M&S Sparks club card to generate 1p donation for each use
Howard Lake | 15 October 2015 | News
Users of Marks and Spencer’s new Sparks card will be generating a donation of 1p to charity from the retailer each time they use it.
The card is being mailed to shareholders, selected shoppers and users of its financial services, inviting them to join the company’s new members club, announced today. It offers personalised shopping offers, previews of new products and “exciting money-can’t-buy experiences”. There is no charge to be a member.
Any M&S customer can collect a SPARKS card from their local M&S store.
The donation per use is given by Marks and Spencer, not the individual. There is no mention in the promotional material of a maximum donation per person or overall from all users.
Nine charities to benefit
Members of Sparks are invited to choose from nine national charities when they register their card online. They are all charities with which M&S has an existing or previous relationship.
After selecting one charity, you can then change your preference at any time by logging into your account and choosing another.
It is not clear when the charities will receive their share of donations – monthly, quarterly or annually perhaps?
The charities are:
• Macmillan Cancer Support
• Marine Conservation Society
• WWF
• Unicef
• Breast Cancer Now
• Shelter
• The Woodland Trust
• Great Ormond Street
• The Royal British Legion
M&S Sparks members can choose to support one of nine charities
Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity is one of the nine charities that M&S Sparks is supporting.
The donations are made by Marks and Spencer plc to Charities Aid Foundation to disburse to charities. On the Sparks website it says that CAF “will in its discretion pass on your donation to your chosen cause”.
Sparks is also linked to M&S’s Shwop partnership with Oxfam in which it offers a voucher to shoppers who donate their unwanted M&S clothes to the charity.
Marks and Spencer’s launch announcement revealed that Sparks had been made possible “by the recent transformation of M&S infrastructure and its in-house digital capabilities”.
Spark Something Good
In July this year M&S launched Spark Something Good. In partnership with social action network Neighbourly.com, which M&S helped found, it is designed to inspire and motivate employees and customers around the country to take support and take part in 24 community projects.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.