Only Smarties have the answer for Chelsea staff!

16 July 2008

Staff at Chelsea Building Society's head office in Cheltenham think that Smarties hold the answer to their continued fundraising efforts for their staff charity of the year, Winston's Wish.

The 'Smarties Challenge' was created when staff looked at innovative ways to raise the target amount of £30,000 and realised that to achieve their target each member of staff needs to raise around £23. Once they realised that each empty tube of Smarties holds £12.60 worth of 20 pence pieces it seemed too good an opportunity to miss to ask each member of staff to fill two empty tubes of Smarties full of 20ps by the end of the year which would smash their fundraising target.

To kick start their campaign, on Monday 21 July each staff member at Chelsea is being delivered a tube of Smarties to their desk and once filled full of 20 pence pieces can be exchanged for another tube of Smarties, ready to be filled again.

'We've already had a fantastic response to our fundraising efforts but we're always trying to think of new ways to get staff to raise even more money' said Sally Davies Community Support Consultant for Chelsea. 'With the cost of living on the increase we appreciate we're all watching our pennies. We wanted to show staff that by collecting small change throughout the year our target is really achievable. With just under 1000 staff we are hoping to smash our ambitious target!'

Kate Acutt, Corporate Partnerships Executive for Winston's Wish commented 'We are most grateful to all of the staff at Chelsea for their wonderful fundraising efforts on our behalf. This is a great way to encourage staff to raise money. Adding a competition element to it by producing league tables of the department's that are raising the most, staff are sure to find that Smarties really do hold the answer to the £30,000 target.'

• Chelsea Building Society is the UK's 5th largest building society with assets of over £13bn
• Chelsea Building Society is one of the largest employers in Gloucestershire and the Southwest
• Chelsea's local branch is at 137 High Street, Cheltenham