Joe Wicks Asda Cashpot for Schools_001

Asda’s Cashpot for Schools campaign has raised more than £2.5m for UK primary schools after three weeks, with one school in Scotland having already secured £1,200 through the scheme.

If the current rate of fundraising continues to the close of the campaign at the end of November, the supermarket will exceed the amount it had initially expected to donate by nearly £2m.

“It’s fantastic to see the excitement it’s driven amongst our customers,” David Hills, chief customer officer at Asda told The Grocer, “both with existing Asda Rewards customers opting in to raise money for their schools, as well as a whole host of new Rewards users.”

Cashpot for Schools was launched at the start of this month, and sees the supermarket donate 0.5% of the value of any shop to a customer’s primary school of choice when they shop using Asda Rewards.

The campaign kicked off with a TV advertising campaign fronted by fitness coach Joe Wicks, and is considered by Asda to be “a first for the loyalty market – allowing users to select their own benefactor and raise unlimited funds, simply by using their loyalty app”.

Over 95% of primary schools in the UK have opted in to receiving money through the initiative, Asda said. Those schools have been given £50 by the supermarket and receive an extra £1 whenever a shopper selects the school on the Asda loyalty app.

The highest raising school to date has secured £1,200, while the ‘Schools most in need’ option – which can be chosen when a shopper opts in to Cashpot for Schools but doesn’t select a specific school – has raised £63,875.

The retailer is expecting to donate around £7.5m through the campaign. Schools can spend the money on whatever they choose. The supermarket said it was “tricky to say” whether its expected donation total would be broken – and had expected a “big jump” in the early weeks given the mechanics of the scheme. Almost £1m was raised in its first 72 hours.

“It would be a lovely problem to have if it was a lot more,” Hills told The Grocer on the campaign’s launch. “We’d be delighted to donate it because it would mean a lot more people are signing up to Rewards. That’s good for Asda but it’s also good for the customer.”