UK Mail Support The Big Issue ‘Stage – Swap’
UK Mail & Postcards from Pete have been supporting the The Big Issue Foundation in their latest charitable initiative ‘Stage Swap’ in association with WhatsOnStage.
The UK’s largest, independent, mail and parcels company, UK Mail have been supporting the The Big Issue Foundation in their latest charitable initiative ‘Stage Swap’ in association with WhatsOnStage. Leading West End performers have been taking to the streets ofLondonto sell The Big Issue with a Big Issue vendor to gain a brief insight into the challenges facing Big Issue vendors.
The Stage Swap initiative involves members of the theatre industry giving up their time to sell the magazine and raising awareness of the work vendors do throughout Theatre land and theUKin general. Joined by actors Alison Steadman, WhatsOnStage Award winner Haydn Gwynne, and West End stars Sally Dexter and Sam Lupton, the teams spent the day with Big Issue vendors trying to sell theUK’s most well-known magazine to help raise awareness of the work of The Big Issue vendors.
The Big Issue Foundation was this year’s charity for the prestigious WhatsOnStage Awards in which UK Mail’s new postcard app ‘Postcards From Pete’ was also sponsor for the award of ‘The best supporting actress in a play’, won by actress and Big Issue spokeswoman Haydn Gwynne. UK Mail helped raise awareness for the Stage Swap by designing and printing 11000 postcards, used to promote the campaign. The cards contained a promotional voucher code- WOSBI, which when used to send a postcard via the Postcards from Pete app, donates 10p to The Big Issue Foundation.
Stephen Robertson, Chief Executive of The Big issue Foundation said, “Working with Postcards from Pete has enabled us to launch the Stage Swap campaign in the most professional and engaging way possible. The partnership with WhatsOnStage gives us a fantastic opportunity to reach out to the theatre community, and the postcards meant that we had an eye-catching means of getting our message out to them. We’ve had a huge amount of interest in Stage Swap from leading actors and audiences alike and are excited about how this will help us raise awareness and funding for the vital support we provide to our vendors who are so often excluded from society on the streets ofLondon.”
Andy Barber, General Manager of Postcards from Pete said, “We are delighted to be able to support such a worthwhile cause. Stage Swap is an exciting new campaign and the launch at the Awards was a great success. The postcards certainly helped get the word out acrossLondonand at the event itself. We strongly believe in the work The Big Issue Foundation are carrying out and are happy to donate 10p from every postcard sale from the Stage Swap launch. We look forward to working with The Big Issue Foundation in the future.
UK Mail’s postcard app, ‘Postcards from Pete’ was launched in December last year and is an official sponsor of the WhatsOnStage Awards. The app allows users to send photos from their smartphone to their family and friends. UK Mail print the postcards at their sort centres and deliver them on to Royal Mail for final mile delivery.
ENDS
Notes to Editor:
About The Big Issue Foundation
The Big Issue was founded in 1991 as a social enterprise, producing a weekly magazine which can be bought for £1.25 and sold for £2.50 by people who are homeless, vulnerably housed or at risk of homelessness. The Big Issue Foundation is the charity founded in 1996 to deal with the more holistic needs of The Big Issue’s vendors. It is a small but national charity and they worked with over 3000 individuals last year alone.
The mission of The Big Issue Foundation is to connect vendors with the vital support and personal solutions to enable them to rebuild their lives; to find their own paths as they journey away from homelessness.
The charity relies almost entirely on voluntary donations and fundraising campaigns such as Stage Swap to raise awareness and generate funding for its vital services.
Postcards from Pete
A mobile application available on iPhones and Android devices for sending personalised physical postcards.
Available to download on the App Store and Google Play.
UK Mail Group:
The UK Mail Group is the largest independent parcels, mail and logistics services company within theUK, offering quality, yet affordable, delivery solutions both locally and worldwide. With a national network of 55 sites and 3,500 drivers, it is able to offer customers a unique integrated service with a full range of time-sensitive and secure delivery options for letters, parcels and pallets. UK Mail is committed to pushing the boundaries of the post and express parcel delivery markets and continues to launch product innovations that deliver commercial advantage to customers.
Contact Details:
For further information please contact: Fahmeda Ahmed, Marketing Communications Executive, UK Mail, 0121 335 1190 or fahmedaahmed@ukmail.com
For further information about Stage Swap and The Big Issue Foundation please contact: Kathryn Drake, Head of Corporate and Community Fundraising, 020 7526 3452 or kathryn.drake@bigissue.com
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