The Big Yellow Foundation works with charity partners supporting vulnerable people, such as ex-offenders, refugees, ex-service personnel and people living with disabilities to find employment and create a better future for themselves.
Our registered charity number is 1171232
The Foundation is Big Yellow’s vehicle for engaging with local communities and our employees; we do that by collecting donations from our customers and the Big Yellow business and distributing the funds as unrestricted grants to our charity partners. From time to time a charity partner may make a proposal for a specific initiative which we may decide to support with a restricted grant.
The Foundation is funded through:
- Big Yellow donating £1 for every customer move in.
- Our store teams inviting our customers to join in and make a donation at either move in or move out stage;
- Employee fundraising, which Big Yellow matches up to £5,000 per fundraising event.
- Reclaiming Gift Aid on donations.
Our aims and objectives
To develop a progressive and uniting approach to community activity that engages staff and customers – whilst driving greater social impact.
The approach that was created included:
- Developing a new uniting cause
Helping vulnerable people lead brighter lives
Genuine employment opportunities
to offer routes into employment for vulnerable people who are trying to rebuild their lives
- The launch of the Big Yellow Foundation
to provide structure and support
A new volunteering approach
to enable Big Yellow’s employees to support the theme
Launch of customer fundraising
to raise vital funds together with our customers.
Meaningful local partnerships
with charities near Big Yellow stores<
Performance and Annual Reports
We produce formal Annual Reports and Accounts, which are published on the Charity Commission website. We engage an independent auditor to verify our Accounts.
We set ourselves targets on income for the charity and distributing the income to our charity partners. We produce an internal quarterly newsletter, which updates our employees on how our fundraising performance is going and showcases the difference our charity partners are making.
Our main CSR Performance Section and our Annual CSR Report contains updates. We are very proud of our Foundation and will regularly issue updates on Social Media, celebrating our charity partners’ and our employees’ achievements. Please follow Big Yellow on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
Grant Making approach
We have selected to work with a number of partners who deliver the kind of projects we want to support. A number of our charity partners are relatively small, and we understand that funding can be a real challenge – receiving a regular donation is key. This is why we will not be inviting other organisations to apply for grants from the Big Yellow Foundation.
For the full Grant Making Policy, please click here