Our employees are passionate about raising money for charity. Each brand works in partnership with its selected charity to raise money through store initiatives, product sales and activities in head offices.
At a group and brand level, we work closely with selected charity partners and are very active in fundraising on a corporate and individual basis. Many of our brands work with their charity partners to create exclusive products that are sold in our stores to raise funds. Often fundraising is driven by our retail employees and takes place at a local community level with events in-store or personal efforts from marathons, bike rides and social celebrations.
Each year Arcadia Group donates garments to charities. In 2010-11, almost 60,000 garments were donated to charities such as Traid, Barnardo’s, BDF Newlife and the Salvation Army. Our employees also donate via our Workplace Giving scheme. With around 2,800 employees involved, this year they donated over £200,000.
Around 2,800 of our employees donate via our workplace giving scheme and we have great fundraising success with our ongoing sample sales at head offices. In 2010-11, they raised £126,000 for charity. In addition, at the annual Retail Trust Ball in January 2011, Sir Philip Green made a pledge of £125,000 to support the charity’s good work. The Retail Trust is the only charity that looks after the needs of all three million people working in UK retail.
In total for 2010-11, our brands and head office activities have raised £1.2 million.
Scroll down to read about each brand's charity activities.
Fashion Footprint Charity – Tender Heart, India
Tender Heart is a community of teachers and volunteers who provide care for children with special needs and offer vocational training and skills to local women and children. Arcadia has been working closely with the school since 2009 to provide for its needs and to draw up a long-term plan for the school’s ongoing success.
Arcadia has pledged to raise £50,000 for the charity over three years through sample sales and our annual Fashion Footprint awareness raising days.
The Fashion Footprint Festivals took place at our London and Leeds head offices in July 2011 and succeeded in raising the spirits – and money. They involved a raffle, festival themed food, a sample sale and a unique vintage Miss Selfridge sale as well as messages about our work via posters, emails and intranet communications. This raised over £17,000 towards our target.
With the money so far, Tender Heart has employed a full-time maths teacher, a speech therapist and a physiotherapist. Donations have also been used to purchase new physiotherapy equipment, curtains, safe flooring throughout the school and nursery toys for the younger students.
In addition, the installation of an industrial water cooler and refurbished water tank means that clean, chilled water is now available to all.
Looking to the future, we have another year’s fundraising with this partnership and our aim is to design and implement a solution that will enable Tender Heart to go independently from strength to strength as it addresses the needs of the local community.
Shared Services Charity
Our Shared Services Committee includes employees from Logistics, Property and Human Resources and this year we have made good progress for our charity, Starlight Children’s Foundation. Starlight grants wishes to seriously and terminally ill children in hospices throughout the UK.
Wanting to look our best for the Christmas party in December 2010, we set up a ‘Pamper Room’ at our head office where we invited staff to enjoy the experience of having their hair done and nails painted for a donation.
A DIY room was also created where employees could donate money to use make up and hair accessories and members of the Committee sold Starlight wands. This pre-Christmas party pamper session not only got us into a party mood – it also raised £1,800.
Individual Charity Sponsorship
As a group, we are committed to matching funds raised by our employees up to the value of £500. In 2010-11, our match-funding total was £12,000 for charities such as Guide Dogs for the Blind and the British Heart Foundation.
BHS
BHS supports NSPCC and Breast Cancer Care. In-store fundraising initiatives, including badge sales, in 2010-11 they raised an impressive £120,000 for the NSPCC alone.
In October 2010, BHS launched a limited-edition range of lingerie and sleepwear with Louise Cole, Nikki Zillie, Ellen Whittiker, Camilla Dallerup and Gemma Bissex modelling the ranges. Money donated for each item sold totalled £19,500 for Breast Cancer Care in just one month.
BURTON
Burton continues to support the British Armed Forces. In October 2010, the brand sponsored a table at the new ‘Fashion for the Brave’ fundraising event at London’s Dorchester Hotel.
Burton was the key sponsor of the menswear featured in the fashion show. The evening included appearances from the Household Cavalry with garments for the auction donated by Dame Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley and Stephen Fry. The event raised over £200,000 for the charity.
DOROTHY PERKINS
Dorothy Perkins was in the pink last year with its support for long-term charity partner Breast Cancer Care.
On Pink Friday during Breast Cancer Awareness month in October 2010, a 10% donation was made to the charity with every pink product sold in store and online. Customers gave their email addresses for newsletters and updates in return for a £1 donation, while at head office, staff got involved with a sample sale, cake sale and honesty stations.
Sophie Ellis Bextor, Alexandra Burke and Kelly Osborne all volunteered to design shoes and t-shirts for the Stand Tall range. Shoe and t-shirt sales raised £12,600 for the charity. In total, Dorothy Perkins raised an amazing £64,000.
EVANS
Evans supports two charities, Breakthrough Breast Cancer (BBC) and Dress for Success.
