Chelmsford Star Co-operative

Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society's community initiatives include the following:

Community Card

Our award winning fundraising scheme was set up in 1999, and is our way of helping over 350 local charities and community organisations to raise some additional money. It's free for groups to register, then we send you a batch of Community Cards that can be distributed to your supporters. Supporters use their cards every time they shop in a Chelmsford Star owned Co-op store, and points are earned on the majority of purchases. A quarterly statement is sent to the contact person for the group, and the money earned can be withdrawn as a cheque at any time. 1000 points = £5, then Chelmsford Star donates an extra 50% on top of this! Full details and T&C's can be found on the information and application form.

For more information, please email membership@chelmsfordstar.coop

Charity Of The Year

Each year, Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society focuses its fundraising efforts on one charity chosen as our Charity Of The Year. We've raised over £280,000 for charities since it begun in 2006. Our current charity partner is Kids Inspire and we will be supporting them until May. We are currently taking applications for our next charity and the deadline for applications is Sunday 12th February 2017. To apply, your charity must meet the following criteria:

- Must be a bona fide charity with Essex coverage
- We raise around £30,000 for our charity partner and you should provide information on a specific project that we can help fund
- We have over 45 branches from Braintree to Thurrock, so you need to be able to provide 150 collecting tins, along with fundraising ideas and opportunities. You'll also be required to make contact with our individual stores and assist in local initiatives as and when required.

Applications must be received by Sunday 12th February 2017. Up to 6 charities will be selected, and will be invited to do a presentation in March. 3 charities will be short listed, and then the colleagues of Chelmsford Star vote. The chosen charity will be notified and introduced at the Society's Annual General Meeting in May.

Please send applications to Pauline Dodd, President, at coty@chelmsfordstar.coop or 220 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 0LS. A succinct summary (max 2 A4 pages) of your charity's work would be helpful, including why your charity should be considered and what you would require the funds for.

Community Boost

We work with many local businesses on our 'Community Boost' initiative. A number of local businesses offer our Chelmsford Star members an exclusive deal or discount in return for some free advertising on our website, our members magazine and our community boards in store. The idea is to make our membership look more attractive, whilst encouraging our members to spend locally with other independent businesses.

A list of the businesses that we work with can be found on our website: http://www.chelmsfordstar.coop/members/community-boost

If you would like more information, or would like your business to be considered, please email membership@chelmsfordstar.coop

Coffee Mornings

We run weekly coffee mornings for our older co-op members in both Chelmsford and Braintree Quadrant department stores. We invite guest speakers along every other week to tell our members about their organisations. Past speakers have included charities, representatives from brands that we sell, local authorities, local sports/hobby clubs, authors, local leisure centres/attractions etc. Coffee morning members are all of retirement age, and we usually get a large crowd attend each week. Speakers have 30 minutes to talk to our members, so it's a great way for organisations to promote themselves and their work in the local community.

We are always looking for new speakers, so if you would like to be considered as a speaker at our coffee morning, please email membership@chelmsfordstar.coop

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