Sunbelt Rentals Big Winter Donation Drive

The team worked together to identify charities they felt passionate about and in October, teams helped refugees from Ukraine and homeless charities across the UK. In November, they supported the Cash for Kids Mission Christmas campaign and in December they donated to food banks in every region.

The Challenge

Sunbelt teams give their time, expertise, skills and donations generously, all year round across the company. The RSICs saw an opportunity to boost our impact by joining together and launching campaigns on a national scale. They wanted to make a difference to thousands of lives and help to transform communities, as part of Our Planet sustainability plans.

The Solution

The RSICs spent months working together to prepare and launch the support of different charities. Firstly, they discussed the needs of the communities local to them and found common causes present in every region. The RSICs then worked with the depots to help identify the charities where our support would have the most impact to the communities local to where we deliver our services.

Each region was represented and included Scotland, the North, Midlands, South-West, Northern Ireland, South-East and London.

The Result

The Sunbelt Rentals Big Winter Donation Drive saw us make a difference to over 10,384 lives over the course of three months. That is more than 790 people each week in the last quarter of 2022, and this doesn’t account for the families of those we helped who may have also benefited.

Ukraine appeal

In a little over a week, our teams created 38 boxes, holding over 6,000 items to be donated to refugees at the border of Ukraine as part of a convoy with the Plant and Hire Aid Alliance. The items donated included essentials and crucial kit, such as medical equipment, baby and toddler clothes and nappies, warm adult clothing, coats and shoes, as well as blankets.

Homeless donations

The collections for the homeless in the lead up to winter saw us focus on warm clothing and blankets and send nearly 1,000 items across two charities. Cold Hands, Warm Hearts, based in Manchester and the Homeless Project Scotland.

Cash for Kids

We helped 1,134 children smile at Christmas. Our teams raised £5,476 and donated 317 new toys in just 30 days in November 2022. This means we helped the equivalent of 38 children every single day this month. Our teams also volunteered to help sort the donations in the Midlands and in Scotland at the main Cash for Kids Headquarters.

Food banks

In December we gave 2,150 items to food banks across the UK. Teams collected non-perishable food throughout the month and worked with food banks local to the depots to make the donations. This support goes beyond the Big Winter Donation Drive as teams from the Midlands selected Outreach Angels to support all year round, whilst our teams in Scotland have partnered with Carntyne Riddrie food bank to give refrigerators, kettles, microwaves, a shipping container and have developed a full digital marketing package for them with promotional films.

Overall, the Sunbelt Rentals Big Winter Donation was a huge success and helped transform lives and communities across the UK and Ireland, contributing to Our Planet plans.

Sarah MacGregor, Social Impact and Stakeholder Manager said, “We are incredibly proud of our RSICs and teams from across the UK and Ireland who have pulled together to make a phenomenal difference to people’s lives. It is incredible to think we have helped over 10,000 people, plus their families during the three months. To be able to make a difference is extremely important to us as we work towards our social impact plans and Our Planet strategy. It is the right thing to do, and it is great to see us living our value of being responsible.”