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This winter our team here at Douglas Innovation have given nearly $14,000 to local charities Nourished for Nil and the NZ Red Cross – the proceeds from our recent ‘Discount + Donate’ fundraising initiative held during the Covid-19 pandemic.

For all projects booked before the end of June (since the start of May), Douglas Innovation offered our customers a 5% discount with another 5% to be donated to charity.

Like many businesses returning to work after lockdown, we did not know how our business would be affected, but saw the opportunity to get work flowing for our employees and at the same time giving back to the community through supporting the efforts of Hawke’s Bay’s Red Cross and food rescue project Nourished for Nil.

“The feedback from the public and our customers has been wonderfully supportive,” says Douglas owner Suzanne Hoyt.

“The sentiment to ‘support local’ has been amazing and it’s wonderful to see so many customers choosing to spend their money locally, and making conscious purchase decisions. Nourished for Nil and the Red Cross are great organisations and ones that worked very hard in the frontlines during lockdown,” she says.

Douglas Innovation sales manager Stephen Sinnott says coming out of lockdown and back to work was “really enjoyable”, especially with the fundraising campaign in full swing.

“It was fantastic to see how people responded to the ‘Discount + Donate’ campaign. We had customers coming out of the woodwork for all sorts of projects – anything from high end louvre roofs to caravan awnings and upholstery repairs. We were incredibly humbled.

“Negotiating through the Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy and like many other businesses, there is uncertainty about the future. However this ‘giving back’ initiative has helped us ensure work for as many of our people as possible while supporting two great organisations in the process. We feel positive and heartened by the strength of the Hawke’s Bay community.”

Nourished for Nil founder Christina McBeth says the donation is the difference between looking at an improvement that needs doing, and actually being able to execute it.

“We have been looking at upgrading the concrete walkway outside our depot, which is where people queue. At the moment it’s incomplete and has several different elevations which is a real safety hazard. The money means we can now tackle that project.”

The money raised will be split equally between both charities.