January 2012
Support The Prince's Trust as you shop
Show support for The Trust with
your grocery shopping, as Waitrose pledges to donate
£100,000 a year through Waitrose Community Matters online.
Customers
shopping on Waitrose.com are now able to participate in
Waitrose Community Matters, as the supermarket extends its hugely
successful charitable giving scheme to the virtual checkout for the
first time.
Every time a Waitrose customer shops online, they will be able
to select one of three national charities that they would most like
to support. At the end of each quarter, a £25,000 donation will be
split among the charities in proportion to the number of votes they
each receive. The Prince's Trust is delighted to be one of these
national charities in the first quarter of 2012.
The British Heart Foundation and The Red Cross will be
benefiting from the scheme alongside The Prince's Trust in the
first quarter of the year. Each quarter, three new national
charities will be selected to take part in the scheme.
Developed initially to allow shoppers in Waitrose branches to
support the local causes and charities closest to their hearts, the
retailer is expanding Community Matters to reflect the diverse ways
customers shop in 2011. Now in its fourth year, the
branch-run version of the scheme has seen the retailer give around
£8 million of its profit to more than 24,000 charities and
organisations across the UK and Channel Islands.
Tina Varns, Waitrose Community Investment Manager says:
We are delighted to be launching Community
Matters online, giving all of our customers the opportunity to
participate regardless of where or how they shop. As a business, we
have always been committed to giving back to the community and this
extension of our scheme will allow us to support and tell our
customers about the excellent work of twelve national charities
every year.
Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, Cabinet Office, is really
positive about the extension of the hugely successful Community
Matters scheme: “In the spirit of Every Business Commits, I really
like the way Community Matters empowers staff and customers to make
a difference to local voluntary organisations. So I am delighted to
support the move to give online customers the same opportunity.
Julian Barrell, Director of Fundraising at youth charity The
Prince’s Trust says:
The Prince’s Trust would like to extend a huge
and heartfelt thank you to Waitrose for giving disadvantaged young
people a chance to benefit from its Community Matters scheme. Money
raised for The Prince’s Trust will help young people into jobs at a
time when more than a million 16-24-year-olds are out of work. The
Trust is delighted to be involved with such a simple and effective
fundraiser that enables online customers to get charitable at the
checkout.