McDonald’s raises £1.2mn for BBC Children in Need & other corporate partnership news
Melanie May | 24 October 2022 | News
McDonald’s raised the money during year one of its three-year partnership with the charity. Other partnerships in this round up include B&Q’s with IKEA, OVO Energy’s with The Conservation Volunteers, and Primark’s with CHAS.
McDonald’s & BBC Children in Need
After the first year of their five-year partnership, BBC Children in Need and McDonalds have announced that £1.2mn has been raised to support 11,500 children and young people across the UK. The McDonald’s funding will go directly to 60 community projects, which are delivering a variety of youth activities that help prevent young people being held back in life. The first year of the partnership has also delivered a pilot of the new Community Connections programme, which has been establishing relationships between projects funded by BBC Children in Need and local McDonald’s restaurants. Over 70 connections have been made to date, helping youth workers across the UK engage with young people outside of the traditional settings. In August, McDonald’s also enabled customers to donate their MyMcDonald’s rewards points to the charity, with more than 6.5m points donated to BBC Children in Need in two months.
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OVO Energy & The Conservation Volunteers
OVO Energy and The Conservation Volunteers have distributed 50,000 packs of UK native trees to grow in the UK. The Conservation Volunteers’ I Dig Trees community tree planting scheme is a partnership programme helping to deliver OVO Energy’s Planting Promise; planting 1 million trees each year around the UK on behalf of their customers. Over 2 million trees have been planted on publicly accessible land, with a further 1 million trees now available to communities, for free. Community volunteers have been getting stuck in with this tree-planting mission, covering 17.4 million square meters so far.
Parkinson’s UK & The Access Group
The Access Group has announced Parkinson’s UK as its Charity of the Year. Over the last three years, Access has increased its employee fundraising total by 775% while supporting charities that have a strong emotional connection with a member of staff, through support they or a close relative have received from the charity. Fraser Graham and Natalie Giles-Grant (pictured) from Access nominated Parkinson’s UK to be Charity of the Year as they both have family members with the condition.
IKEA & Shelter
IKEA has announced a new long-term partnership with Shelter. The two will launch a series of initiatives to help those affected by the housing emergency in IKEA’s local communities and beyond, aiming to increase access to support and opportunities. From early 2023, IKEA and Shelter will train co-workers to become ‘Life at Home Experts’ and help people in precarious housing situations to understand their rights and keep their homes. This is the first time Shelter has trialled the ‘Life at Home Experts’ initiative with any partner, which will see co-workers trained by the charity to understand local and national housing issues and rights. IKEA will also fund Housing Rights Workers, who will be based in Shelter advice hubs. A flagship three-year research project is also launching, following the journeys of families living in social housing. The findings will help to inform the focuses needed for the partnership, and call on the government to deliver systemic change.
The Myton Hospices & CEWE
Photo printing company CEWE has announced The Myton Hospices as its charity of the year. Throughout the year, CEWE will take part in various events to fundraise for the charity, and recently took part in its first fundraiser which saw families complete a 5K fun run through an inflatable obstacle course. Team members from the human resources, production, sales and marketing departments took part in the race alongside members of the local community. In total, CEWE raised £400 for the charity. Over the next couple of months, CEWE has planned multiple bake sales to raise money and will also be sponsoring the Firewalk on 6 November at Warwick Myton Hospice, which has a fundraising target of £20,000.
Leeds Children’s Charity at Lineham Farm & HomeServe Installations
Leeds-based HomeServe Installations has launched a new partnership with a local charity providing experiences for disadvantaged children. The move to appoint Leeds Children’s Charity at Lineham Farm as a regional charity partner is part of HomeServe UK’s company-wide ‘Home is Where the Heart is’ campaign. Staff at the business’s Leeds-based office, most of whom are from the region, chose Lineham Farm after supporting its Christmas gift appeal throughout COVID. Since then, ten team members have volunteered at the farm, carrying out gardening and general maintenance as well as discussing future opportunities for support. Moving forward, the partnership will involve further volunteering and other forms of support, including donations. The move comes as part of HomeServe UK’s wider Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, launched earlier this year.
Primark & CHAS
Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) has thanked charity partner Primark for its ongoing support after the company’s bag levy donations reached the £2 million mark. The retailer, which has supported CHAS since 2015 and throughout the Covid pandemic, has donated more than £375,000 this year alone through its bag levy initiative. Colleagues from stores across Scotland have also raised thousands for the charity through various fundraising ventures such as this year’s Glasgow Kiltwalk which alone raised £12,000.
B&Q & Shelter
Earlier this month, B&Q stores nationwide took part in a charity fundraiser for Shelter with customers, colleagues and B&Q donating a combined total of more than £220k to the charity, with the business aiming to raise one million pounds by January, the end of its financial year. B&Q colleagues took part in a variety of activities to raise awareness throughout the weekend, be it DIY Dancefloors or bake sales, bringing together customers and the local community in fundraising efforts, all in the spirit of this year’s ‘popstar’ theme. On top of the nationwide efforts to raise money, B&Q’s Customer & Digital Director, Paddy Earnshaw, led fundraising efforts at the B&Q’s headquarters in Southampton with a mammoth 24-hour dance-a-thon, cheered on by his colleagues and Shelter representatives.
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.