A corporate partnership between retailer Spar UK and children’s charities NSPCC and Children 1st has surpassed its ambitious £2m fundraising target.

In spite of the economic downturn of the last two years, Spar raised £2.1m over the year. and its employees have managed to increase fundraising and cause-related activities.  

Fundraising included Christmas, Halloween and Easter parties for staff, but the biggest fundraising activity has been ‘Stop 4 Tea’, which took place across Spar stores in the month of May and tipped the partnership past the £2m-mark.

For a small donation, customers were encouraged to ‘Stop 4 Tea’ and enjoy their brew while chatting or browsing. ‘Stop 4 Tea’ was launched by the NSPCC’s director of fundraising, Paul Amadi and Geoff Hallam, managing director of Tates Ltd, the company which owns and operates SPAR stores in England and Wales.

As well as ‘Stop 4 Tea’, other fundraising initiatives included Spar donating 10p from the sale of two Christmas sandwiches. The supermarket retailer also promoted the NSPCC’s flagship Christmas product – ‘Letter from Santa’. For a suggested £5 donation, a person could nominate someone special to receive a letter from Father Christmas himself. Moreover, a number of staff undertook challenge walks and runs, donating money to the NSPCC.

Spar's distributor in Scotland, C J Lang & Son, raised well over £100,000 for Children 1st by charging customers 2p for every carrier bag used, which was first introduced in September 2008. In May and June 2010, Spar and Children 1st organised a five-a-side football tournament with the games taking place in seven different locations in Scotland and the final in Glasgow.

The fundraising went right to the top, with Hallam himself running this year’s London Marathon, raising £11,000 for the NSPCC.

Amadi said: “The NSPCC’s partnership with Spar has been a tremendous success; working with Spar over the past four years has increased awareness of the NSPCC Helpline and ChildLine amongst thousands of employees and customers.

Director of fundraising for Children 1st, Mafe Marwick, said the results of the campaign have exceeded all expectations.