Colleagues and customers at One Stop have raised over £130,000 for Children in Need, one of the three national charities it supports, in just six weeks, a record amount for the retailer.
One Stop started their Children in Need fundraising appeal a month early this year, and the retailer said it has really paid dividends.
“This year our store colleagues have been amazing in their efforts and our customers have responded by engaging in our fundraising and donating,” Liz Fox, head of sustainability & social responsibility at One Stop commented.
“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 £60,000 was raised last week alone, with Langold in Worksop raising the most from a single store at £3,000.
“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,” Fox explained.
“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 three stores from Sheffield who raised over £2,000 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!”
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. It funds over 2,500 local charities and projects which directly support children and young people in communities right across the UK.
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.
Alzheimer’s Society and MacMillan Cancer Support are the other two national charities One Stop supports. 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.
