Here at Lazy Susan, like many businesses in the UK, we take our Corporate Social Responsibility seriously.
We actively engage in several initiatives and we annually allocate a portion of our profits and resources to support many charitable causes with our ongoing Do Some Good campaign.
Since its inception in 2015, our fundraising initiative is well on its way to raising £500,000 for some wonderful causes in the UK and overseas.
Last year we launched our Million Pound Challenge, where the Lazy Susan team aims to raise £1,000,000 for our chosen charity partners by 2027.
However, for us to make this happen, we need the help of the Lazy Susan team and our loyal customers…
Do Some Good Donations to our Charity Partners
Thanks to the photographs of our garden furniture that our customers sent us in 2023, we were able to donate around £85K to a host of wonderful charities.
Some of the charity partners we were able to support include:
1. British Heart Foundation
We donated over £14K of stock to the British Heart Foundation for them to sell in their furniture stores and raise valuable funds for their research into heart and circulatory diseases.
2. St Wilfrids Hospice
We donated over £8K stock to St Wilfrid's Hospice to help support palliative and end-of-life care free of charge to our local community in West Sussex and Hampshire. Lazy Susan owner, Michael also recently matched funds raised by the St Wilfrid's team of over £5K for their Pay For A Day campaign.
3. Charity: Water
A long-term partner here at Lazy Susan, in 2023 we donated £8K so the Charity: Water team could purchase Bio-Sand Filters that will provide 500 families with clean safe drinking water. We also donated an additional £7.7K to their Odisha School project in India, which provides water for 730 children.
4. Samaritans
We donated £2K to the Samaritans shoe box campaign to help them, continue the incredible work they do providing emotional support to anyone in distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide.
5. StonePillow
We donated £2.5K to StonePillow, another local charity close to our Chichester HQ. They are working tirelessly to help prevent homelessness and empower homeless people to transform their lives.
Customer Charity Photo Competition
Last summer we ran a charity photo competition where we asked customers to send us some photos of their Lazy Susan furniture in their gardens, and for every submission, we made a £50 donation to a charity of their choosing or planted 50 trees on their behalf.
This campaign proved to be a huge success. We were able to raise over £4K for a host of new charities and so far we have planted 1,620 trees via Tree-Nation, with a further 2,130 trees donated but still to be planted in the coming months!
The winning photo (pictured above) was sent in by Deborah who chose to donate to Cancer Research UK, saying:
"I have chosen Cancer Research, as it was my paternal grandmother's chosen charity, my late father also suffered cancer, my mother has an inoperable rare cancer and my best friend from school is recovering from breast cancer. As you can see, with it so closely affecting me and it surrounding us all in one way or another, I am delighted that this donation can go towards the research."
The species planted so far is Citrus sinensis, a small evergreen, for the Project Cocoa Farmer Agroforestry in Western Cameroon (pictured above), to help address erosion, food insecurity and the unsustainable farming practices of smallholder cocoa farmers.
We will provide further updates on the projects helped by the remaining trees when they have been planted by the Tree-Nation team.
Staff Charity Initiative
At the end of 2021, we launched our staff charity initiative, and since then it has gone on to support several charities close to the hearts of our team.
It could be an organisation that's helped them personally or supported a close friend or family member. It could even just be a charity campaign they spotted on GoFundMe or Just Giving that struck a chord. They picked the charity and we donated!
Alex Clarke, Head of Marketing had the following to say about it when we launched:
“The staff initiative is a great way for us to continue the good work we've done and reach some new charities that maybe aren't on the radar of Michael and I. Since the inception of our Do Some Good campaign in 2015, we've raised over £260k thanks to the photographs our customers send us of their new Lazy Susan Garden Furniture in situ. We wanted to do more though. Our target for 2022 is to raise over £150K. We were very close last year. The staff donations are a great way to get the Lazy Susan team involved, help them support a charity close to their heart, and push us towards our ambitious fundraising target for the year.”
In December 2023 we donated close to £30K to a host of charities, on top of what we'd donated earlier in the year, and a few examples of the charities the team wanted to support include:
1. Alex Clarke: The Alzheimer’s Society
“There are currently estimated to be 900,000 people in the UK with dementia. The Alzheimer’s Society gives help to those living with dementia and provides hope for the future by funding research into the disease. My partner’s grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago and I’ve seen the impact it’s had on her family watching him gradually lose his independence. It makes me feel proud to give back to the Alzheimer’s Society to help fund more research and provide resources which I know have helped bring an understanding of the disease and support to many people”
2. Kenton Roberts: British Heart Foundation
“My mother in her later life had to receive regular transfusions due to a deficiency in her blood which she eventually died from. I donate blood every three months and value the opportunity to give something else to this worthy cause.”
