As part of our ongoing Do Some Good campaign, we launched a new staff charity initiative to get the entire Lazy Susan team more involved in our philanthropy.
2021 was an incredible year for us and we were able to donate more than ever to our favourite charities.
However, we’re always trying to do more and, as a big thank you for the team's hard work and dedication, we wanted to give them the opportunity to support a charity close to their hearts.
So just before Christmas, each member of the Lazy Susan team was invited to donate £500 to their favourite charity.
This could be a charity that's helped them personally or supported a close friend or a family member. It could even be something they’ve just spotted on Go Fund Me or Just Giving that's struck a chord. It was their choice!
Our latest staff charity initiative donations
We promised in our last update post that we would keep you informed on our blog and socials with regards to the charities the team selected and why.
Some wanted to keep their donations private and, of course, we fully respect that. So, the following are a few examples from those happy to share where their £500 donations have gone and why in the team’s own words…
Ron Cooke: Scleroderma and Raynaud's UK (SRUK)
The UK's only health charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with Scleroderma and Raynaud's phenomenon.
Scleroderma is a very rare Auto-Immune disease that my partner Dionne suffers from. SRUK is dedicated to improving the lives of people with scleroderma and I have experienced first-hand the amazing support they provide to people like Dionne.
Janine Brauer: UK Shaolin
UK Shaolin is an organisation that exists to preserve art and culture by delivering educational initiatives and physical activities.
UK Shaolin improves and supports people's health and wellbeing through physical and mindful activities as well as engages the community in arts and cultural activities to explore different heritages. They currently need support to reestablish a local facility in Southampton to offer more of their services and keep young and old people active and well. This is close to my heart, as I'm actively involved in their services and experienced the benefits to health and wellbeing myself and saw the benefits in participants too.
Nicoleta Mardare: Anglo Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (ASIPA)
The Anglo Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (AISPA) is a British based charity that raises funds worldwide for animal welfare organisations in Italy.
The ASIPA association is a charitable organisation that is doing their utmost to help thousands of animals find their forever home whilst looking after them with love and support and providing them with the best medical care possible - a little bit of extra help is welcomed since they are looking to expand the site in order to help more and more animals.
Katja Howell: Practical Tools Initiative
Practical Tools Initiative is a voluntary organisation set up to collect, refurbish, and send used tools to deprived post-war communities for social and economic rehabilitation.
This charity is supported by my church, we work very closely with one of the founders, a man from Sierra Leone, who personally delivers tools and school books to a village in Sierra Leone. The charity's vision is to prevent or relieve poverty or financial hardship anywhere in the world by providing or assisting in the provision of education, training, healthcare projects and all the necessary support designed to enable individuals to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient in particular by collecting, refurbishing and supplying used tools to those with a charitable need.
Valentina Ratti: Cancer Research UK
The world's leading independent cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influence and information.
My childhood best friend was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and she fought and won a long battle thanks to all the help she received. 1 in 2 of us will get cancer in our lifetime and all of us can support the research that will beat it.
Ben Wheatley: La Escuela de la Comedia y Mimo
The Escuela de la Comedia y el Mimo is a social art programme helping young people at risk of violence and other problems in Nicaragua.
La Escuela, in Granada, Nicaragua, helps disadvantaged kids with their education and artistic development. The curriculum is split between learning circus and artistic skills and standard school curriculum activities. When funds allow they also provide a nutritious meal to the children. I was the artistic director of the project and a trustee when I lived in Granada.
Nadine Pinnock: Bigmoose
Bigmoose is on a mission to raise £1,000,000 by the end of 2022. All money raised will be invested into therapy, early and timely intervention. the goal is to help people with their mental health, prevent suicide and reduce homelessness.
Bigmoose is a charity in Cardiff that provides help for homeless people as well as mental health support and suicide prevention for all. It’s very close to my heart as they operate a non-profit coffee shop that I worked at for a while, during which they helped me immeasurably with my personal development, for no reason other than the kindness of their hearts. They use donations to help support and upskill people struggling with homelessness for future employment and also provide therapy for people experiencing mental health problems.
Somaia Louihi: Water Wells for Africa
The WWFA have been building water wells in rural Africa since 1996. They believe clean water is the first step out of poverty, and that those without any should have it first.
A few years after my grandmother passed away, my dad and his sibling thought of paying for a water well to be built in her honour. This would have also helped a lot of people in that village to have access to water without needing to walk for many kilometres. I thought that this was a great investment in the long term for the local people. We are lucky to have easy access to water on this side of the globe, but unfortunately, it is not the same in other countries. I found this charity online: their main aim is to build water wells in Africa.
