Supporting store communities agreed to make a ‘top up’ donation of £112.5k to Macmillan Cancer Support – bringing the total BUILDING LOCAL COMMUNITIES donated since the start of our partnership in In FY20, during the first Covid-19 lockdown, our February 2019 to £1.3 million. colleagues set up Facebook groups in their store communities, firstly using social media to help We rotate our chosen Group charity partner organise local initiatives to help the NHS, care every two years. This year, colleagues voted for homes, and to support vulnerable individuals, our new charity partner, Mind, via our ‘Home then to understand local customer and colleague Comforts’ intranet. Our CEO, Nick announced our sentiment about store re-openings. We saw the new partnership in July 2021 alongside a £112.5k potential to develop more meaningful connections ‘starter’ contribution. We are excited to explore with our localcommunities and have since focused how we can link our community activities with our efforts on strengthening our 175 Facebook Mind’s 160 stores. Overall, our fundraising and groups – one for every store. At year end FY21 Group cash charity contributions amounted to we had over 700,000 Facebook followers (FY20: £580k in the year (FY20: £638k) in line with our pre- 152,000), above our informal internal target of Covid contribution in FY19. These figures exclude 555,000. the costs associated with operating our Facebook groups and the community campaigns referred to These thriving groups were instrumental in helping opposite which we do not quantify. to communicate and co-ordinate this year’s community campaigns that we ran when stores Group and colleagues fundraising and were open: Group cash charity contributions • Delivering joy:through our Christmas (£k) campaign, customers and colleagues 638 donated over 18,000 gifts 580 580 491 which were delivered 366 by store colleagues to local care homes, 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 women’s refuges and underprivileged children. COLLEAGUE VOLUNTEERING • Delivering kindness:2,000 blankets were Every Dunelm colleague is encouraged to take up collected in store and donated to homeless their annual paid day off to volunteer or provide shelters and dog homes, 200 trolleys of donated support for a charity and this proved difficult food were distributed tolocal food banks and during Covid-19 restrictions. Nonetheless, 1,200 cards were sent to people in care homes, groups of colleagues undertook projects hospices and hospitals, including Great Ormond such as weeding and planting in their local Street Hospital. Cards included pictures and communities. We aim to promote and better notes organised through our Facebook groups. monitor this important aspect of local •Delivering sunshineisa smaller initiative, with community engagement, including a more sustainable/environmental theme – co-ordinating colleague volunteer days engaging with local schools to distribute in Mind charity shops and projects. sunflower seeds and run growing competitions, rejuvenating local buildings with hanging baskets and planting, and giving away wildlife-related items such as bird boxes.Keeping it local In some stores we have opened up our Pausa cafes We keep an eye out for local opportunities in the evenings to local communities, and have to repurpose products and encourage recycling and reuse. welcomed knitting groups, young parent groups, We provide used store packaging free of charge for house Scout meetings and book clubs. We are setting up movers and recirculate these boxes for as long as possible. panels to investigate more ways of benefiting our local communities through our Pausa hubs – from We donate cardboard rolls to local schools for craft projects and product tasting and samplings to promoting local promote suggestions via our Facebook groups on how to upcycle old businesses through online community notice boards. items – for example using colanders as hanging baskets and loaf tins CHARITY CONTRIBUTIONS as window-sill planters. We advertise ‘Second life Sundays’ locally, where we sell less-than-perfect stock and we are linking up stores with We continued to support our Group charity local recycling enterprises. In and around Exeter, for example, we are partner, Macmillan Cancer Support and, in Wales, collecting old candles and candle wax on behalf of a local entrepreneur Groundwork, during the year. As store lockdowns who turns these into new candles. hampered our fundraising activities the Board DUNELM GROUP PLCANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2021 65 STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCEFINANCIAL STATEMENTSOTHER INFORMATION