Birds Bakery raises more than £50K for charity in 2020

Family-run Birds Bakery has raised an outstanding £53,000 in total for a selection of its chosen charities throughout 2020 and has announced the charities it will be supporting this year.

The East Midlands bakery, which prides itself on contributing to both local and national charities, focussed its main fundraising efforts on its two dedicated charities, WellChild – the national charity for sick children – and SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity – raising £17,900 and £14,900, respectively.

Birds also raised £10,000 for The Children’s Trust, the UK’s leading charity for children with brain injury, by making the decision to hold its own Doughnut Week after the national event was cancelled due to the pandemic. The team sold more than 45,000 doughnuts and donated 20p from every doughnut sold to the children’s charity. 

The bakery, which has 62 stores in the East Midlands, also raised £1,100 for The Guide Dogs for the Blind during Guides Dog Week, donating 20p from every pack of special dog shortbread biscuits sold to the charity. 

Mike Holling, Sales and Marketing Director at Birds Bakery, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have raised such a significant amount for our chosen charities. We have supported WellChild, SSAFA and The Children’s Trust for a number of years and are charities that are incredibly close to our hearts. 

“We really hope that these vital funds will make a difference to those in need, particularly after an exceptionally tough and challenging year for everyone. Like many organisations, these charities have been hit hard by the pandemic and it has had a huge impact on their fundraising efforts.

“The Guide Dogs for the Blind has also been an important charity to us over the years and we are thrilled, to not only have raised more than £1,000 for such an amazing charity, but we have also recently added another sponsored puppy to the Birds family. We now have Daisy, Barley and Flossie, which we hope will all one day help give freedom and independence to someone with sight loss.

“Our goal was to raise £50,000 for WellChild and SSAFA at the start of 2019 and we have successfully raised just over £50,000 alone for WellChild and a total of £44,000 for SSAFA, which is an incredible achievement, and one that we are extremely proud of. It wouldn’t be possible without our customers and dedicated employees, who are committed to going above and beyond to help raise as much money as possible.”

Birds Bakery will now focus its fundraising on its chosen charities for 2021, which are Treetops Hospice, providing nursing care and emotional support for adults and their families in Derbyshire and Nottingham, children and young people’s mental health charity YoungMinds and Twycross Zoo, to help support its conservation, education and research.  

Mike added: “We are really excited to announce our new chosen charities for this year. 2020 was a very busy year for us with fundraising and we hope we can match it, if not do better in 2021. We dedicate our focus each year to our chosen charities so that we can obtain the maximum contribution for them and really help make a difference to the amazing work they do.”

Kate Acutt, Senior Fundraiser at WellChild, said: “We are very grateful to everyone at Birds Bakery and their customers, who have gone above and beyond to support our work. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with such a lovely team who have baked their way to raising such a huge amount of money on our behalf, as well as attending our events and supporting our children and families in their local hospital in Derby. 

“Their support over the last two years has been invaluable and all of the money raised will help greatly with our work to support seriously ill children and their families. A huge amount has been raised on behalf of charities this year and we are proud to been a recipient of their tremendous hard work and support”.