Giving Tuesday

Tuesday 30th November is Giving Tuesday, a global day of giving.

Giving Tuesday is a day where everyone can do something to support the good causes that mean so much to them. The global initiative saw £20.2 million raised for charities in 24 hours last year. We’re proud to be involved and are using our Payroll Giving scheme to encourage staff to take part.

For us, Giving Tuesday is the culmination of a full year of charitable activities from across the business, which saw over £650,000 raised in cash and in-kind donations last financial year:

In February, colleagues from Rapport participated in Sign Health’s annual ‘Sign2Sing’ and performed the song ‘Together’ in sign language. SignHealth provides health and wellbeing services in sign language for deaf people and Rapport raised £400 for the charity.
Colleagues from Restaurant Associates and Rapport took part in the To Hell and Back Challenge in June to raise money for Hospitality Action. The team ran, cycled and walked a total of almost 1,000 miles in one week, raising over £1,250.
Levy raised over £60,000 for their charity partner the British Paralympic Association. This money was raised partly through an online fundraising event featuring comedian Adam Hills and a variety of Paralympians to create a 40 min event. In addition to this, 25 Levy colleagues did the Snowdon triple challenge in September. This involved cycling and walking up a very rainy Snowdon and kayaking for a total of 36kms.
Our longstanding relationship with Cancer Research UK has seen multiple sectors work together to raise over £25,000 across the year. Colleagues from our Royal Mail contract participated in ‘Walk All Over Cancer’ in March, collectively clocking up nearly 8.8 million steps over 4,411 miles. £8,000 was also raised from Donation Stations organised by the Health and Safety team, facilitating the donations of unwanted clothes, books and toys to local Cancer Research charity shops.
ESS organised a relay with the 'Beast from the East'. Traveling over 2,000 miles and visiting over 35 locations with various fundraising activities along the way. The Beast and ESS teams raised an amazing £11,724 for two of the sector’s charity partners, the RAF and Army Benevolent fund.
Chartwells supported the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust as Gold Partner of The Starting Blocks Challenge. The partnership aims to shape the futures of young people facing disadvantage in their everyday lives, so far over £20,000 has been raised for the charity.
Compass Ireland supported a number of initiatives including ‘Know Your Neighbour Month’ in partnership with rural youth charity Macra na Feirme. Macra clubs were provided with packs containing tea bags, biscuits and connection cards to prompt introductions to isolated neighbours, whilst maintaining social distancing – they raised over €1,500.
Foodbuy colleagues took part in Duchenne UK’s annual Duchenne Dash. On Saturday, 3 July, a number of amateur riders from Foodbuy and our supply partners joined the challenge and cycled the distance around the world (that’s 40,000km in just 12 hours). This was matched by additional colleagues taking on the Dash AT HOME challenge over 6 weeks. Both events helped to raise over £2,500 for Duchenne UK.
Eurest and 14Forty partnered with charity Mental Health UK in a nationwide campaign to emphasise the benefits of taking regular breaks at work. The partnership sees 5p donated for every cup sold of our ‘Coffee by Eurest’ and ‘Peak St.’ brands raising £15,000 for Mental Health UK.
Our teams are currently preparing charity activities and fundraising events to end the year, including our Healthcare Retail team, who will be celebrating their annual Elf Week in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society having raised over £20,000 in 2020. This was in addition to £4,000 donated by a colleague, which he raised by running the London Marathon this October.

To find out more about Giving Tuesday visit - www.givingtuesday.org.uk