Community
WHSmith is at the heart of communities where we operate, We are committed to making a positive impact wherever we operate, and to contributing to the socio-economic development of local neighbourhoods through links with schools and other local causes, through fundraising and by staff volunteering. We also provide our customers with opportunities to support charities through in-store donations and the purchasing of cause-related products.
We are aiming to:
Make a positive impact through fundraising, donations and volunteering.
Help all children to develop a love of reading.
Supporting Children’s Literacy
As a major retailer of books and stationery, we are particularly passionate about literacy and life-long learning. One of the most effective ways of helping children to reach their potential is to engage them in reading for pleasure.
We provide reading, writing and other educational materials to millions of customers through our stores and online businesses. We also work in partnership with others to help those children and young people who struggle to access the resources and educational support that many of us take for granted.
We have been supporting children’s literacy programmes for over 18 years.
WHSmith is a long-term advocate for the development of literacy skills and has provided help over many years to children and young people who need additional support. We have a long-standing partnership with the National Literacy Trust, an independent charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life. Together, we have reached thousands of children across the UK, through summer play schemes, family reading programmes and support for reading in schools.
‘The Young Readers Programme has been absolutely fantastic over the last few years. It has helped us to engage some of our most reluctant readers and has enabled us to provide children who have few or no resources at home with their own books to treasure. It has also helped us to engage parents and carers in their child's reading journey…’
Teacher supported by the WHSmith Young Readers Programme
‘I never had books to keep before so I’m really happy to have books to keep’
Pupil supported by the WHSmith Young Readers Programme
World Book Day
We love celebrating World Book Day, the biggest annual festival of books and reading in the UK which aims to provide every child and young person with a book of their own. Sponsored by National Book Tokens, and with support from the bookselling and publishing industries, children are given a £1 token which they can swap for a special World Book Day title or use as part payment of any other book. World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of children redeem their World Book Day vouchers with us.
Our teams are heavily involved in celebrating World Book Day, often running special events such as author signing sessions, competitions, tours of our bookshops and fancy-dress days for staff. Funded by the WHSmith Group Charitable Trust, we also distribute WHSmith book vouchers to schools across the UK, enabling them to choose books to increase their school library resources. In 2022, over 200 schools were helped in this way with £25,000 of vouchers being donated.
Our Charity Partnerships
For many years, WHSmith has helped to raise money for good causes in our local communities. We have fundraised through customer and staff activities, we've donated products and gifts in kind, and our employees have given time to a huge range of good causes.
Over the past decade, our fundraising and donations to charities and good causes is almost £13m
Our colleagues are passionate about raising money and regularly help with fundraising to make a difference to our charity partners. We raise funds through customer donations in-store, sales of specially commissioned products and a huge variety of staff-fundraising activities. One of the main ways we raise money is through the sale of products with links to charities. These include charity Christmas cards where a proportion of the sale price is donated to charity.