WHSmith continues to support a broad range of charities through the products we sell. This is particularly popular at Christmas time when we offer a range of Christmas cards for charities including Help for Heroes and Macmillan Cancer Support, gifts such as our Adopt an Animal range, and calendars. This year, we sold the exclusive Countryfile calendar in aid of BBC Children in Need, a product which proved very popular with customers.
Our range of everyday cards provides an opportunity for charities to raise their profile with our customers. Our range now includes cards with images from National Trust, the Woodland Trust and the RSPB.
Fundraising with staff and customers
Every year, WHSmith staff and customers provide excellent support for fundraising activities in store, helping to raise over £120,000 for charity in the last year alone.
The WHSmith Trust is one of the main beneficiaries, with the fundraising supporting the Trust’s work to promote literacy and the support the charities in the local communities WHSmith operates in. Our customers provide fantastic support for the Trust by dropping their spare change into the collection tins in our High Street and Travel stores. Our staff also provide support for the Trust through sporting challenges, like the London Marathon and Great North Run, and support for the charity shop in our Swindon head office.
WHSmith has been a supporter of BBC Children in Need for many years through the sale of Christmas cards and calendars for the charity. The BBC Children in Need Christmas cards were in store again this year, along with a Countryfile calendar for BBC Children in Need which proved to be very popular with our customers. We also sold wristbands and pin badges in aid of BBC Children in Need. This year, we also gave store teams around the country, as well as our head office and distribution centre staff, the opportunity to run their own fundraising events during the weeks before the BBC Children in Need TV appeal. Many stores enthusiastically planned fancy dress events, tombolas, cake sales and auctions, creating a real buzz in store and raising all important funds for BBC Children in Need. We hope to do more of the same this year.
In addition to these charities, our stores also help fundraise for a range of other good causes, for example, selling poppies for the Royal British Legion and pin badges for a number of other charities.