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Community Matters

Since its launch last year, Waitrose’s Community Matters initiative has donated over £3 million to a wide range of charities and community groups. This is a unique scheme as it is Waitrose customers who nominate, Partners who select and customers who decide, through a token vote, how much of £1,000 each month is going to be given to each of the three charitable groups.

Two John Lewis shops are taking part in a 12-month trial to explore new ways of engaging customers in supporting community projects. Cribbs Causeway has introduced ‘Community Works’, based on the Waitrose ‘Community Matters’ model, with blue tokens being given to customers to ‘vote’ when they visit the restaurant or the espresso bar, while Glasgow Partners organised a successful football tournament for local primary schools, and are sponsoring a local athlete looking to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Volunteering

Our Partners make a genuine difference to local people’s lives and create strong links with the community by giving their time and skills. This provides charities with valuable resources and the skills to meet their own objectives and serve the needs of the wider community.

We have schemes in place to support volunteering efforts, including our Golden Jubilee Trust secondment scheme (see below) and a community scheme that encourages Partners in John Lewis and at head offi ce to get involved with local projects. For example, at head offi ce, projects ranged from running weekly lunchtime clubs at a local primary school, redecoration of a local homeless shelter and organising a picnic for children from a local community group to one-to-one mentoring and offering planning advice to a local children’s charity on the layout of their offi ce space. Through these two schemes Partners volunteered over 57,000 hours last year.


The Golden Jubilee Trust

The Golden Jubilee Trust (GJT), our flagship volunteering scheme, is an independent charity through which Partners can undertake voluntary secondments with UK-registered charities for up to six months. Through the GJT, 50 Partners volunteered more than 23,000 hours during the year, an increase of 5% on last year, and the highest annual fi gure to date. 382 Partners have now donated over 160,000 hours to more than 370 UK charitable organisations since it was founded in April 2000. In return, Partners can develop new skills, grow in confi dence, take on new responsibilities and become more motivated, satisfi ed employees.


23,618 Partner volunteering hours donated through 50 Golden Jubilee Trust secondments in 2008/09


“I’ve been a trustee of the charity, A Smile for a Child, which supports disadvantaged and disabled children, since it was set up last year by former Waitrose Partner Chris Read. As the charity is at an early stage, it needs all the help it can get. I wanted to do more, so he suggested I apply to the GJT. I used my three-month secondment to design a new website and set up a regional offi ce in London. I’ve learnt a lot about the charity, and the Trust, and since I’ve been back at work, a couple of my colleagues have asked me how to go about applying.”

Hitesh Wadhwana (Waitrose GJT secondee) – A Smile for a Child


“I had worked on conservation programmes in the norfolk Broads before, but because of my rota hours, I wouldn’t have been able to take part in the national Trust volunteer programme without getting a GJT secondment. Working at the charity one day a week was great for me as I still felt connected to my department. The experience was very rewarding and I hope my secondment inspires other Partners to go and do something similar.”

Vicky Crump (John Lewis GJT secondee) – National Trust