Over the last year, Evans has raised over £15,500 for BBC through activities such as design a t-shirt competition, pin sales and donations from the sales of specially designed pink t-shirts, purses and bow scarves.
Founded in 2000, Dress for Success is a charity that supports disadvantaged women in their career aspirations by providing them with interview outfits and training, helping them to remain focused and confident and in turn more likely to succeed. Clothing donations this year totalled nearly £4,000.
MISS SELFRIDGE
Miss Selfridge supports The Lavender Trust, the charity offering support and information to younger women affected by breast cancer.
Over the last year there has been healthy rivalry between stores around the country with activities including auctions of promises, fashion shows, murder mystery evenings, pampering parties and yogathons. The winning stores were Manchester Trafford, Brent Cross, Canterbury and Coleraine.
Total funds raised in 2010-11 came to over £14,000.
Miss Selfridge has also been a great support of our Tender Heart (Fashion Footprint’s charity) fundraising efforts, visiting the charity whilst in India and donating some unique vintage items for a sample sale.
OUTFIT
Outfit selects one charity partner each year and over 2010-11 raised an outstanding £170,000 for the Rainbow Trust!
Funds were raised by selling key rings in store, by organising fashion shows, and holding fun days at Halloween and Christmas.
Since then, Outfit launched its new charity partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society.
So far Outfit has arranged key ring sales for a suggested donation of £2 and stores have run various fundraising events. For example, the Manchester Fort store organised an event hosted by the actress Tina O'Brien with various acts, a fashion show and raffle prizes.
Outfit has already raised just over £70,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society.
TOPMAN
In September 2010, Topman adopted Teenage Cancer Trust as its official charity. The brand has pledged to raise £500,000 over the next three years through customer, store and head office fundraising.
The first fundraising campaign was the Winter Collection, launched in October 2010. Working closely with recovering cancer patients, the Topman buying and design team created a warm and stylish three-piece winter accessory collection: hooded scarf, snood and bobble hat. Sold in store and online, the collection helped to raise both awareness and money.
Topman then supported the Teenage Cancer Trust’s ’Rock Your Shades’ day with four exclusive designs of sunglasses. These striking shades helped to raise the profile of the charity in store and online. For each pair of sunglasses sold, the brand donated £5.
Topman store and head office staff have once again demonstrated their passion for charity fundraising. There has been a flurry of fundraising activity, such as Come Dine With Me events, sample sales and marathons. Topman’s Managing Director David Shepherd and his PA Del Mustafa were brave enough to skydive, raising over £5,000.
The Winter Collection and the Rock Your Shades campaigns made over £54,000 for the charity and Topman’s total fundraising for the year came to over £151,000.
“At Teenage Cancer Trust we are thrilled to be working with Topman to raise awareness and vital funds for young people with cancer. Topman have come on board as supporters for the next three years, the difference they can make is huge”. Simon Davies, CEO Teenage Cancer Trust.
TOPSHOP
Topshop continues to develop its relationship with Age UK. As part of the charity’s ‘Spreading the Warmth’ campaign, in December 2010 Topshop sponsored mobile and stationary soup kitchens serving delicious and nutritious soups in Birmingham, Liverpool and London. Christmas shoppers could enjoy a choice of soups for free, in return for a donation to the charity.
To raise further awareness of the charity and to encourage Christmas shoppers to have fun and get involved, Topshop retail staff held pop-up workshops inspiring shoppers to try some art and craft in shopping centres including the Manchester Arndale, Birmingham Bullring, London’s Westfield and Cardiff.
This involved ‘tights customisation’, Christmas crackers and eye-catching party headpieces.
Topshop’s innovative and festive approach to fundraising resulted in a donation of over £12,500 to Age UK.
Topshop also elected to support Teenage Cancer Trust through three beautifully designed ’TOPSHOP SAYS DONATE’ kimonos. In total this raised just under £39,000 for the charity.
In addition, this year Topshop wanted to raise awareness and funds for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer by creating a new product for the charity, in keeping with the current trends and charity message.
Topshop created a t-shirt in a best selling shape and added a bright colour to the traditional black and white. The brand then joined forces with friends of the brand to take part in a street style campaign to promote the t-shirt. The t-shirts sold out and raised a fantastic £26,500. A further £33,000 was raised through the sales of Fashion Targets Breast Cancer branded products located at till points.
WALLIS
Wallis continues to support its new charity Great Ormond Street Hospital and its main fundraiser is the ever-popular pub quiz. The quiz was held at The Warwick in London and raised £6,000. The next quiz – scheduled for April 2012 and open to staff and friends and family – aims to beat last year’s result.
Wallis head office also baked cakes for their Macmillan coffee morning at head office, held a tuck shop for Red Nose Day and produced and sold mouth-watering pastries in aid of the British Red Cross Japan appeal, in total raising £450.
