# UK businesses collaborate on winter support for local charities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/01/15/uk-businesses-collaborate-on-winter-support-for-local-charities/
- Published: 2025-01-15T11:45:00+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**UK businesses including Aldi, Marks and Spencer’s, Motability Operations Ltd, 
Liberty Global, Capita, the Institute for Social Value and Certas Energy are collaborating
to provide support for community groups and charities over the winter.**

[Neighbourly](https://www.neighbourly.com/) campaign, GoGive, which launched at 
the start of December, is bringing the businesses together to support its network
of local good causes across the UK and Ireland through donating surplus, volunteering
and providing financial donations. A winter fund has also been created for targeted
financial support for the greatest areas of need.

The goal is to deliver £1mn in financial support, facilitate 5,000 hours of volunteering,
and redistribute 18 million meals worth of surplus food, that will positively impact
over 5,000 local causes between December 2024 and February 2025. Over £460,000 has
been paid out to charities in the first month and a half of the campaign, with all
support already totalling over £18mn in financial value including over 10.5mn meals
worth of surplus food donated.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

Neighbourly community research has found that 78% of its small charity network have
experienced increased demand over the last three months. Charities’ most requested
products are non-perishable food items and fresh produce, while 50% say there are
people they can’t help due to limitations in capacity and funding. The research 
also found that 66% of small charities worried about the availability of volunteers
over the winter.

Marie Savin, Centre Manager from Netherton Park Community Association based in Bootle
near Liverpool, said:

> “The cut backs in services and increasing costs of living is bringing more challenges
> as people are struggling to keep warm and eat properly.  As an organisation we
> are finding it hard to cover core costs, funding is becoming harder to get and
> monitoring/outcomes for reports has increased.
>  
> “The donations collected each day from our Neighbourly partners really are essential.
> The stigma of taking donated food is now a thing of the past – it’s become a way
> of life and how people manage limited budgets.”

Steve Butterworth, CEO of Neighbourly, said:

> “As Neighbourly’s research shows, need is greater than ever – with 69% reporting
> that they fear demand for services will be worse this winter than last year.
>  
> “The campaign empowers businesses to amplify their impact, driving meaningful 
> change for charities and community groups at a time of unprecedented demand.”