Aldi joins Age Scotland on Festive Friends campaign, plus more Christmas partnership news
Melanie May | 5 December 2023 | News
A round up of Christmas partnership news – from Aldi and Age Scotland, to M&S and FareShare.
Topgolf Glasgow campaign supports Healthy n Happy Community Development Trust
Topgolf Glasgow is supporting local charity, Healthy n Happy Community Development Trust, by leading ‘Give a Gift of Joy’, a campaign of gift giving for local people in need this Christmas. Kicking off a support package including volunteering and fundraising, the initiative is helping the community-run charity ensure local Cambuslang and Rutherglen children, families, young and older people do not go without this festive season.
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Topgolf staff will work closely with Healthy n Happy throughout November and December to gather as many gifts as possible for those living in Cambuslang and Rutherglen – providing wrapped gifts, or presents with wrapping paper and Sellotape to allow parents and guardians to package themselves. Topgolf collected gifts during November.
Access Self Storage launches Christmas toys collection appeal for Spread a Smile
Access Self Storage has launched its Christmas toys collection appeal, with 43 of its stores, nationwide, collecting toys and gifts in aid of children’s hospital charity, Spread a Smile. The stores and staff will be campaigning to engage their customers and local communities to support them and get behind their efforts to spread some smiles during Christmas. All donations will go straight to Spread a Smile and their Santa and Elves who will be visiting the thousands of children in the 30+ hospitals that they support around the UK, to drop them off in time for Christmas.
Aldi & Age Scotland team up on Festive Friends campaign
Young Scots are being encouraged to bring some joy to older people experiencing loneliness this winter, through a campaign from Aldi and Age Scotland.
The ‘Festive Friends’ campaign will ask shoppers with young children to share their favourite poem or joke on a Festive Friends postcard and submit it through post-boxes which will be in all Scottish Aldi stores from Tuesday, 7 November until Sunday, 19 November. Postcards will be distributed to 90 of Age Scotland’s community groups hosting a Christmas event throughout late November and December, funded by Age Scotland grants. Aldi Scotland will also be donating £1,000 to Age Scotland to support 200 calls on its Friendship Line, a free telephone service which older people can call to have a friendly chat during their day, to help combat feelings of isolation.
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.
Co-op says no to the TV Christmas ad and focuses on collecting donations
Co-op has chosen not to create a TV Christmas advert this year and is instead focusing on collecting donations to showcase the ‘gift of community spirit’.
The convenience retailer is calling on members and customers to donate money, either via their rewards balance in the Co-op Membership app or via in-store donations at till points, which it has pledged to match (up to a maximum of £1,000,000). The money will go to community groups supported by its Local Community Fund and will be paid out in early 2024. The campaign will feature across out of home, radio and video on demand, and on Co-op social and digital media.
Animal Friends Insurance seeks pet charities to support
This Christmas, Animal Friends Insurance is asking members of the public to nominate their local registered pet charity in need of a helping hand, so they have the chance to receive a share of £50,000. To help your local pet charity, nominate them before 16 December. To kick start the campaign, an Animal Friends colleague nominated A Helping Paw pet food bank to receive a £1200 donation.
In addition, Animal Friends’ vet partner, Joii Pet Care will be offering free flea and tick treatment to the ‘Suppawt small. Believe big’ charities, to help ease some of the veterinary needs of the rescued pets.
Standard Life supports Samaritans to help those struggling this Christmas
Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, is for a second year in a row providing support to Samaritans with a series of activities ahead of Christmas, designed to ensure people know where to turn if they are struggling to cope during the festive period.
This includes funding of calls on Christmas Day. Standard Life will be helping to keep Samaritans services running on Christmas Day, when they receive an average of more than 14,500 telephone calls from across the UK and ROI. To raise awareness of the support provided by Samaritans, Standard Life is also funding a TV ad which launched first across social channels in November, and has donated TV airtime to Samaritans in the lead up to Christmas Day. The film encourages people to support Samaritans at Christmas, and reminds the audience that they are there, if help is needed.
Adyen partners with Make-A-Wish for 2023 holiday campaign
Global financial technology platform Adyen has launched its 2023 holiday campaign in support of Make-A-Wish. Decathlon, Vue Cinemas and Marcopolo have already signed on to raise funds at checkout for Make-A-Wish through Giving, Adyen’s donation product. Adyen will match every donation made. In 2022, Make-A-Wish joined Adyen’s inaugural holiday Moments that Matter campaign which featured a number of nonprofits, during which over €248,000 was donated, Adyen matched this amount with just under €500,000 being raised in total for the charity.
At moments throughout the year – or in response to an emergency – Adyen activates campaigns so its customer base can fundraise as a community for a chosen cause or causes. This is the fourth campaign this year, the others being for Earth Day, Pride and emergency response for the Turkey and Syria Earthquakes and wildfires. This holiday season Adyen’s existing merchants can switch on Giving so that they can allow their customers to donate to Make-A-Wish at checkout. All donations go directly to the nonprofit and Adyen absorbs all fees involved.
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.