UK retailers from Argos and Asos through to The Entertainer and Morrisons have signed up to support this year’s #givingtuesday – the global day of giving.
#givingtuesday is being held in the UK for the third time and falls on Tuesday November 29, in the wake of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is led by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), which helps individuals and businesses give to good causes.
This year’s campaign is calling on people to ‘do good stuff’ for charities on the day, which can include donating money, volunteering time or doing something to promote a favourite cause. Last year #givingtuesday set a new Guinness World Record for money donated online in 24 hours, with £6,000 per minute donated online to UK charities. Celebrities including JK Rowling, Gary Lineker and Stephen Fry backed the campaign.
Major retailers that have signed up to become a #givingtuesday partner this year include Argos, Asos Foundation, BT, The Entertainer, Homebase, Morrisons, QVC and Sainsbury’s.
They are among around 1,400 UK businesses and charities currently pledging to do something for charity that day.
Asos Foundation will hold a thank you day for staff who support charity through payroll giving and volunteering, The Entertainer’s shop windows will feature a #givingtuesday ‘thank you’ display celebrating staff’s charitable contributions via payroll giving. Morrisons’ checkout staff will be wearing Sue Ryder sashes and #givingtuesday stickers and offering customers the opportunity to top up their shop with a £1 donation while QVC is launching a charity T-shirt to sell on air for charity partner Nest as part of an international campaign.
Finally, Sainsbury’s is encouraging staff to ‘do good stuff’ while promoting its charitable programmes including local heroes volunteering, community budget donations, food donations and payroll giving.
Hannah Terrey, head of policy and campaigns at CAF, said: “Retailers across the UK make a significant contribution to good causes, from getting staff to lend a hand in the local community to big partnerships with major charities. It is fantastic that so many major retailers have signed up to help making #givingtuesday 2016 the biggest and best yet.
“This is a day for everyone to ‘do good stuff’ for a cause they care about, whether that’s donating money, volunteering time or simply talking about their favourite charities.
“Just like Black Friday, #givingtuesday has now established itself as a regular fixture in the festive calendar here in the UK. For businesses this can be a great opportunity to showcase their work with good causes and involve staff and customers in their charitable endeavours.”
David Scott, head of corporate affairs at Morrisons , said: “We’re delighted to be getting involved with #givingtuesday again this year, and hope our customers really get behind the day.”
#givingtuesday now runs in over 70 countries around the world and last year was the top trend on Twitter throughout the day with more than 100,000 mentions using #givingtuesday. Celebrities and politicians including Stephen Fry, JK Rowling, Emma Watson, Miranda Hart, Gary Lineker, Lily Allen, David Baddiel, Peter Andre, David Tennant and Jeremy Corbyn backed the day. Last year also saw the event break a Guinness World Record for the most online donations in 24 hours as people gave away £35m to good causes globally. Online donations raised £6,000 a minute for UK charities with more than 1,400 charities and businesses connecting with the movement which reached hundreds of thousands of people.
