Asda is making “millions of pounds” available to UK primary schools through its loyalty scheme.

Under the Cashpot for Schools initiative, fronted by sporting personality Joe Wicks, the supermarket is offering to donate 0.5 per cent of the value of any shopping basket to customers’ primary school of choice when they shop using Asda Rewards. The scheme will run until the end of November.

Asda said it will provide each school fund with £50 and will top up this amount with £1 for each customer that selects their school.

The retailer estimates it will donate around £7.5 million through the campaign.
Asda has partnered with charity Parentkind on the initiative, which has provided data for all 22,000 state funded primary schools in the UK.

Parentkind is conducting diligence on all school bank data to ensure that when the campaign ends, the Cashpots can be transferred to schools for them to invest in the resources they need.

Asda claims the new initiative is a first for the loyalty market and will have no impact on users’ Cashpot earnings which are earned through the loyalty app.

Asda Rewards has six million weekly users. Since the launch of the loyalty scheme, Asda said users have earned over £525 million in their Cashpots, which they can redeem in Asda’s stores.

“We know that 87 per cent of families are asked to contribute to their primary school to support funding – with some families contributing up to £138 per year, which is a significant sum when budgets remain tight,” said David Hills, Asda’s chief customer officer. “The power of Asda Rewards means we can create a route for them to donate directly to their school, simply by doing their normal shopping with Asda and benefiting from the great value we offer everyday, as well as topping up their own Cashpot.”

Last week, Aldi announced that customers with children will now be able to apply for vouchers to help them cover ‘back-to-school’ costs like packed lunches and new shoes.

The move comes as the budget supermarket launches a new fund to support families who are struggling to cover costs at the start of the academic year.

As part of the Fund, the supermarket is giving away £100 Aldi vouchers to parents throughout the month of September to help out with the costs of everyday essentials following the back-to-school period.

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