As we start the New Year, we wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for the phenomenal support for our Do Some Good charity campaign in 2020.
Last year again saw the submission of some wonderful Customer Photographs, and we've been able to donate an incredible 10% of our net profit to our chosen charity partners.
COVID-19 made 2020 an extremely challenging year for us all, and as we start the New Year, we again find ourselves back in a national lockdown here in the UK.
However, our Do Some Good initiative has continued to go from strength to strength, and we want that to continue in 2021. Our charity partners need our help more than ever.
We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved, success is down to the photographs you send us, and we continue to be in complete awe of not only the number we receive but the quality of the photographs too.
In fact, such is the quality you’ll find them not only in our Customer Photo Gallery but utilised across the product pages of our shop and on much of our marketing activity/materials.
…So, please keep them coming!
But before we look ahead to 2021, I wanted to recap on some of our key donations from last year:
Captain Tom's Walk for the NHS
We all know the story of Captain Tom Moore and his incredible achievements during the first lockdown. I think it’s fair to say that Captain Tom united the nation and gave us hope when it was needed most.
The Lazy Susan team were so inspired that we made a £10,000 donation to Captain Tom's Walk for the NHS. At last look his Just Giving page had raised a staggering £32,796,355 for NHS Charities Together.
Captain Tom’s phenomenal record-breaking efforts continue to make a difference to NHS staff, volunteers and patients, and you can still play your part in supporting them in the fight against Covid.
Whilst his own Just Giving page is now closed, donations and fundraising for the appeal can still be done at nhscharitiestogether.justgiving.com.
You can also visit www.captaintom.org to follow his journey further.
FareShare
This is an organisation we’ve supported a number of times through our Do Some Good campaign in recent years.
Operating a nationwide network of charitable food re-distributors, made up of 17 independent organisations, they take good quality surplus food from right across the food industry and get it to almost 11,000 frontline charities and community groups.
The food they redistribute is nutritious, in-date and good to eat.
It reaches charities across the UK, including school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters, and community cafes, etc. Every week FareShare provide enough food to create almost a million meals for vulnerable people.
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the way they operate but they are continuing to run a full national operation and are getting food to vulnerable people during the crisis.
Hopefully our donation of £2,500 helped them in their efforts, and you can find our more about the work they do or make your own donation direct to them at fareshare.org.uk.
FoodCycle
FoodCycle is another of our regular charity partners, and last year we also donated £2,500 to them.
Similar to the work of FareShare, this UK-based charity also collects surplus food, but they pair it with spare kitchen spaces and volunteers to create three-course meals for people at risk of food poverty and social isolation.
FoodCycle operates from London but they also have operations throughout the United Kingdom, and their aim is to strengthen communities by bringing people together around a healthy meal.
They want to encourage friendships by creating spaces for people from all backgrounds and walks of life to have fun together. At the same time they are improving nutrition, education and reducing hunger by cooking healthy meals for those in need.
You can find our more about the incredible work they do on their website, www.foodcycle.org.uk.
St Wilfrid's Hospice
St Wilfrid's Hospice is right on the doorstep of Lazy Susan HQ, and it is another charity we’ve again supported a number of times in recent years.
In 2020 we donated £8,500 to them, which included £5,500 worth of new garden furniture that they can then sell on in their shops.
St Wilfrid’s Hospice is an independent local charity and, for over 30 years, they’ve been caring for and supporting those in our community who are in the last phase of their lives.
Their primary purpose, in collaboration with the NHS and other local services, is to provide high quality specialist palliative and end of life care.
The donation and garden furniture sets we sent them last year contributed towards raising an incredible £2 million, all of which goes to running the Hospice.
Donations of all shapes and sizes can be made at their donations centre on Terminus Road near to the Lazy Susan offices.
You can find out more on their website stwh.co.uk and details/the locations of their shops can be found at stwh.co.uk/shops.
Living Paintings
Last summer, 11 year old Ted ran a marathon with all the money he raised going to Living Paintings. We helped him in his journey by donating £2,000 to his Just Giving account.
Living Paintings are a wonderful UK charity that produces tactile books for the blind. Michael, the owner of Lazy Susan, had this to say at the time about the decision to make this donation:
"I wanted to support a local organisation close to home as part of Do Some Good initiative. I looked on Just Giving for Portsmouth based fundraising. Ted's story and endeavour just really resonated with the team and I. I felt that we could make a big impact, and that our donation would have a positive effect on him, whilst at the same time supporting a great cause.”
