Pennies raises milestone £1million for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity

Small change makes huge difference to seriously ill children.
Pennies, the digital charity box, has reached an incredible milestone by raising £1million for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity).

Pennies, the digital charity box, has reached an incredible milestone by raising £1million for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity).

This remarkable £1 million has been raised through generous donations that customers have made to the charity when shopping at a branch of The Entertainer, online at Hawkin’s Bazaar or eating at an ASK Italian restaurant across the UK. Pennies lets customers top-up or round-up their purchases to the nearest pound to donate a few pennies to GOSH Charity.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, senior representatives from the Pennies Foundation visited GOSH to present a cheque and meet with staff and patients at the hospital to see first-hand the difference which the donations are making.

CEO of Pennies, Alison Hutchinson CBE said:

We’re delighted that Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity are one of the first charities to receive £1million through the Pennies, the digital charity box. This remarkable milestone was made possible thanks to the retailers who have partnered with Pennies to support GOSH Charity, and of course to the customers across the country who’ve generously donated their digital small change in their millions since 2011. It’s a pleasure to support the GOSH’s wonderful work, and we look forward to helping raise many more vital funds through the digital charity box in the years to come.

The money raised by the generous donations from customers using Pennies will go towards the hospital’s most urgent needs from pioneering research, state-of-the-art medical equipment and the rebuilding and refurbishing of the hospital to support services for families and patients including parent accommodation so mums and dads can stay close by when their children are being treated at GOSH.

Amit Aggarwal, Director of Corporate Partnerships at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity said: 

We’re immensely proud of our partnership with Pennies and would like to say a big thank you to everyone at Pennies and each and every customer who has helped contribute towards this incredible milestone. Your donations have shown that pennies really do add up and this fantastic £1million donation will make a huge difference to the seriously ill children who are treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Since the charitable partnership began in 2011, Pennies and GOSH have worked together to encourage customers to donate through this sophisticated system which has developed throughout the partnership. For example, customers can also donate when making contactless payments with certain retailers. Hospitality company Whitbread will become the latest business to use Pennies to fundraise for GOSH Charity when they rollout the digital charity box across all their restaurant brands in early 2019.

Notes to Editors:

About Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity

Great Ormond Street Hospital is one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals with the broadest range of dedicated, children’s healthcare specialists under one roof in the UK. The hospital’s pioneering research and treatment gives hope to children from across the UK and around the world with the most complex and often life-threatening conditions. Our patients and families are central to everything we do – from the moment they come through the door and for as long as they need us.
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity needs to raise money to support the hospital to give children who need help the most, the best chance for life. The charity funds research into pioneering new treatments for children, provides the most up to date medical equipment, funds support services for children and their families and supports the essential rebuilding and refurbishment of the hospital. You can help us to provide world class care for our patients and families.

For more information on how you can support Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity please visit: gosh.org

About Pennies

• To date, 65M customer micro-donations have been made across more than 60 retailers raising £15M+ for over 400 UK charities. 
• Pennies estimates that if the UK’s card holders donated 30p once a month over £190M would be raised for charity every year. 
• Someone currently gives via Pennies every two seconds. 

How Pennies works:
Pennies’ micro-donations are anonymous, personal data-free, quick, and a choice every time. The retailer nominates the charity that its customers can support. No data is collected, and there is no follow up; it really is about dropping a few pence in a charity box – but via a debit or credit card or mobile wallet.

Press ‘YES’ on the Chip & PIN machine in-store or click the ‘Donate’ button online. The request is always for a few pennies (1p-99p) – either by rounding up or topping up.