Alex Clarke: Ronald McDonald House Bristol
Ronald McDonald House Bristol (RMHB) provides free 'home from home' accommodation and support to families of critically ill children being treated in the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
Ronald McDonald House Bristol (RMHB) is a small, independent charity that provides free accommodation and support to families, whose critically ill children are receiving treatment at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children (BRHC). Their mission statement is to keep the whole family together, whatever. They helped my cousin remain close to his daughter at a time when she was very sick, meaning he didn’t have to worry about trying to find accommodation close to the hospital or figure out how to afford it as she was in the hospital for 3 and half months.
Juliane Lorenz: The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit engineering environmental organization based in the Netherlands, that develops technology to extract plastic pollution from the oceans and intercept it in rivers before it can reach the ocean.
“Water is my element - Since I was a little kid I was fascinated by the ocean/water and it was no big surprise when I joined a swimming club and spent almost every single day in the water (sometimes even twice a day)
I love the ocean and therefore want to help protect it. Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans. If no action is taken, plastic will increasingly impact our ecosystems, health, and economies. The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing and scaling technologies to rid the oceans of plastic.
Majdouline Merri: Street Child
Street Child is a UK charity, established in 2008, that aims to create educational opportunity for some of the most vulnerable children in Africa and Asia.
I believe that every child deserves the chance to go to school and learn. Not only education is essential in children’s lives, but it will also give them the tools to build tomorrow’s world. Children from the poorest, most fragile and disaster-hit countries are the first ones to suffer. Street Child believes that achieving universal basic education is the single greatest step that can be taken towards the elimination of global poverty. To give every individual the same chances in life we must give every child the opportunity to receive an education.
Abderrahman Echchahed: WaterAid
WaterAid is an international non-governmental organisation, focused on water, sanitation and hygiene. It was set up in 1981 as a response to the UN International Drinking Water Decade. As of 2018, it was operating in 34 countries.
WaterAid has teams in 28 countries across the world, working with our partners to transform millions of lives every year by improving access to clean water, toilets and hygiene.
Mihaela Dudova: Alzheimer's Research UK
Alzheimer's Research UK is the UK's leading dementia research charity, dedicated to causes, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure.
Alzheimer's Research UK funds scientific studies to find ways to treat, cure or prevent all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and others. The issue is important to me, as my grandfather, whom I was very close with, had Alzheimer's. The illness continued to get worse until he couldn´t recognise his family and became completely dependent.
About our Do Some Good charity initiative
We’ve recently finalised a large furniture donation for the British Heart Foundation.
They collected £8380.61 of garden furniture from our Kent warehouse to sell at their furniture stores to raise much-needed funds.
That brought our total donation for 2021 to over £17k cash and over £70k of stock. That’s over £88k donated to our charity partners.
It’s an incredible amount but a touch shy of our £100k target so the Lazy Susan team will be working even harder in 2022 to smash that amount.
Help Us Build a School in Ghana
Also as part of our Do Some Good campaign, we've been working closely with Arms Around The Child, a charity that aims to build a better environment for children living in extreme adversity.
In 2021 we donated £10k to help them deliver clean drinking water to Becky’s Home for Children in Senya Beraku, Ghana. This incredible work is down to you, our customers, sending in photos as part of our Do Some Good campaign.
As is our nature at Lazy Susan, we wanted to do more though, and during discussions with Ellie Milner, Global Director of Arms Around The Child, we discovered how we can support the charity further with an even more ambitious donation.
For this one, we could also use your help... To find out more, please read our help us build a school in Ghana post!
How you can help us Do Some Good?
Here at Lazy Susan, Micheal Scott and the team believe in doing some good and coming together by helping those in need.
Our customers can also get involved, by following these 3 simple steps:
Snap
1. Find your garden's best side and snap a photo to show us your Lazy Susan garden furniture.
Share
2. Send your photo to [email protected] or tag @lazysusanfurniture on Facebook or Instagram.
Review
3. Leave a product review on Trustpilot or Google.
For every photo we receive, we will make a donation to charities that we care about...
And we don’t mind if it's in sun, rain or snow, as long as our garden furniture is taking pride of place on your patio, balcony or wherever!
If you're in need of some inspiration, take a look at our Customer Photo Gallery or Instagram - you may even get featured!
Help us Do Some Good in 2022.