figures supplier Pop Figures has helped father-daughter duo and avid Funko Pop Figure collectors, Danny (40) and Jasmine Pallent (14) raise £23,000 for Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice. The pair have their own YouTube channel, DannyJaz, where they stream unboxings of Funko Pop Figures. They have 5.58K followers and have built up an extensive collection of rare and limited-edition figures and collections from across the globe, which has taken over a whole room in their home. Danny & Jasmine contacted supplier Pop Figures last September to see if they could purchase products at a reduced price to raise some funds for the charity. The company decided to donate 500 boxes of Funko Pop Figures instead, and to double what Danny and Jasmine raised. The figures were then sold within the space of a week, raising over £7,000 alone.
Unity Trust Bank & National Education Union
Specialist commercial lender, Unity Trust Bank has pledged its support for the National Education Union’s Help a Child to Learn campaign, providing access to basic learning resources for school children who are living in poverty. Research by the NEU found that, during lockdown, an overwhelming number of pupils had limited or no access to essential materials when learning from home. Some students had reportedly been using sheets of toilet paper or flyers to do their work on, as they didn’t have alternative resources to use at home. Unity’s £5,000 donation will help up to 10 schools access ongoing support for their most disadvantaged students.
https://twitter.com/UKScouting/status/1353794661975003136
Zoom & The Scout Association
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. and The Scout Association have partnered to tackle child loneliness in the UK. As a result of the partnership, The Scout Association has provided virtual experiences for 475,000 young people aged 6 – 25 years. Supported by 163,000 adult volunteers, the organisation has facilitated and enabled opportunities to develop the fundamental skills needed for school, university, job interviews, and later life. The Scouts worked with Zoom to ensure they created materials to show how to connect safely as well as how to take full advantage of the platform to make meetings both fun and interactive. This included using digital whiteboards and breakout rooms. Since March 2020 The Scout Association has clocked up 135 million Zoom minutes as part of 300,000 different programme sessions and support meetings.
Vodafone & Business2Schools
Vodafone announced it is donating 10,000 dongle devices to Business2Schools, which will distribute them to schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Heads can give them to children who still lack the connectivity they need to access online learning and catch-up classes. Vodafone also announced it has made a £200,000 donation to the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s ‘Learn at Home’ campaign. This donation will enable it to distribute 500 computer kits to disadvantaged young people and provide specialist training to youth workers so they can teach digital and coding skills.
Main image: Vodafone & Business2Schools
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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.