An independent pharmacy chain is looking to raise thousands for charity by asking customers to add a few extra pennies towards mental health when they pay at the till. Well Pharmacy, which has more than 750 branches across the UK, will offer everyone paying by card the chance to donate 9p to Mind in the hope that countless thousands of tiny donations will add up to a large cash boost for the mental health charity.
The scheme will officially be launched on Random Acts of Kindness Day, February 17, and the funds will help Mind to run services including the Mind Infoline, a legal helpline, and its online community, Side by Side. The partnership with Mind was launched in May last year as part of Well Pharmacy’s Culture Code commitment, and selected stores have been encouraging customers to donate since December. So far, over 50,000 donations have been received.
Seb Hobbs, CEO of Well Pharmacy said: “We are delighted to be able to offer this new way of donating, which is a simple approach and can make all the difference to such a vital charity. With one in four of us experiencing a mental health problem every year, we know how important it is to keep raising money for Mind. We are very proud of our charity partnership and working with Pennies will play an important part in that partnership.”
Well has partnered with Pennies, the award-winning micro-donation charity, and Trust Retail, part of the Trust Payments Group, to run the service. Pennies and Trust Retail will also match the totals donated by customers using cashless payments on Random Acts of Kindness Day.
Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO Pennies said: “We are excited to welcome Well Pharmacy to the micro-donation movement, and we know their customers generosity will make a big difference to Mind, a charity working tirelessly to ensure everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.”
Pennies has estimated that micro-donations present an ambitious but achievable opportunity to inject an annual £1bn into the UK charity sector - if every UK card holder gave just 35p a week.
In total, the charity has enabled over 158 million micro-donations, raising over £39million in vital additional income for charities in the UK, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland.
