Five Ways to Give Back this Black Friday

Five Ways to Give Back this Black Friday

As millions of shoppers prepare for thousands of deals this Black Friday, Charitable Travel reveals which specialist sites are offering free ways to donate to charity – helping consumers give back at the same time as grabbing a bargain!

As the British public tightens their belts and reprioritises where to spend their hard-earned cash this winter, charities are beginning to suffer as donations reduce. Recent research conducted by Charitable Travel discovered that due to the cost-of-living crisis 71% of people were having to cut back on charity donations.

The most popular ways to donate to charity are bucket collections (38%), sponsoring friends or family to do a challenge (34%) and 28% (regular direct debits). However, what many do not realise that is there are additional ways to donate to charity which can be incorporated into general living spending, which can help charities maintain some of their much-needed income and no extra cost to the consumer.

TOP SHOPPING HACK – SHOP FOR GOOD AT NO EXTRA COST!

Shop & Give initiatives are a free way to raise money for charity whilst shopping online and according to Charitable Travel only 12% of people are aware of these. Known as affiliate marketing, websites directing customers to a retailer earn a small pay per click commission. This can be a small percentage of the total cost spent or a set amount for each referral. Although the figures are tiny (could be just 1p per click for example), they can soon build up. Shop & Give websites will collect this commission and donate much needed funds to good causes. And in the current climate, every little helps.

The top five Shop & Give websites to consider this Black Friday and throughout the whole year are:

Give As You Live – simply register for free, choose to support one of 40,000 UK charities and select over 6000 participating retailers from M&S, John Lewis, Currys, Argos, Apple, Ticketmaster, WHSmith to easyJet and even Dominos Pizza. By accessing the retailers’ website from the Give As You Live page the affiliate commission will be donated by the brand to your chosen charity. Give As You Live has now generated more that £21 million for worthy causes.

Charitable Travel – the social-enterprise travel agency with a ‘Travel For Good’ ethos enables customers to donate 5% of the cost of their holiday to a charity of their choice via a Just Giving partnership. The fully bonded, online travel agency books holidays from a wide range of big brand and smaller operators and airlines including On The Beach, Expedia, easyJetHolidays, Intrepid Travel and G’Adventures.

Easy Fundraising – is the UK’s biggest shopping charity site with over 2 million users generating more than £43 million for much needed causes, with a simple message ‘when you spend, brands donate’. Register for free, sign up to support your favourite cause and download their Donation Reminder plug-in for your desktop, which will alert you when donations from over 7000 brands are available whilst doing your online shopping. You can then track your donations via your online account.

Amazon Smiles – by setting up an Amazon Smiles account, you can choose from over a million organisations to support when shopping with the vast online retailer. Tens of millions of products are eligible for a donation of 0.05% of the purchase price and twice a year Amazon will calculate the total earned and the AmazonSmiles Foundation makes a donation on your behalf direct to the charity.

Giving Machine – launched in 2006 they have raised over £1.9million for over 9000 charities. Register free online and choose up to four local or national good causes. Choose from hundreds of high street and big brand stores from The Body Shop to Ebay or Waitrose, click through to their website via an affiliate link and earn free donations from the brand to your selected charities. Giving Machine also offers discount codes, charity raffle to win some great prizes and a £1 per week supporters lottery.

Melissa Tilling, Founder and Chief Executive at Charitable Travel, said:

“Every year, online shops pay millions in sales commissions to websites for affiliate marketing campaigns, but there is a way to shop smarter and direct this commission to charities, whose services are increasingly in demand given the current climate, but their donations from the public are falling. Shop & Give is a quick and easy way to incorporate charitable giving into your daily life and the more of us that do it, the bigger the difference we can make.

“At Charitable Travel we offer travellers the opportunity to donate a percentage of their holiday to charity for free, simply by booking a holiday. For a family of four – where the average cost of a holiday is £2,000 – a free donation of £100 would be made to a charity of their choice, ensuring that travel can be a force for good.

“To ensure we continue to provide support to our beloved charities we recommend supporting Shop & Give initiatives in addition to direct charitable donations, as charities need our help now more than ever before.”

Founded in April 2020, Charitable Travel operates the same as other high-end travel agencies, with one key difference. The social enterprise will donate 5% per cent of the cost of the holiday – usually charged to generate profit – to a charity of the customer’s choice, via a partnership with JustGiving. Charitable Travel’s mission is to make travel “a force for good.” Whether it’s a city break or a beach getaway, holidaymakers can rest assured that their booking supports good causes.

