Pennies
As part of our commitment to be active in the communities that we serve, Domino's has supported the charity Special Olympics Great Britain (GB) for several years through a combination of corporate donation and staff fundraising activities. We are now teaming up with another UK registered charity called The Pennies Foundation, to give our customers the chance to join in and support Special Olympics and other UK charities too, including the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice which benefits from donations made by customers ordering online in Northern Ireland.
What is this all about?
The Pennies Foundation has created Pennies, the electronic charity box. This is to make giving to charity easy and affordable for shoppers and by doing this raise additional money for UK registered charities. It's a chance for people to give pennies not pounds with a single click. It's like the box to collect cash change for charity but it works instead with card payments. Domino's customers can join in when they order their pizza online and pay by card.
Customers will be given a choice when ordering their pizza and sides online to round up their bill to the nearest pound. The money then goes to The Pennies Foundation which adds the pennies into pounds and gets all of the money raised to UK registered charities, where it will be put to work.
Domino's is the first retailer to join in this exciting new way of raising money for charity. Three-quarters of the money given by our customers will go to Special Olympics GB. The remaining quarter will be distributed to other UK registered charities. The charities that will benefit will be show-cased on the Pennies website www.pennies.org.uk. One place that money raised through Pennies won't go is to any charity whose purpose is the promotion of a specific religious or political view.
We've been asked whether giving a few pence can really make any difference: the answer is a resounding 'YES'! If, for example, half of the people in the UK who use a debit or credit card gave 34 pence a month this way (just over £4 a year), more than £80 million of new money would get to charities. Right now that money is particularly valuable as the need for their services is going up at the same time as funding is under pressure because of the economic climate.
One thing we really liked about ‘Pennies' is that our customers are not being asked to make any commitment to give. Whether it's 1p, 50p or the maximum 99p it's our customer's choice each time. Plus it's about giving pennies, not pounds.
About Special Olympics GB
Part of the Olympic family, Special Olympics GB provides year-round sporting opportunities to people with learning disabilities of all ages and athletic ability. Sport helps build individual confidence and makes a huge difference not only to those who participate across the country but the lives of their carers too.
This summer [2010], Special Olympics GB athletes successfully competed in the European Summer Games in Warsaw. Altogether the GB team of 46 athletes brought home 36 gold, 29 silver and 23 bronze medals – a fantastic result.
Right now Special Olympics is able to provide sporting opportunities for around 8,000 people with learning disabilities, but there are over 1.2 million such people around the UK with 200 babies born every week who will face the same challenges. Special Olympics is working to bring the power of sport into the lives of a further 12,000 people with learning disabilities by the end of 2013.
To see what some other people think about Pennies or to ask a question, visit www.pennies.org.uk and have a look at the Pennies Website. If you would like to know more about Special Olympics Great Britain,
just visit www.sogb.org.uk