Asda Rewards to donate millions to UK primary schools

Asda has announced that it is making millions of pounds available to UK primary schools by encouraging families to use its loyalty programme Asda Rewards.

In a new campaign fronted by Joe Wicks, the supermarket is offering to donate 0.5% of the value of any shop done at Asda until 30 November 2024 to customers’ primary school of choice when they shop using Asda Rewards.

The supermarket is kicking off each school fund with £50 and offering to top up with an extra £1 for every customer that selects their school. The retailer is projecting to donate around £7.5m through the campaign.

The new initiative is a first for the loyalty market, allowing users to select their own benefactor and raise unlimited funds by using their loyalty app and with no impact on their own Cashpot earnings.

The new initiative signals the growth of the Asda Rewards programme which launched only two years ago in August 2022, and now has over six million weekly users. 

Commenting on the new initiative, David Hills, Asda’s chief customer officer, said: “The entire team at Asda is absolutely delighted to launch Cashpot for Schools today, an initiative that is testament to our commitment to supporting families, and evidence of the incredible opportunity created by our Asda Rewards programme.

“We know that 87% of families are asked to contribute to their primary school to support funding – with some families contributing up to £138 per year, which is a significant sum when budgets remain tight.”

Hills added: “The power of Asda Rewards means we can create a route for them to donate directly to their school, simply by doing their normal shopping with Asda and benefiting from the great value we offer everyday, as well as topping up their own Cashpot. It’s a game changing initiative for schools and a win-win for customers.”

Asda has partnered with charity Parentkind on the initiative, who has provided data for all 22,000 state funded primary schools in the UK allowing families to select their school of choice in the app. Parentkind is conducting diligence on all school bank data to ensure that, when the campaign closes, Cashpots can be transferred to schools for them to invest in the resources they need.

Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, said: “As the membership charity for PTAs, we’ve spent almost seven decades supporting school fundraising.‘Cashpot for Schools’ is by far the largest single opportunity brought to our members in recent memory. We are thrilled to be working with Asda to help realise this bold ambition.

“Not only can ‘Cashpot for Schools’ benefit every state primary school, but it also brings Asda’s 18 million customers one step closer to the needs of their local primary schools, with everyone able to play their part in helping the life chances of children simply by choosing a primary school they would like Asda to support.”