3. Nicoleta Mardare: Cancer Research UK
“My grandfather passed away due to lung cancer and my mother-in-law is suffering from the same disease so any help to fight this will take us a step further”
4. Valentina Ratti: Cancer Research UK
“This is an organisation that is very close to my heart because this ugly disease has touched many people close to me, family and friends, and has taken some of them away. It fills my heart with joy to think that my donation will help support the research that will hopefully one day succumb to so many of these evils, that are still incurable today, and take precious lives far too early.”
5. Ron Cooke: Crisis
“Helps to provide a safe place to rest and enjoy a Christmas dinner this festive period.”
6. Michael Scott: Medicins Sans Frontiers
“During 2023 we continue to see too much conflict, too many wars and the consequences are catastrophic, so I have chosen Medicince Sans Frontiers because they treat patients based upon medical reasons alone regardless of ethnicity, religion or political affiliation”
7. Federica Biondo: Pancreatic Cancer UK
“I have lost 3 members of my family including my mum (age 60, who passed away last year) to this terrible disease. Because of the lack of early diagnosis, it's the cancer with the lowest survival rate of all common cancers. My family and I have donated in my mum's memory here, but donations to any organisations would help fund research projects and improve survival rate.”
8. John Brolly: PKD Foundation
“My son was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) shortly after birth and for what is a very rare disease this charity has helped clear up lots of confusion, gives us peace of mind and keeps us up to date with all new research results and findings. Just an essential organisation.”
9. Sarah Ben Tahar: UNRWA
"Every hour in Gaza: 15 people are killed - 6 are children, 35 people are injured, 42 bombs are dropped, 12 buildings are destroyed. Destruction equivalent of two nuclear bombs. According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since October 7, equivalent to two nuclear bombs. In comparison, the Little Boy nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima during World War II yielded 15,000 tonnes of high explosives and destroyed everything within a one-mile (1.6km) radius."
10. Nadine Pinnock: All Day Arts & Crafts Workshop for Mind
“All of us in the office have worked with Mind and (hopefully) benefitted from the great awareness they bring to the nation about mental health. As someone who suffers from mental illness, I took advice from Mind and began artistic hobbies earlier this year, which have massively improved my well-being. I run weekly live workshops online to encourage others to use art to better their mental health, and I'm working with Mind and a company called Pott'd on December 29th to run a 15-hour (straight!) livestream "marathon" to raise awareness, and help others and hopefully raise a good amount of money for Mind.”
11. Lena Grosse: Ecohimal
“Ecohimal is an organisation that focuses on sustainable development projects in Nepal to improve living conditions for local communities. I was adopted from Nepal and when I saw they were looking for volunteers, everything fell into place and I've been working with them ever since. I'd like to support the extremely dedicated team at Ecohimal, as I've seen how their work empowers entire communities.”
Friendship Benches
Last year we also launched our new Friendship Bench scheme and as Winnie-the-Pooh so eloquently put it:
“A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.”
If you are a school or a charity, Lazy Susan would like to give you a free Metal Garden Bench for your communal garden. Let’s encourage people to sit down and talk!
To apply for a free Friendship Bench, all you need to do is fill up the form here or contact us at [email protected].
All we then ask in return from you is to send us a link to our website from your website’s news/events page and a photograph of the Friendship Garden Bench in situ
Battle of the Businesses
Some of you may remember back in the summer of 2022, we took part in V2 Radio’s Battle of the Businesses against our charity partners St Wilfrid’s Hospice.
St Wilfrid’s have asked us if we’d like to play again in 2024 and we have accepted their challenge.
Taking place on V2 radio, we will be pulling together a quiz team to answer 10 questions daily, Monday to Friday, with the winning business receiving free pizza!
Here’s to Doing Some More Good in 2024!
If you have any photos of your Lazy Susan Garden Furniture in your garden or on your patio, we’d love to see a few for our Do Some Good charity campaign. You can tag us @LazySusanFurniture on Instagram or Facebook or Upload Here.