Care2Save Charitable Trust is a UK registered charity which supports hospice and palliative care by running projects solely devoted to generating new income for charities. One of these projects is the Care2Save shopping website, where you can buy the products and services you need and choose a charity to benefit from 80% of the commission we earn. The remaining 20% of this commission goes to The Care2Save Charitable Trust.
Care2Save has recently re-launched nationally with a brand new website which offers much greater functionality, including the ability to search for products and stores within the website itself and the ability to see how much you’ve raised for your favourite charity. It also now features over 6 million products from more than 2000 retailers including Debenhams, John Lewis, Easyjet, Travelodge, thetrainline.com and Marks & Spencer.
While any charity can raise money through Care2Save’s shopping website, the independent charity was created specifically to support hospices and other palliative care providers, who will also be able to apply for grants from The Care2Save Charitable Trust to help fund projects or services.
“It’s about creating a long-term funding stream,” said Care2Save’s CEO Andrea Fragata Ladeira. “Six years ago I left the commercial sector to take on the role of Commercial Director at a local hospice. As a charity, it has to raise almost 80% of the £3 million it needs to function every year. I knew that the biggest challenge would be to create a sustainable funding stream.”
“The most reliable funding stream we had was our hospice lottery, where people paid £1 a week. £1 a week does not sound like a lot, but when you have over 18K people paying £1 every week, it adds up quickly.
“One day I was approached by an online shopping website giving 50% of the commission to charities. They asked me to promote their business to our charity’s supporters. It did not feel right to promote a service to our supporters so their business could make a profit.”
When research showed that there were no charities operating in this sector, the idea for Care2Save was formed. The original concept was to solely support hospice and palliative care, but it soon became obvious all charities could benefit from such a website.
“We believe the Care2Save website is a better option for charities, as we give 80% of the commission to the consumer-nominated charities as opposed to the 50% offered by other sites.”
“It is not really individuals buying the occasional big ticket item that will make the biggest difference,” said Mrs Fragata Ladeira. “It is people making their small, every day purchases through Care2Save on a regular basis that will keep charities afloat.”
This is especially true for hospices, where pennies can make a real difference:
- 23p will pay for a diamorphine tablet to relieve pain
- £5 will pay for a pain relieving injection
- £20 will help to pay for an air mattress to make a person comfortable at their end of life
- £50 will help to fund communication training for a volunteer to support a lonely vulnerable person at their end of life
- £50 will help a nurse develop skills caring for a person at their end of life
- £50 will help fund specialist counselling training to support children following the loss of a loved one
- £5 for manicure and nail polish (done by therapist that volunteers time) so just paying for products
- £25 essential oils for 3 months
- £35 for 1 therapy treatment
- £55 to replace subdued lighting in a therapy room
“We are living in a time when charities are being asked to take on more and more, but people are less able to give to those charities dear to them,” said Mrs Fragata Ladeira. “This is a way to support what’s important to you simply by buying what you would anyway. It costs no extra to shop through Care2Save. It’s a way to say “I choose to shop in a way that makes a difference.”
Andrea Ladeira is also the Commercial Director at St Luke’s (Cheshire) Hospice, which raises money through Care2Save in the same way other charities can – they encourage their supporters to register with Care2Save and choose St Luke’s as their charity of choice. St Luke’s gets no other additional income from Care2Save.
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