As the eleventh year of the John Lewis community giving programme gets underway the retail giant is calling on charities to apply for secondees for periods of up to six months.

The Golden Jubilee Trust allows every member of the 70,000 strong John Lewis workforce to take a six month secondment to a charity or voluntary organisation of their choice. The organisation has so far sent employees, who are all partners in the company, off to over 400 charities in the UK.

Last year was particularly successful for the scheme as a record 23,790 hours were donated to charities, which is the highest since the scheme began in 2000. In total, over 200,000 hours have been spent by employees at either community-based organisations or large, international charities.

Chris Jones, manager of the Golden Jubilee Trust, said: “We are thrilled to have been able to donate more hours than ever in 2010 – especially when so many businesses have had to cut back in this area. We want to extend our reach even further in 2011 so I would encourage charities of all sizes to approach us if they’d like to find out more.”

For more information visit www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk