Morrisons seeks new national charity partner
Howard Lake | 8 June 2021 | News
Supermarket chain Morrisons is inviting applications from charities to become its next national charity partner. The partnership with a charity that operates in England, Scotland and Wales will last for three years, starting from 30 January 2022.
Morrisons’ previous partnerships with charities have included raising over £7 million during the three-year partnerships with Save the Children and with Sue Ryder.
It is currently coming to the end of a five-year partnership with Young Lives Vs Cancer, formerly CLIC Sargent, that helps children and young people and their families find the strength to face whatever cancer throws at them. The partnership was intended to raise over £10 million over three years. However, because Covid-19 reduced the supermarket’s fundraising opportunities and activities, the partnership was extended. It has now raised £15 million.
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SEE ALSO: New ice cream flavour from Morrisons to raise funds for CLIC Sargent (20 March 2019)
How the money is raised
Most of the money raised comes from staff-led fundraising activity across Morrisons’ stores, sites and offices. These include collections, fundraising events and challenges.
The other main source of fundraising is the supermarket’s Every Pack Gives Back cause-related-marketing programme, which works with a range of products and brands.
Change of focus on what the partnership will fund
To date the partnership has involved fundraising solely for new projects and services run by the partner charity. However, given the drop in income experienced by many charities during the pandemic, the 2022-25 partnership will switch an equal split between a new project or service and existing core services.
Other charity partnerships
Morrisons has other charitable and community activities in addition to its national charity partnership.
- Staff and customers have raised over £1 million for Marie Curie’s Daffodil Appeal and over £3 million for the Poppy Appeal in recent years.
- It is also the headline partner for this year’s NHS Charities Together Big Tea.
- Its Community Champions programme in all its stores help to raise money for local charities and community groups. This year, for example, it donated 100,000 Easter eggs to local food banks, schools and community groups through this initiative.
- It has launched a book donation and exchange station for children – the Morrisons Little Library – in its stores across the UK which aims to promote reading and literacy in children, particularly those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- It donated over half a million meals to local pet rescue centres to help feed the nation’s cats and dogs, after demand for pet food has surged during lockdown.
Should you charity apply?
To be considered, charities must:
- Be registered as a charity in England & Wales and in Scotland
- Operate and deliver services in England, Scotland and Wales.
Charities should be able to demonstrate:
- They deliver services or projects on a national scale, but with strong relevance to local communities
- Their cause and brand resonates with colleagues and customers in all Morrisons locations
- They have experience of “delivering dynamic fundraising and communications campaigns”, tailored to suit the needs of individual corporate partners
- They are able to provide excellent support to colleagues across all levels of Morrisons, including a dedicated account management team
- They understand Morrisons as a business, its key opportunities and challenges when engaging its colleagues and customers on charitable giving.
For further information or to apply, visit Morrisons.
Applications close at midnight on Sunday 20 June 2021.
More Morrisons fundraising
- Morrisons Foundation invites charities to apply for funding boost (28 August 2020)
- Morrisons, Santander and Vodafone support ITV’s Text Santa 2013 (17 September 2013)
- Morrisons is first supermarket to support Giving Tuesday (22 September 2015)
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.