After shopping for bargains on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, don’t forget Tuesday 29th November is Giving Tuesday Giving Tuesday UK: 29 November 2022 – the Global Day of Giving. A timely reminder that charities are in need of our help.

Leicester TV

Education Technology Day must be extended to prisons

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Typically thought of as being an easy to clean area of the home, hard floors have risen in popularity in recent decades. Globally, hard floors are the most common floor type,2 and research released today by Dyson has uncovered poor cleaning habits that mean hard floors are likely to be harbouring an array of hidden nasties. This comes as 32% of Brits – equating to 21.6 million people in the UK – will use the same dirty mop head for six months or more before replacing it. What’s more, one in 20 also admit to keeping the same mop for a year or longer, and one in 10 think it is acceptable to use the same mop 100 times, spreading dirt around their floors every time they use it. Cross contamination is a primary issue for most common and traditional mopping methods with germs and bacteria further being unknowingly spread around homes as Brits use dirty water to clean floors.3 45% only change the water to new water between rooms, whereas 41% wait even longer until it looks dirty. This could mean that floors are being washed with dirty water, adding more dirt rather than taking it away. Surprisingly, almost one in 10 (9%) even admit to not changing the dirty water at all when mopping. Over a quarter (28%) admit to mopping their floors once a fortnight or less while over half (53%) admit they don’t regularly clean behind appliances and leave dirt to build up for as long as six months at a time. image002.jpg On how to achieve a perfect barefoot clean feel after mopping, Geli Lee, Dyson Engineer and Home Cleaning Expert offers their top tips for eliminating dirt around the home: 1. Create a cleaning schedule to stay on top of dirt build-up. In the last year, there has been a 15% global reduction in the number of people who maintain regular cleaning schedules. 47% of the British public admitted to only being motivated to clean when they spot visible dirt or dust.4 Regular floor cleaning with a wet hard floor cleaner like the Dyson WashG1™ removes more stubborn dirt than vacuuming alone. It is important to have a debris free surface, clear any clutter from the floor or other surfaces. Choose the right machine: Different vacuums are designed for different floor types and home sizes. Some machines will be engineered with hard floors in mind and will struggle on thick pile carpets, for example. Choosing the right machine for your home will make a big difference to the ease and speed with which you’re able to clean your home. Clean your floors ‘little and often’. Washing your floors frequently in areas that receive more foot fall will help to stop dirt building up and getting trodden into your floor. Using a dedicated wet floor cleaner on hard flooring such as the Dyson WashG1 is helpful for this, as the versatile format means it vacuums and washes the floor simultaneously. Cleaning schedules have also become less regimented. In recent years only 41% of people claim to have a regular cleaning schedule, and 60% admit to cleaning reactively; being motivated to clean only when there is visible dirt or dust5. It’s perhaps not surprising, that a fifth of people are still concerned their floors are dirty after they’ve mopped them (22%) and one in four6 feel extremely worried about indoor dust at home. Geli Lee, Dyson Engineer and Home Cleaning Expert reveals why it is important to change the way we mop: “Cleaning your hard floors properly and regularly is important for maintaining a healthy environment around your home. Without a proper cleaning routine, dirt may unknowingly build up and spread around your home. It is evident from our research that current mopping habits mean British households aren’t cleaning their floors as effectively as they should. “From ignoring problem areas where dust and debris build up, cross contamination with dirty water to not replacing mop heads or inconsistent cleaning, current mopping behaviours may be making floors dirtier as opposed to cleaner. Moving away from traditional methods, wet floor cleaners like the Dyson WashG1 simplify the floor cleaning experience and provide a modern efficient and hygienic solution” To help take the guesswork out of mopping, the brand new WashG1 is Dyson’s first dedicated wet floor cleaner that tackles wet and dry debris in one go. Engineered for hygienic cleaning and maintenance, the WashG1 is revolutionising wet floor cleaning, removing the need for multi-products and multi-steps to achieve a barefoot clean feel around the home. To put the product to the test, Dyson have cleaned one of London’s most iconic landmarks The Victoria and Albert Museum. From cleaning the grand marble floors housing the most prestigious exhibits, to cleaning up leftover food in the Gamble Room Cafe, the WashG1 had a dirt busting tour of the museum leaving it spotless. Images can be found here. The WashG1 introduces Dyson’s engineering expertise to cleaning hard floors. With a 1 litre clean-water tank to cover flooring up to 290m2, the Dyson WashG1 uses a combination of hydration, absorption, and extraction technologies to remove wet and dry spills and stains simultaneously. The Dyson WashG1 is available to purchase now from Dyson.co.uk, retailing at £599.99.

