M&S to donate £1mn meals via FareShare in run up to Christmas, & more partnership news
Melanie May | 22 November 2023 | News
From Microsoft and GAME’s support of Football for Good Day, to M&S’s partnership with FareShare in the run up to Christmas, here are 8 snippets of partnership and corporate fundraising news.
Microsoft and GAME support Football For Good Day
GAME® and Microsoft supported Football For Good Day on 19 November, a one-day global celebration of youth and unified action throughout the Commonwealth showcased through football-led activations worldwide, delivered by Street Soccer Foundation.
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Young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness went head-to-head in an EA Sports FC 24 gaming competition at the London Stadium, as part of a tournament celebrating International Football For Good Day. Microsoft and GAME are supporting partners of the Street Soccer Foundation’s Commonwealth-wide initiative celebrating football’s ability to change lives for the better. A gaming arena as set up inside the London Stadium in Stratford, where players competed in an EA Sports FC 24 tournament alongside vying for the Football For Good Day Trophy on the pitch.
Dreams & Shelter partner on awareness and donation raising book
Dreams and Shelter have launched alimited-edition children’s book, titled ‘A Place To Call Home’,to raise awareness of the realities of families and children who are homeless living in temporary accommodation.
15,000 of these books will be available in Dreams and Shelter shops for free with no purchase necessary but donations are welcome, and these will help to fund Shelter’s emergency helpline. For those unable to get to a store, an animated video version of the story is available to watch here.
Community radio station granted five-year renewal and expansion
Drystone Radio, a not-for-profit community radio station covering Bradford, Craven, Ilkley and Wharfedale, has been awarded a five-year extension to its FM broadcasting licence, as well as expanding its offering into East Lancashire this November on DAB+.
Drystone Radio regularly partners with charities to support their efforts, provides a platform to share their key messages, and helps them to access income that they would otherwise not receive. This includes the Santa Fun Run in Skipton, which has trebled in participant numbers since the station’s involvement, and The Principle Trust, for which the station hosts charity quiz nights. In 2022, the Santa Fun Run raised in excess of £49,000, a figure that the Drystone team is hoping to beat this year. The station was founded in 1998 as a registered charity to promote active community involvement in regeneration and social inclusion, and to enhance diversity and inclusion across the Yorkshire Dales and now East Lancashire. It is operated by a team of over 40 volunteers.
Yorkshire Building Society announces FareShare as new charity partner
Yorkshire Building Society is partnering with FareShare for the next two years, pledging £1million to support the charity’s Building Skills for the Future programme to help 2,500 people enter the world of work. The partnership will see the creation of employability programmes in seven of the charity’s 34 regional centres, including London, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Leeds and Barnsley, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The Building Skills for the Future programmes will offer coaching, support, practical workshops and 12-26 weeks of work experience to help enable users to secure full-time employment.
In addition, the partnership will fund an outreach programme offering free face-to-face sessions and workshops supporting the building of important skills such as CV writing, job searching and improving financial wellbeing. It is hoped that the two programmes will help 2,500 people improve their employability and help them become more financially resilient. Yorkshire Building Society will support FareShare through fundraising and cause collections across its branch network and through volunteering opportunities across the charity’s regional centres. Colleagues from the Society will also use transferrable skills to deliver employability sessions and financial resilience lessons as part of the outreach programme.
M&S partners with FareShare to distribute meals in Christmas run-up
Marks & Spencer has announced a new partnership with FareShare. Working with one of its biggest fresh food suppliers, 2 Sisters Food Group, M&S will donate one million freshly prepared, nutritious ready meals from its ‘Eat Well’ range in the eight weeks leading up to Christmas.
In an industry first, the meals will be made and donated to FareShare directly from the M&S Food supply chain. The partnership builds on M&S’ food redistribution scheme with long-standing partner, Neighbourly, which over the past seven years has donated more than 60 million products – products which are too good to waste – to more than 1,450 local charities and community organisations.
Distillery raises £57,000 for Highland Hospice through limited edition bottling
Tomatin distillery has helped to raise £57,500 for Highland Hospice, which provides palliative care and essential services for people living in the Scottish Highlands. In November last year, to mark the 35th anniversary of Highland Hospice, Tomatin unveiled an exclusive new limited-edition bottling, The Highland Hospice 35th Anniversary Whisky.
Only 35 bottles were produced, using a 35-year-old cask hand-selected by the Hospice’s Chief Executive, Kenny Steele alongside Tomatin Manager Director, Stephen Bremner, and Master Distiller, Graham Eunson. With an RRP of £1,250, the expression was sold through the Tomatin Visitor Centre with some bottles also auctioned to generate these important funds for the Scottish charity to continue its work in the local community.
Costa donates for every festive drink bought on 18 November
On Saturday 18 November, for every festive drink purchased, Costa Coffee donated 50p from each sale to the Costa Foundation. Festive drinks included in the promotion were the: Terry’s Hot Chocolate, Black Forest Hot Chocolate, Gingerbread and Cream Latte, Sticky Toffee Latte, Sticky Toffee Iced Latte, After Eight Hot Chocolate, Roasted Hazel Latte, Roasted Hazel Hot Chocolate.
Earlier this year, Costa Coffee offered the same donation on its Summer Frappes and Fruit Coolers. The money raised over the weekend was enough to fund the building of a dormitory block at a high school in South-West Uganda, providing safe accommodation for 120 school children, who had been sleeping in a classroom. Since its establishment in 2007, the Costa Foundation has raised over £20 million to enable more than 120,000 children in ten coffee growing communities worldwide to access education. Last year, the Costa Foundation reached the milestone of building its 100th school.
The IN Group charity quiz raises £30k for The Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity
The IN Group, a collection of specialist talent brands, raised over £30,000 for their partner charity, Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, in a charity quiz in November. Hosted at The Fable in Holborn, it also featured a raffle and an auction. The IN Group has carried out a number of fundraising events for Rainbow Trust this year, including a cycle from London to Paris which raised over £15,000 and a series of marathon runs which have raised over £5,000, among other activities. Last year’s fundraising saw over £100k raised for the previous partner charity, LIFEbeat. The 2021 partner charity, St Mungo’s, saw The IN Group raise over £30,000 with its quiz.
The IN Group engages in a variety of charity initiatives each year. These include events such as football tournaments, bake sales, client quizzes, and bike rides, encouraging participation from their employees, clients, and candidates. Previous events include the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge and the Big Investigo Run and Walk, which have collectively raised substantial amounts for charity.
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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.