You can read more about our donation to Ted here.
LifeHouse
The LifeHouse is a resource, support centre and kitchen that serves hot food. It is a charity we hadn’t supported before and it was brought to out attention by a member of the Lazy Susan team.
Situated not far from us on the Albert Road in Southsea, their aim is to target the immediate needs and issues of those suffering homelessness and addiction in the Southsea and Portsmouth area.
Many in Lazy Susan's home city are facing desperate situations, but whatever the circumstances, the LifeHouse's aim is to show that there is a way out. They reach out with a plan to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to improve their situation through a wide variety of support services.
The LifeHouse is backed by a not-for-profit charity and run by a Manager, Trustees and a wonderful, enthusiastic team of volunteers, offering practical resources and support for those in need.
You can find out more about them, the wonderful work the team do in our local community, and make your own donation at LifeHouse.org.uk.
You can read more about our donation to the LifeHouse project here.
Arms Around The Child
Arms Around The Child is another charity we made a donation to for the first time in 2020. They’re a global charity aiming to build a better and kinder environment for children living in extreme adversity.
AATC state that: “Sometimes the issues of the world or issues in our own lives seem so huge or overwhelming that we can’t bear it or we may feel inadequate, but we can all participate in a kinder world for children, because if not us, then who?”
Arms Around The Child are simply asking us to help them create a powerful impact by refusing to turn our backs on our human family and to show determination in striving to change the lives of others in less fortunate circumstances than ours.
Help us to help them… You can read more about our donation and the work Arms Around The Child are doing around the world here.
British Heart Foundation
We haven’t supported the British Heart Foundation before directly, so we decided to send a large donation of our modern garden furniture sets with a net value of £4,625 to them at the back end of the year.
The donation comprised of 150 Chairs and 33 Tables that they can then sell in their shops to raise much needed funds.
Covid-19 has cut their ability to fund new research in half, at a time when hearts need help more than ever.
They urgently need our support this Christmas, and this was a great way for Lazy Susan to do just that.
With over 180 specialist BHF Home stores across the UK selling an array of quality items such as sofas, dining sets, and garden furniture, it helps them to raise much needed funds.
The BHF currently fund over £100 million worth of research each year into all heart and circulatory diseases and the things that cause them…
Heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, diabetes, they’re all connected, and they're all under the BHF’s microscope.
Further information about the BHF and the work they do can be found here.
Business2Schools
We followed our BHF donation with an even bigger shipment to another new charity that we also haven’t backed before, Business2Schools.
With a net value of £12,197 their donation consisted of 57 Tables and 300 Chairs. B2S can then redistribute this furniture to various schools across the UK that have a need for it.
Their main focus is to take businesses unwanted office furniture and tech and redistribute it. The aim being to help improve the infrastructure in schools, by providing them with faster computers and furniture that will create a more aspirational learning environment.
If your business is moving, or you’re updating your computers and office furniture, I would implore you to think about donating the things you no longer need to them.
This is new stock we’ve sent too, so hopefully it will play a small part in helping them achieve that.
Plus, the great thing about our modern garden furniture sets we’ve given them is they can be used inside or out too, they make the perfect desk, and being made from durable cast aluminium they should stand up to the rigours of school life.
As each school receives our furniture B2S have promised they’ll send reactions, pictures and letters of thanks, so we’re looking forward to them, and we’ll be sure to share them on our blog or social media channels when we get them.
You can find further information about Business2Schools and the work they do here.
Help us to Do Some Good
Summer may be a good few months off yet and the weather has been pretty yuk of late but you can still send us some snaps of your Lazy Susan Garden Furniture in situ…
There's a few simple ways you can then help us to Do Some Good:
- Email us the photos to [email protected].
- Share them and tag us at @LazySusanFurniture on Facebook or @lazysusanfurniture on Instagram.
- Or post a review of your new furniture on Trustpilot.
We’ll donate £10 for every set of photographs you send or review you post, however, we'll increase that to £20 for photos showing the table set for a meal or party.
We love an Autumn/Winter photo, especially a snow covered garden, so please get creative as there’s a chance you’ll feature in our Winter Photo Gallery.