Typically thought of as being an easy to clean area of the home, hard floors have risen in popularity in recent decades. Globally, hard floors are the most common floor type,2 and research released today by Dyson has uncovered poor cleaning habits that mean hard floors are likely to be harbouring an array of hidden nasties. This comes as 32% of Brits – equating to 21.6 million people in the UK – will use the same dirty mop head for six months or more before replacing it. What’s more, one in 20 also admit to keeping the same mop for a year or longer, and one in 10 think it is acceptable to use the same mop 100 times, spreading dirt around their floors every time they use it. Cross contamination is a primary issue for most common and traditional mopping methods with germs and bacteria further being unknowingly spread around homes as Brits use dirty water to clean floors.3 45% only change the water to new water between rooms, whereas 41% wait even longer until it looks dirty. This could mean that floors are being washed with dirty water, adding more dirt rather than taking it away. Surprisingly, almost one in 10 (9%) even admit to not changing the dirty water at all when mopping. Over a quarter (28%) admit to mopping their floors once a fortnight or less while over half (53%) admit they don’t regularly clean behind appliances and leave dirt to build up for as long as six months at a time. image002.jpg On how to achieve a perfect barefoot clean feel after mopping, Geli Lee, Dyson Engineer and Home Cleaning Expert offers their top tips for eliminating dirt around the home: 1. Create a cleaning schedule to stay on top of dirt build-up. In the last year, there has been a 15% global reduction in the number of people who maintain regular cleaning schedules. 47% of the British public admitted to only being motivated to clean when they spot visible dirt or dust.4 Regular floor cleaning with a wet hard floor cleaner like the Dyson WashG1™ removes more stubborn dirt than vacuuming alone. It is important to have a debris free surface, clear any clutter from the floor or other surfaces. Choose the right machine: Different vacuums are designed for different floor types and home sizes. Some machines will be engineered with hard floors in mind and will struggle on thick pile carpets, for example. Choosing the right machine for your home will make a big difference to the ease and speed with which you’re able to clean your home. Clean your floors ‘little and often’. Washing your floors frequently in areas that receive more foot fall will help to stop dirt building up and getting trodden into your floor. Using a dedicated wet floor cleaner on hard flooring such as the Dyson WashG1 is helpful for this, as the versatile format means it vacuums and washes the floor simultaneously. Cleaning schedules have also become less regimented. In recent years only 41% of people claim to have a regular cleaning schedule, and 60% admit to cleaning reactively; being motivated to clean only when there is visible dirt or dust5. It’s perhaps not surprising, that a fifth of people are still concerned their floors are dirty after they’ve mopped them (22%) and one in four6 feel extremely worried about indoor dust at home. Geli Lee, Dyson Engineer and Home Cleaning Expert reveals why it is important to change the way we mop: “Cleaning your hard floors properly and regularly is important for maintaining a healthy environment around your home. Without a proper cleaning routine, dirt may unknowingly build up and spread around your home. It is evident from our research that current mopping habits mean British households aren’t cleaning their floors as effectively as they should. “From ignoring problem areas where dust and debris build up, cross contamination with dirty water to not replacing mop heads or inconsistent cleaning, current mopping behaviours may be making floors dirtier as opposed to cleaner. Moving away from traditional methods, wet floor cleaners like the Dyson WashG1 simplify the floor cleaning experience and provide a modern efficient and hygienic solution” To help take the guesswork out of mopping, the brand new WashG1 is Dyson’s first dedicated wet floor cleaner that tackles wet and dry debris in one go. Engineered for hygienic cleaning and maintenance, the WashG1 is revolutionising wet floor cleaning, removing the need for multi-products and multi-steps to achieve a barefoot clean feel around the home. To put the product to the test, Dyson have cleaned one of London’s most iconic landmarks The Victoria and Albert Museum. From cleaning the grand marble floors housing the most prestigious exhibits, to cleaning up leftover food in the Gamble Room Cafe, the WashG1 had a dirt busting tour of the museum leaving it spotless. Images can be found here. The WashG1 introduces Dyson’s engineering expertise to cleaning hard floors. With a 1 litre clean-water tank to cover flooring up to 290m2, the Dyson WashG1 uses a combination of hydration, absorption, and extraction technologies to remove wet and dry spills and stains simultaneously. The Dyson WashG1 is available to purchase now from Dyson.co.uk, retailing at £599.99.

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