From tomorrow (February 17), the multiple’s customers will be invited to donate 9p on top of their purchase when making a payment by card or digital wallet as part of a scheme operated by micro-donation charity Pennies.
Well’s partnership with Mind launched in May last year. Selected branches have been encouraging customers to donate to the charity since December, with over 50,000 donations received so far, according to the multiple.
Pennies and Trust Retail, part of the Trust Payments Group, which will process the payments, will match the totals donated by customers using cashless payments on Random Acts of Kindness Day.
Read more: HEE pharmacist mental health training programme extended for two years
Well’s CEO Seb Hobbs said: “With one in four of us experiencing a mental health problem every year, we know how important it is to keep raising money for Mind.
“We are delighted to be able to offer this new way of donating, which is a simple approach and can make all the difference to such a vital charity.”
Avicenna is another pharmacy name already signed up with Pennies, and in March last year was among a number of the charity’s partners to pivot their micro-donations to help people in and fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Pennies has estimated that micro-donations present an ambitious but achievable opportunity to inject an annual £1 billion into the UK charity sector, if every UK card holder gave just 35p a week.
This week, C+D reported that Well is getting ready to take on customers displaced by Lloydspharmacy’s withdrawal from Sainsbury's supermarkets in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Health Education England last week announced a two-year extension to a mental health training programme for pharmacists.