centre:mk raises over £52K for local charities

In a time where Covid-19 has had a negative impact on the income of 60% of charities*, regional shopping destination centre:mk, has been working hard to provide a platform for charities to generate awareness and income for their various causes, and with inspiring success.

Supporting on average over 70 charities throughout the year, centre:mk has today revealed that last year their hosted charity activities raised a total of £52,935.

One of the biggest fundraisers was The MK Community Foundation with their ever-popular charity car raffle. The raffle, which was moved from December 2020 to July 2021, due to lockdown, supported 43 charities across Milton Keynes. The foundation managed to raise a total of £13,500 from ticket sales alone in July and used a key location, donated by centre:mk for the 7-week period.

Centre:mk has also been busy helping charities with their awareness campaigns. Using the centre’s multi-storey carpark (which is used by over a million people each year), the structure has been lit up 6 different colours across 48 days to promote different charities and national awareness days.

In addition, centre:mk has calculated that in 2021 alone they hosted 131 days where charities were running some sort of activity within the shopping centre including Medical Detection Dogs Training, Christmas decorations display by VICTA for visually impaired children and even a catwalk show using older models from Age UK Milton Keynes, for Older People Awareness Day.

Lastly the Poppy Appeal, which is always a popular feature outside M&S and Guest Services every Autumn, raised an astonishing £23,000 with their appeal in 2021 in support of the Royal British Legion.

Kevin Duffy, Centre Director said of the activities: “We felt this year more than any other, it was important that we made it possible to continue to support such a wide range of charities with their fundraising efforts and awareness campaigns, especially given their fundraising opportunities have been hit so hard in recent months. Their fundraising initiatives really engage our guests which is evident in the amounts of money being raised and we are confident that 2022 will bring even more opportunities to support a wide range of charitable causes.”

* source – Charity Commision website