The Entertainer hits £1m fundraising milestone from microdonation scheme

23 Nov 2015 News

A toy retailer has raised £1m for eight different children’s charities in the UK over the last four years in partnership with digital charity box Pennies.

The toy retailer, The Entertainer, has raised £1m for eight different children’s charities in the UK over the last four years in partnership with digital charity box Pennies.

Pennies announced today that £1m had been raised by one of the first retailers to sign up to the microdonation scheme, The Entertainer, for eight different children’s charities over the last four years using Pennies digital charity boxes.

Pennies, a micro-donation tool which allows people to make small donations to good causes when paying by card, first partnered with the toy retailer in August 2011. Prior to the partnership: “The Entertainer stores were raising around £2,000 a year via traditional charity collection boxes,” said the statement. “After six months of using Pennies, over £100,000 was raised for the charities supported at the time”.

Gary Grant, founder of The Entertainer, said: “The introduction of Pennies to our stores has been a fantastic way to collect for so many worthy causes. Without the continuous generosity of our customers, The Entertainer wouldn’t have achieved this charitable milestone which undoubtedly will have a significant impact on our local children’s hospitals.”

Alison Hutchinson, Pennies chief executive, said: “The Entertainer was Pennies’ first in-store retailer to embrace the micro-donations movement. It was clear from day one customers felt good about giving – and this huge £1m milestone shows what a difference these pennies can make over four short years”.

Pennies, which was founded in 2010, announced in September 2015 that it had collected over 20 million donations through its digital charity box. Pennies also announced at the time that Martyn Lewis, current chair of the NCVO, would become the charity’s first ambassador.

The full list of supported children’s charities are: Great Ormond Street Hospital, Alder Hey Children's Charity, Yorkhill Children’s Charity, Help A Jersey Child, The Great North Children’s Hospital, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal raising money for Bristol Children’s Hospital, and Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity.