Kwik Fit raises more than £300,000 for Prostate Cancer UK, & other corporate fundraising news
Melanie May | 16 February 2022 | News
News of 15 corporate partnerships, some new, some ongoing, raising funds and providing support for good causes around the UK.
BHF & Bensons for Beds
Bensons for Beds and its customers have raised more than £189,000 in the past year for the British Heart Foundation. It takes the total raised since 2013 to more than £7.3 million through a partnership to find new homes for preloved beds, mattresses and bedroom furniture. Under the scheme, Bensons for Beds’ customers can donate unwanted items to the BHF which then sells them through its specialist Home stores, part of its network of stores across the UK, and its online eBay store. Not only does the scheme raise funds for medical research, but since the launch, it has completed nearly 79,000 collections of furniture that might otherwise have been thrown away, saving 3,864 tonnes of items from landfill.
We are delighted to announce that SAS UK has chosen our charity partner to be the @talent_foundry. It works with disadvantaged young people to help them discover what they’re amazing it. To learn more about the partnership go to https://t.co/ttsHHR5Kji pic.twitter.com/CeP5sBtiae
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— SAS Software IE (@SASSoftwareIE) February 9, 2022
The Talent Foundry & SAS UK
SAS UK has voted to select The Talent Foundry as its charity partner, meaning all proceeds from fundraising will be donated to the independent education charity. The Talent Foundry’s mission is to increase social mobility by helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds discover what they are amazing at. The two will also work together to design and deliver employability programmes.
Ronald McDonald House Charities & Medela
Global breastfeeding brand Medela has announced a partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities worldwide. It is donating Symphony breast pump kits and accessories to 60 Ronald McDonald House programmes in Australia, China, United Kingdom and the USA to celebrate Medela’s 60th birthday. In the UK alone, Medela is donating to all of the 15 Ronald McDonald House programmes across the United Kingdom. Through Medela Cares, Medela has donated £33,168.75 in breastfeeding supplies to support families staying at participating Ronald McDonald House programmes in the country.
Prostate Cancer UK & Kwik Fit
Kwik Fit has announced that despite the impact that pandemic restrictions have placed on face-to-face fundraising, over the last year it has raised more than £300,000 for charity partner Prostate Cancer UK. The funds are being used to raise awareness of the risks of prostate cancer, to support Prostate Cancer UK’s specialist nurses team, and help fund research into treatment and diagnosis, with a particular focus on developing an effective test for use in a national screening programme. With Covid-19, the programme has placed a greater focus on online activity and staff participating in virtual and individual events. These included a team of employees from the company’s Fleet and Mobile division completing a round the world trip – walking, running and cycling a total of 25,734 miles and raising over £18,000.
BHF & PureGym
PureGym and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) have announced a new three-year partnership. The partnership launches in Heart Month. Working together, PureGym and the BHF will provide people with information to help live healthier lives, the skills to help someone having a cardiac arrest and the support to recover from a cardiac event through a number of initiatives including the Healthy Hearts Programme where in conjunction with the British Heart Foundation, PureGym will provide people free access to informative guides, information and support through the PureGym app. The BHF and PureGym aim to raise £5 million over three years to fund research into heart and circulatory conditions. To kickstart this, PureGym have donated £100,000 to the BHF for Heart Month.
St Mungo’s & The White Company
St Mungo’s has announced that luxury lifestyle brand The White Company has pledged to support it for the next two years. The money will provide funds for St Mungo’s street outreach services in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Westminster. The White Company customers and staff will be offered a range of ways in which they can make a difference through fundraising and support people experiencing homelessness as they rebuild their lives.
Lamp & Scraptoft Golf Club
Leicestershire-based Scraptoft Golf Club has selected Lamp (Leicestershire Action for Mental Health Project) as its 2022 charity of the year. The club will partner with the charity to raise funds for, and awareness of the support available through Lamp. The flagship event in the 2022 schedule is the Scraptoft Queen’s Platinum Jubilee tournament which will take place on 3 June. The club will host 42 teams of four players in each team and the event will be open to members of the club and the public. In addition, businesses will be offered the opportunity to exclusively sponsor any of the 18 holes and interested parties can email Cathryn Hoyland for details about sponsorship. The day’s festivities and fundraising activities will also include a raffle and a sweep. All proceeds of the day will be donated to Lamp.
Kingfisher & charity partnerships
Kingfisher plc, which owns B&Q and Screwfix in the UK, has announced that it has surpassed its target of supporting over 1 million people with housing needs, three years early. Through charity partnerships, Kingfisher and its retail banners (B&Q and Screwfix) have supported projects that range from helping vulnerable people with housing needs to delivering valuable training and DIY skills. Last June, the Group doubled its ambition and now aims to help two million people by 2025. This has included B&Q Foundation awarding over £1.6 million in grants, a partnership between B&Q and Shelter where it funded the charity’s DIY Skills Adviser Service, and Screwfix Foundation’s support of over 2,000 local charities and not-for-profit organisations since it launched in 2013.
