Supporting charities

These funds provide valuable support to local, national and international charities, helping them to develop new programmes and support those in need.

Corporate giving

Each year, we set ourselves a target to donate at least 1% of our pre-tax profits to charities and good causes. Last year we donated over £74.5 million to charities and good causes through direct donations, cause-related marketing, gifts in kind, staff time and management costs. For example, in China, we donate essential supplies such as rice and oil to disadvantaged people.

Our business in the Czech Republic provides grants to local charities through our Tesco Foundation. Last year over £100,000 was donated to 45 schools for new technical and sports equipment.

Fundraising for charities

We help charities raise money by allowing them to collect outside our stores. In 2011, the Royal British Legion raised £3.8 million through collections in Tesco stores. 

Last year, our UK staff and customers raised £7.5 million for the Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Scotland, making it our biggest partnership yet. This year  our UK Charity of the Year is Cancer Research UK. We are aiming to raise £10 million to be spent on research and awareness to improve early diagnosis and detection of the disease, help more people survive cancer and keep more families together.

In Hungary, our Christmas fundraising campaign for InterChurch Aid collected triple the money of the previous year, raising over £60,000 from in-store donations to match our £60,000 corporate donation.

UK Charity of the Year

Since 1988, Tesco UK has chosen a different charity every year to be the focus for staff fundraising and has raised £60 million for good causes over this period

The Tesco UK Charity of the Year partnership runs from 1^st March to 28^th/29^th February each year and can raise upwards of £7.5m for its charity partners.

Applications for the 2013 Charity of the Year partnership are now closed.
 

Emergency relief and humanitarian aid

We work hard to respond quickly to natural disasters wherever they happen.

In 2011, Thailand suffered its worst floods in 70 years.  We worked tirelessly to keep our stores open and improved access to them so that people could feed their families. In addition, we donated almost £500,000 to a total of over 40 hard hit provinces, and gave out over 50,000 relief bags containing essential products such as rice, water, instant noodles, fish sauce and canned fish.

Following the earthquake in Turkey in October 2011, we worked with the Turkish Red Crescent to gather 1,000 packs of winter clothing for those affected by the earthquake, collect donations and launch a blood donation campaign. Many of our stores also donated money, alongside our Tesco Group donation of £25,000.

Mary's Meals

We began supporting Mary’s Meals, an international charity providing meals for schoolchildren, through the Tesco Charity Trust in 2009. Tesco’s support provides meals for over 4,000 schoolchildren in India, Kenya, Malawi and Thailand every year.

Inspired by this initial support, our International Sourcing Office in Bangalore decided to take their own project forward, and has been working with Mary’s Meals to provide food and primary education to children without access to government schools.

We now provide all the funding for a centre run by Mary’s Meals in Bangalore, which caters for around 40 children each day. Our involvement has lead to improved sanitation and drainage facilities at the centre, as well as clean drinking water, stationery, clothing and utensils.

Last year, we asked all of the schools involved in Tesco for Schools & Clubs to donate their unwanted vouchers to Mary’s Meals, raising over £2,700.

Support for schools

We are entering our 21^st year of Tesco for Schools and Clubs.  Since Computers for Schools was launched in 1992, we have donated £185 million to schools and clubs around the UK.

In the US, we ran our Shop for Schools scheme for a third year, in which participating schools receive US$1 for every US$20 spent at Fresh & Easy stores. Over $US4 million has been raised since the program was trialled in 2009.

Following the success of Shop for Schools in the US, we trialled a similar scheme in Turkey.  By the end of the pilot, 35,000 till receipts had been collected, worth 2.2 million Turkish Lira.  Participating schools received up to 8,000 Lira of equipment.  We plan to expand this work this year.

Volunteering

Our staff work at the heart of the communities they serve, and supporting these communities by helping our staff to donate their time can make a real difference.  Last year, our staff across the Group spent over three million hours volunteering in local communities.  In Slovakia, for instance, every member of staff can take paid time out to volunteer for a good cause.