Big Donation Drive helping make Christmas magical by supporting Cash For Kids

In 2022, the RSICs launched a company-wide Big Winter Donation Drive supporting different charitable causes each month from October to December. As part of this we teamed up with Cash for Kids to help their annual Mission Christmas campaign of collecting new gifts and toys to give to children who may not otherwise receive one at Christmas.

The Challenge

Christmas is a magical time, and we all love to make it really special for children. Christmas 2022 was a difficult time for more people than ever due to the ongoing cost of living and energy crisis across the country. The term ‘heat’ or ‘eat’ became real to many and the magic of Christmas and children receiving presents was a challenge for families across the country. Each year, Cash for Kids run Mission Christmas to help and asks for donations of new gift and toys so they can deliver them to those who may not receive a present and this year they knew demand would be higher than ever.

The Solution

The network of RSICs contacted Cash for Kids to offer our support. They worked closely with the charity to prepare our approach so we could have the most impact. Together they built our company-wide campaign to generate support and encourage new gift and toy donations, cash donations and recruit volunteers all to help Mission Christmas.

Donation boxes were placed at key depot locations in every corner of the UK and Northern Ireland, a dedicated donations website was built on our behalf by Cash for Kids so we could give cash online for the charity to purchase toys on our behalf, and our RSICs held many planning meetings to ensure the launch and campaign was a great success.

Each Regional Social Impact Champion from Sunbelt Rentals also linked in with their local Cash for Kids representative to help understand any local challenges regarding shortages of toys for particular age ranges and to get visibility of volunteering opportunities so they could sign people up.

The Result

We helped 1,134 children smile. Raised £5,476 and donated 317 new gifts in just 30 days in November 2022. This means we helped the equivalent of 38 children every single day this month.
Our teams also volunteered to help sort the donations in the Midlands and in Scotland at the main Cash for Kids Headquarters.

The passion of our RSICs in driving this campaign meant that our teammates, customers and supply chain partners all got involved, as well as family and friends.
Sunbelt Rentals wants to thank everyone who got involved and all of our partners for their fantastic support, including

• JCB, Wacker, Altrad Belle, Webster Miller, Tomato Plant, Southdown Engineers, Gator, Glendun, Skyjack UK, J & M Haulage, Scotts Fuels, WALCON, Husqvarna UK, Ecobat Battery, Pramac/Generac, Astrak, Radio Detection Ltd, HTS Spares Ltd, Bickford Truck Hire Ltd, Pirtek Belfast, Boss Cabins Ltd, Western Global, VPS Group, Intertoll Limited, Altrad Belle, Reconomy (UK) Ltd, Stevie Campbell Football Academy, Ford Fuels Ltd plus many more

Sarah MacGregor from Sunbelt Rentals said “We are thrilled to have contributed such a significant amount to help children at Christmas time. Every present was guaranteed to be given to a child within the area the donation was made so our teams got to make a real difference local to them.

We watched the competition between the regions heat up on the donation portal as funds came flooding in and are so grateful for all of the donations received online and at our depots. We know many suppliers used this to get involved with the campaign and to see our social impact reach out across companies is astounding, as we know that together we can have an even greater impact.

To help over 1,000 children makes us so proud and our RSICs did a fantastic job creating a huge amount of momentum and support for the campaign.”

Sally Aitchison, MD for Cash for Kids said “We are truly grateful to the team at Sunbelt Rentals. The demand from families with children for support is increasing due to the Cost of Living crisis. We grant to children all year round and to begin this new partnership at Christmas was so well timed. Thank you to such a passionate group of people.”

In total 286,073 children were supported by the Cash for Kids campaign and sunbelt is proud to have contributed.

About Cash for Kids:

Cash for Kids is the cause related marketing arm for the Bauer Media’s network of local radio stations. Cash for Kids raised over £21 million in 2021, supporting 522,627 children and young people affected by poverty, illness, neglect or have additional needs.

Bauer Media's Cash for Kids registered charity 1122062 (England & NI), SC041421 (East Scotland) and SC003334 (West Scotland)