SHOP DIRECT CHARITY PROGRAMME
Giving something back to the places where we live and work has always been important to Shop Direct. We continue to play a positive role in our local communities through our charity programme.
As part of this commitment, we ask our colleagues to vote each year to choose one charitable project that we will get behind as a team.
Our colleagues take part in lots of fundraising activities every year, including cake sales, sporting challenges and fun days. Colleagues can also choose to donate to good causes via Payroll Giving and as a business we boost any funds raised through ‘Helping Hand,’ our matched giving scheme. Our charity partnerships go beyond fundraising; we want to leave a lasting impact in our local communities, and for that reason we’re committed to supporting projects that allow us to extend our digital expertise to the project we’re fundraising for.
Last year we set ourselves an ambitious target of raising £200,000 to help fund the development of a digital app for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. The app enables families to familiarise themselves with the hospital before they arrive and also distracts young patients while they are being treated. Members of our multi-award winning ecommerce team worked with Alder Hey’s innovation team to develop the app – the first of its kind in the country – providing expert insight and advice on design, development and personalisation. In total, we raised £249,000 for this project and our partnership was recognised as the Most Innovative Collaboration at the North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards in January 2017.
FUNDRAISING AND DIGITAL EXPERTISE
Over the last few years we’ve raised over £700,000 for charity. We’re aiming to push that to over £1,000,000 in 2017 through our charity partnership with Claire House Children’s Hospice.
Claire House is a massively inspiring charity that works tirelessly to improve the lives of hundreds of terminally and seriously ill children and their families across the North West. The team at Claire House are developing plans to convert an old monastery in West Derby, Liverpool into a new facility that will enable them to support hundreds more children and families across the North West.
In October 2016 our colleagues voted to support Claire House with their project to digitally equip their new site in Liverpool. We’ve committed to raising £400,000, as well as providing industry-leading knowledge to help drive the project.
Since October last year, Shop Direct colleagues have been taking part in various fundraising challenges including raffles, a stand-up comedy competition and the Liverpool Santa Dash. Our star-studded Shop Direct charity ball raised over £150,000. And we’ve also established a joint innovation board with the team at Claire House to help drive the project.