Our charitable contributions

Our Partnership and divisional Community Investment Committees increase collaboration between divisions, with individual shops having responsibility for developing, monitoring and communicating their achievements.

Partnership-wide contributions totalled £8.8 million in 2010/11 (equivalent to 2.4 per cent of our profits before Partnership bonus and tax, as measured using the LBG (www.lbg-online.net) model).

Our contributions in John Lewis are focussed on local organisations and are facilitated by store based Community Liaison Co-ordinators.  In 2010 our Charity of the Year was Beating Bowel Cancer (www.beatingbowelcancer.org). The division's charity week saw a flurry of activity featuring everything from abseiling to fashion shows to leg-waxing. The charity also benefitted from John Lewis' mobile phone recycling scheme, which generates a donation for every phone received. In 2011, we have taken a new approach. Each branch will support a local cause of their choice, under a particular category: for 2011/12 this will be 'welfare', focussing on local charities that help the homeless.

Launched in 2008, Waitrose's Community Matters initiative donated over £2.7 million to 8,500 worthy causes in 2010/11. Using tokens provided at the till, customers decide how much of a £1,000 monthly total (£500 in convenience shops) is given to the three charities or community groups, nominated by customers and selected by Partners. Our head office, Leckford Estate and Distribution Centres also make similar monthly contributions.

The Partnership has a long tradition of supporting music and in 2011 a new scheme called Music Matters was set up to allow John Lewis and Waitrose branches to support more regional music projects. In addition to the existing centrally adminstered music support, branches are now able to award one-off donations of between £1,000 and £5,000 to music projects in their local areas. The Partnership also continues to make significant donations to emergency overseas relief. In 2010 we donated £75,000 to the British Red Cross Disaster Fund providing life-saving relief and care in 12 emergencies including the Haiti earthquake, a severe food crisis in West Africa and the Pakistan floods.

'At a time when many charitable groups are struggling to raise funds, we will continue to give support to our communities.'

Gemma Lacey, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility