Turning surplus into support: Premier Print & Promotions' generosity assists CHESS Homeless initiatives

Generous donations

Premier Print & Promotions, a certified B Corp, has been making merch for almost 30 years, working on some of the world’s iconic campaigns. They are striving for sustainability in business through responsible production of their merchandise and promoting responsible consumption. They have now made their commitment to the green revolution that much more clear by joining A Good Thing. As brand new annual subscribers, the company listed dozens of offers within minutes of signing up - they meant business! 

Ryan Askew, Managing Director of Premier, explains how “it’s super easy and quick to post stuff” on the site, meaning charities can receive donations swiftly and businesses can clear space in no time at all. Thanks to Premier, multiple charities have received donations, including beanie hats, charging cables, drawstring bags, pens, paper pads, water bottles, calculators and travel mugs. Ryan explains:

“We were able to clear lots of stuff, very quickly. Stuff that had just been gathering dust. Clearing space and tidying up was surprisingly invigorating!”

Ryan was particularly impressed by bids for items that came from charities supporting the homeless and underprivileged - “CHESS for instance, gave great explanations on why and how the donations would be used, and why they are so valuable”. 

One company’s trash is a charity’s treasure

CHESS Homeless, (Churches Homeless Emergency Support Scheme), works to ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness receive the support they need to move forward purposefully and in good health. Barbara Buxton, Business Support Manager at CHESS, was grateful for the offers made by Premier; “we have been very lucky to secure a good amount of donations from Premier Print & Promotions”. 

Items that were gathering dust at Premier made for invaluable contributions to the CHESS team and the community of people it serves:  

“Items have gone into use immediately, like the charging cables for staff being able to charge their phone on Outreach (visiting people where they are rough sleeping). It is essential to be able to use the phone in case they need to contact anyone on behalf of the person sleeping rough. We also provided some of these to our residents and people rough sleeping. Phones are a lifeline [for them].”

Similarly, surplus stock of branded items that might otherwise have been disregarded prove indispensable to homeless individuals, struggling in the cold winter months and at night: 

“Flasks and water bottles will be provided to people rough sleeping to help them survive… We also collected some bags and beanie hats. We will use the bag to make up clothing packs to give to rough sleepers and a beanie hat will be one of the items in the pack.”

Caring at Christmas 

Barbara went on to describe the other touching use that donations went towards:

“Some residents are quite creative so we will use some items as Christmas presents such as notepads and flasks. We try to provide a bag of presents to our 65 residents as for some, these will be the only presents they get, so it is great to be able to provide some nice items for them.” 

After reminding us that, unfortunately, many charities are ‘so short on resources’, Ryan was overjoyed to see first-hand how ‘these donations genuinely make a difference’. 

Partnering for good 
It is so exciting to see the mutual benefits of these exchanges. But these go beyond the physical donations, opening the possibility of building new relationships between businesses and charities that might otherwise have never come across one another. Ryan explains: 

“It was fascinating to see some charities we already know and deal with frequently, but also learn about more local charities that I never knew existed!”

Premier’s ‘Look Good, Do Good’ ethos certainly aligns well with A Good Thing’s mission. Thanks to businesses like Premier, which put people, community and the environment at their core, charities like CHESS can continue to do important work with the support of the business community. 

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