Farmlands Launches Its Christmas Charity Fundraising Drive – Tag Your Charity

Farmlands’ Christmas charity fundraising drive, Tag Your Charity, begins today. Through this initiative, Farmlands aims to raise $200,000 to be shared by national partner, I Am Hope, and more than 70 community charities.

This is the second year that Farmlands has rallied the combined reach of its 82 retail stores to support a national charity, as well as local charities in all the regional and rural communities that Farmlands operates.

From today until the end of the year, customers visiting Farmlands stores will be invited to donate to I Am Hope or the local charity chosen by the Farmlands store team.

“Tag Your Charity is one way that Farmlands looks to give back to the communities across Aotearoa that we support and that our people are a part of,” said Farmlands CEO, Tanya Houghton.

“Last year Tag Your Charity was a fantastic campaign that raised $170,000 in total. We really appreciate the support we received from our customers to make it a success, and we hope they get in behind this year’s fundraising effort.”

“We are hoping to do better than last year by raising more than $200,000, and we are kick starting the fundraising off by donating $50,000 from Farmlands.”

One of the unique things about Tag Your Charity is that customers can choose between I Am Hope and the important work it does to support mental health for all New Zealanders, and a local charity that directly positively impacts one community. $20,000 of the Farmlands Tag Your Charity donation will be added to the total funds raised for I Am Hope and the other $30,000 will be shared equally by the locally selected charities.

When a customer donates, they are given a coloured ear tag to hang on a purpose-built Christmas tree in the Farmlands store to represent their chosen charity. The Christmas trees make it clear to customers when they visit Farmlands what charities are being supported and promote more donations.

In addition to funds raised directly in its stores, Farmlands has recruited some of its key suppliers to sponsor and further support the fundraising efforts. Tag Your Charity is being supported this year by Lynn River, Z, Caltex, Challenge, Corteva, Summit Steel & Wire, Allflex, Cocky Apparel and Arxada.

About I Am Hope

For over a decade, I Am Hope has promoted positive attitudinal societal change around mental health throughout Aotearoa, offering hope and a voice to young people in schools and in communities.

“One of the universal experiences as a human being is that sticky feeling that you are not good enough. We call this the inner critic. I Am Hope's job is to reduce the barriers to this kōrero through our own vulnerable stories and show our kids that they are valued, and this critic is both normal and manageable,” said I Am Hope Founding Ambassador, Mike King.

“We really appreciate the support that Farmlands provides through Tag Your Charity and the funds raised will go towards some of our key in-school mental health initiatives.”

Local charities being supported this year

Every Farmlands store has chosen a local charity that supports their community. To find out which charity Farmlands’ stores are supporting, visit the Farmland website here.

Customers can keep an eye out for the Tag Your Charity Christmas trees when visiting any Farmlands store from Monday 21 November to donate over the holiday season.

© Scoop Media