Colleagues and customers at One Stop have raised over £130k for Children in Need in just six weeks, a record amount for the retailer, smashing their existing fundraising campaigns from previous years.
One Stop supports three national charities – Children in Need, Alzheimer’s Society and MacMillan Cancer Support. It also supports charities, groups and individuals the length and breadth of the UK and has raised a total of over £6.5 million for good causes in the past six years.
This year, One Stop decided to start their Children in Need fundraising appeal a month early which has really paid dividends with the amount the convenience retailer has raised. Liz Fox, Head of Sustainability & Social Responsibility at One Stop commented: “This year our store colleagues have been amazing in their efforts and our customers have responded by engaging in our fundraising and donating. We can’t thank our colleagues, customers and wider community enough for their time, effort and generosity. We’re absolutely over the moon to have raised so much and know this will make a significant difference to Children in Need!”
Virtually every single One Stop store – from across the whole 900 core and franchise estate – took part in the Children in Need fundraising. Over £60k was raised last week alone, with Langold in Worksop raising the most from a single store at £3k.
Money raised will be able to stay locally to where each store is based as Children in Need has a postcode locator enabling donations to go straight to causes within their own areas.
Liz continues: “Children in Need’s strapline is ‘together we can change young lives’ and this ‘togetherness’ has been very poignant this year with what we’ve seen across One Stop. Our stores have proved that together we can make a difference and the passion and drive I’ve seen has been absolutely brilliant. We’re beaming with pride that we’ve been able to raise this amount which will go such a long way to helping children who so desperately need it.”
So how did One Stop raise such a significant amount. As Liz explains: “The stores themselves came up with a huge array of fundraising ideas from tombola’s and fancy-dress days, to ‘sponge the store manager’ and raffles! We also had ideas generated at head office, including a ‘Pedal for Pudsey’ cycling challenge where stores each had a different target – some 100 miles, some teams doing 300. They did their cycling instore – via static bikes – or within the community, all helping to raise awareness and funds.
“We’ve also had stores working together including colleagues across 3 stores from Sheffield who raised over £2k in six hours at Meadowhall Shopping Centre. They did such a great job that they even inspired the centre to turn the roof yellow with lights to celebrate Children in Need!”
As one of its chosen national charities, One Stop has a large range of merchandise that it sells to help raise money and this year had an exclusive water bottle in store and, in selected stores, crystal encrusted gold Pudsey Bear pens! Many stores also had merchandise featuring Pudsey Bear’s girlfriend, ‘Blush’ which appealed to a new market and again helped swell the funding pot further.
Children in Need’s mission is to help ensure every child in the UK is safe, happy, secure and has the opportunities they need to reach their potential. It funds over 2,500 local charities and projects which directly support children and young people in communities right across the UK.
The charity supports children and young affected by a whole range of disadvantages such as poverty, disability, illness, distress or trauma. It also works with a range of partners to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the UK’s children and young people today, including: mental health and wellbeing, violence impacting young people, child sexual exploitation, holiday hunger, access to employment, and social injustice.