The Prince’s Trust & Prezzee
eGifting company Prezzee has launched an initiative to help raise money for The Prince’s Trust. ‘Gift and Give’ will see Prezzee donating 5% of the value of every gift card sold to The Prince’s Trust. There is no additional cost to the customer and the gift card can be redeemed at over 120 outlets, including ASOS, Deliveroo, Uber, and John Lewis. The partnership allows the gift recipient to choose a gift or experience from retailers that they love, while the gift giver can enjoy the fact they have donated to charity. Prezzee’s co-founder Shaun Bonett is also a director and patron of The Prince’s Trust.
CHAS & the Omni Centre
Children’s Hospices Across Scotland, AKA CHAS, is celebrating after securing a new two-year partnership with the Omni Centre in Edinburgh. The partnership will see Omni staff take on individual sponsor events while the centre will host a series of fundraising drives throughout the year including cosplay events to coincide with Marvel cinema releases at the Vue cinema. There are also plans for Nuffield Health within the Omni to organise a spinathon and for restaurant tenants to host their own fundraising events in aid of the charity which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Visitors to the centre can expect to see CHAS posters and displays highlighting the charity’s work, and there will be collection points and bucket shakes at seasonal events throughout the year such as Easter, Halloween and Christmas.
Read for Good, National Book Tokens, & The Booksellers Association
Read for Good has broadcast its first ever BBC Radio 4 Appeal to raise funds to provide books and storytellers for children in hospital. Hannah Beynon presented the appeal on behalf of Read for Good, sharing the moving story of how Read for Good’s books and storytelling sessions helped her teenage son, William, process a cancer diagnosis and cope with ongoing treatment during months in hospital. Long-standing supporters of Read for Good, National Book Tokens and The Booksellers Association are supporting the appeal by doubling all donations up to £15,000.
City Hospice & Space2B
Cardiff’s City Hospice has been adopted by Space2B at The Maltings as its Charity of the Year for 2022. Space2B at The Maltings is a business hub in Cardiff city centre, with 87 businesses and around 600 staff working out of it. The first event planned is a corporate quiz night.
Yorkshire Cancer Research & Leeds United
In partnership with Leeds United, Yorkshire Cancer Research is encouraging fans to sign up and take part in Challenge90, a campaign to improve health and fitness and reduce the risk of developing cancer. The Yorkshire charity is hoping to encourage fans to commit to 90 minutes of exercise a week – the length of a football match – until the end of the season, whilst raising vital funds to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the region. Originally aiming to reach a collective goal of 100,000 minutes exercised this season, Challenge90 has now extended its target to 250,000 following support from fans and household names including club captain Liam Cooper, actor Ralph Ineson, and Kaiser Chiefs bassist Simon Rix.
Speed Of Sight & Driving Test Success
Provider of theory test revision materials in the UK, Driving Test Success, has announced that its charity partner of the year is Speed Of Sight. Speed Of Sight is run by blind race car driver and multiple World Record holder, Mike Newman and co-founder John Galloway and hosts driving experiences for people with disabilities. Driving Test Success will be supporting its work and helping to raise awareness.
Royal Marsden Cancer Charity & SimplyHealth
The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity has received a donation of £33,750 from Simplyhealth, to help fund a unique exercise intervention project which is providing specialist support for prostate cancer patients. The donation will support the THRIVE project, a Royal Marsden initiative in collaboration with The Exercise Clinic®. Designed to address the unmet physical needs of prostate cancer patients, THRIVE is a multi-team, cross discipline project which aims to go above and beyond the standard of care for patients.
Mind & Allianz Insurance
Allianz Insurance has reached its target of raising £1 million for Mind. The partnership launched in 2019 with the aim of raising funds for the charity, as well as supporting Allianz to create an open workplace where mental wellbeing is championed. Despite the challenges of lockdown, Allianz got creative with ways to raise funds – from shaving beards to cycling from London to Amsterdam. A key fundraiser was Stronger Together, which was designed to motivate and connect employees during lockdown. Fitness and wellbeing activities were logged using an app which turned into charity donations. Over 1500 employees took part, covering 180,887km by running, walking and cycling, spending 40,746 hours moving and raising £40,950. Beyond fundraising, the partnership has seen 193 Mental Health First aiders trained and introduced to the organisation to support employees. Wellbeing activities, such as guided meditations and fitness classes, on occasion hosted by Mr Motivator, were also offered.
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.