Published on Power Retail on December 12, 2017
In a huge coup for charitable organisations aiding Australians in need, BIG W has joined forces with NFP group Good360 has to provide brand new excess stock items to thousands of disadvantaged Australians over Christmas.
Christmas is one of the happiest times of year for many Australians and their families, but for others, it’s of the most distressing times of the year, including Australia’s 105,000 homeless and the three million Australians living below the poverty line.
This year, however, major retailer BIG W and not-for-profit group Good360 has come together in aid of disadvantaged Australians over Christmas, to provide more than 400,000 brand new excess stock items to them.
“We want to help Australian families across the country and at the same time be responsible for how we manage our excess inventory. Donating 400,000 brand new items means that we can, together with Good360, make a great impact nationwide on communities in need this Christmas and beyond,” says BIG W managing director, David Walker.
Since 2015, Good360 has received more than $21 million worth of donated excess stock from Australian businesses, and delivered over 1.1 million personal care products and almost 35,000 toys to thousands of disadvantaged Australians through its network of charities.
Last year, Good360 raised $100,000 to drive its Christmas campaign, which offered free Australia-wide shipping and handling to its member charities, leading to the distribution of $2.3 million worth of goods to brighten up the festive season in the month of November.
“With Christmas fast approaching, we’re doubling our efforts to beat last year’s campaign, and our new partner BIG W’s huge contribution should guarantee we reach, if not exceed, our target to supply $5 million of new goods to Australians in need,” says Good360’s founder and managing director, Alison Covington.
“We’re delighted to welcome BIG W to Good360 as a donor partner, and we hope their generosity will inspire other retailers to get involved. By connecting retailers’ and manufacturers’ excess, obsolete and end-of-line consumer goods with the people who need them the most, we’re finding tangible solutions for the issues facing both business and Australians doing it tough,” she adds.
Good360 partners with retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers who donate end-of-line or over-stocked goods which would otherwise be discounted below cost, sent overseas, stagnate in warehouses or end up in landfill. Good360 then offers those goods free of charge (other than a nominal shipping & handling cost) to its network of over 500 charitable organisations Australia wide, who then rapidly distribute the goods to Australians in need.
“In Australia, we are talking about food waste and finding the solution for this problem, but people have other basic needs, like clothing, bedding and toiletries to name a few. We now want to ask the question: So where do all the other good things go? Good360 partners with business to connect these brand new excess goods that have opportunity to change people’s lives where we work and live,” says Covington.
Donated goods are provided free-of-charge to Good360’s member charities, who can order items through its e-commerce store and opt to collect the goods from the organisation’s Smithfield warehouse in western Sydney to save shipping cost, or have them delivered for a nominal shipping and handling fee.
Following the success of its Christmas campaign last year, Good360 is offering existing and new member charities $400 worth of free shipping and handling – which will give the charity approximately $4,000 worth of goods delivered to their door free, or $800 worth of click-and-collect which would mean the charity could pick up $16,000 worth of free goods from the Smithfield warehouse in November. More than 13,000 goodie bags have also been prepared across categories including babies, children, men, women and teenagers to make it easy for the charities to have an even greater impact in their communities.
“We’re inviting both interested charities and retailers to urgently get in touch to discuss partnership possibilities so that we can make Christmas 2017 an occasion to celebrate for everyone, no matter what their financial circumstance,” says Covington.
In addition to retailers, individuals can also support their favourite charities via the #makegoodhappen Christmas 2017 campaign by either donating time or money by visiting the Donate Time or Donate $ tabs on the Good360 website good360stage.wpengine.com
