Asda raises £4m for primary schools across UK

Asda’s Cashpot for Schools initiative, launched on 2 September, has raised £4m for primary schools across the UK.

The industry-first campaign sees the retailer donate 0.5% of the value of its customers’ shopping to a primary school of their choice every time they shop using Asda Rewards – with £7.5m up for grabs in total.

All 22,000 state-funded UK primary schools can get involved with the scheme, and over 21,500 have signed up to date. 42 schools already have over £1,000 of funding in their cashpots and over 2000 are boasting cashpots over £500. This cash will go directly to schools for them to spend on whatever they need, so will go on to make a difference.

Asda stores in both South Wales (£127,000) and West Yorkshire (£123,000) regions have raised the most money combined for schools in their local areas. The highest school earner is Dunbar Primary School in Scotland who have a whopping £2,370 in their cashpot.  

The supermarket kicked off each school fund with £50 and in addition is topping up each school cashpot with an extra £1 for every customer that selects their school via the Asda Rewards app – with no impact on the customer’s own Asda Rewards cashpot. 

The campaign comes on the back of research that some parents are asked to give up to £138 per year to support their children’s schools, with the research also revealing the most significantly underfunded needs are school trips (64%), books and learning materials (52%), and sports equipment (50%).

Asda has partnered with charity Parentkind on the initiative, who have provided data for all 22,000 state funded primary schools in the UK – allowing families to select their school of choice in the app. 

John Ailsby, school business manager at Hawthorn Tree Primary School Boston, said “We’ve already seen over £600 raised for our school so far, which we are so delighted with. This might not seem a lot, but it will make a huge difference to us as it is funding we wouldn’t otherwise get and doesn’t take up our resources to raise it. It would be amazing to hit £1000 by the end of the campaign! 

“The money we raise will be used to help stock our incredibly new library that we fundraised for last year, as well as helping towards our next project: creating a much-needed community space in school for family learning sessions and other community projects.”