Poundland commits £2.5m to charity partners Make-A-Wish, Tommy’s and Whizz-Kids over next two years

The Poundland Foundation will continue to support Poundland’s existing charity partnership with Make-a-Wish, Tommy’s and Whizz-Kids with a £2.5million commitment over the next two years.

But Poundland through its new Foundation will also invest an additional £825,000 in communities over the next 12 months to provide cash grants.

The Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity study revealing in 2019 that activity levels among schoolchildren in Northern Ireland were the lowest in the UK and Ireland.

With school and sports club closures during lockdown, opportunities for children to engage in physical activity dropped significantly. Fittingly, the Poundland Foundation will focus its first activity on providing sports kits for kids to get them active again.

This first grant window will open at 9am on Tuesday, June 1 and community groups will the opportunity to apply for one of 250 grants of up to £750 each to provide kits or equipment for local kids’ sports teams.

Applications will need to be made during June via the new Poundland Foundation website at www.poundlandfoundation.org.uk. Applications will be considered for any kind of team sport from football to netball, hockey to volleyball.

The Poundland Foundation was officially launched at the company’s new customer service centre in Walsall.

Poundland managing director Barry Williams said: “Poundland has got a strong tradition of supporting good causes, nationally and locally, and I want to thank all our colleagues and customers for all their fundraising efforts. The launch of the Poundland Foundation is a significant step for us and shows our commitment to helping our communities up and down the country. As a sports fan and a dad with sports-mad kids, I’m very excited about helping kids get and stay active – whatever the sport.”

The Poundland Foundation will initially make grants of £500,000 four times a year both to its three charity partners and through additional community grants.

Money for the foundation will come from in-store fundraising, carrier bag donations and the partnership with Pennies, the charity that collects micro-donations through chip and pin machines.

Poundland has always played an important part in keeping Northern Ireland’s high streets thriving and has for many years recognised its special responsibility to the communities it serves.

Over the past four years it has raised over £4.5m for charities and community causes, challenging perceptions of a discount retailer in a tough retail landscape.

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