Fundraising

Shop volunteers

Do you have some spare time and would like to help support Acorns Children's Hospice? If so, then why not become a volunteer in one of our Acorns shops across the region.

At Acorns we have over 1,000 volunteers helping our Retail Team in a variety of roles.  Some of our volunteers work for a few hours a week every week, others work for a couple of days, but however many hours our volunteers give, without their help we simply couldn't operate our shops.

There's a lot of satisfaction working as a volunteer, knowing that you are helping others and bringing support to children who really need it, but there are many other benefits too!

We welcome those doing NVQ's, Duke of Edinburgh awards and work experience.  For some volunteers, working in an Acorns shop gives them the confidence to find paid employment. For others it is a way to meet people and make friends and they enjoy being part of a busy and friendly team.   All of our volunteers receive training and work under the guidance of an Acorns-employed shop manager.

Our volunteers are central to the success of each shop and get involved in many aspects of running the shop - from sorting stock or preparing items for sale, to working on the tills or helping customers.  We also have volunteers who bring with them specialist skills and knowledge to help us.

If you would like to volunteer at one of our shops, you can contact the shop direct to find out more and apply to become an Acorns shop volunteer.  Find out where your nearest Acorns shop is by using our Shop Locator tool.

Stock collectors page

Acorns operates a house-to-house collection service in certain areas making it even easier for you to donate items to be sold in our shops!

Look out for our distinctive yellow collection sacks through your letterbox.  The sacks are contained within a white outer bag on which you will find printed your scheduled collection day as well as the types of items you can donate to our shops - good quality donated clothes, shoes and jewellery, household goods, pottery, toys, games, books, DVDs and CDs. We can also take items which are not in a saleable condition as they can still be put to good use and sold as 'rag' to raise funds for the charity. Simply fill the yellow bag with the items you wish to donate and leave outside on the scheduled collection day.

Due to the rise in popularity of doorstep collections, we are asking the public for their help in being extra vigilant to ensure their items are being donated to a genuine charity and not 'bogus collectors'. 

To ensure that the donation bag or envelope has been issued by a genuine Registered charity, please check it has the following on it:
- The Association of Charity Shops logo. This guarantees your donation will be sold in a charity shop.  Without this logo, your items are likely to be recycled and ragged.
- A Registered Charity Number (not simply a 'Registered number' or 'Company number') which is clearly printed on the bag.  To check whether a charity number is legitimate please visit the Charity Commission website.
- A landline telephone number, not a mobile, that when dialled links straight through to the charity.

Our Acorns collectors wear a distinctive green uniform featuring the Acorns logo and will always carry appropriate identification which you can ask to see.  Our collectors always drive vans which are clearly branded with the Acorns logo (see photo).

Further advice on identifying bogus collectors can be found by visiting The Association of Charity Shops website.

If you have any questions about our collections or wish to check if we are operating house-to-house collections in your area, please call the Acorns Retail Team on 01564 825027 or email:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As well as our doorstep collections, we can also help you to organise a bag collection at your workplace, school or college or at your social club.  This is a fantastic way to support Acorns and to get everyone involved in helping to support their local children's hospice.  60 collection bags of good quality donated items can raise enough money to cover the cost of a full days care for a child at one of our hospices. 

Find out how you can get involved with our 'Bring a Bag' scheme here.

Help our shops

A great way of supporting Acorns Children's Hospice is to involve everyone at your workplace, school, college or at your social club in a 'Bring a Bag' collection.

Organising a Bring a Bag collection is a simple and successful way to get people involved in supporting their local children's hospice.

Ask everyone who is able to take part, to fill a bag with items for our shops, bring them in to a designated collection point and our Retail Team can arrange for them to be collected by one of our drivers at a scheduled time. 

Items donated in this way can be sold in our chain of shops to help fund Acorns vital work with local children who are life limited and life threatened.  60 collection bags of good quality donated items can raise enough money to cover the cost of a full days care for a child at one of our hospices. 

We can also accept donations of worn and torn items which can be sold on to 'rag merchants' to recycle. Find out more about the types of donated items we can accept.

Companies -  get involved by asking your workforce to take part in a Bring a Bag to Work collection and generate some positive PR about your support for Acorns.  Our Retail Team can support you by supplying the collection bags, providing information about the charity's work and arranging for the collection bags to be collected once they have been filled.

Schools and colleges - alongside supplying the bags and arranging for them to be collected, we can arrange assembly talks to support a Bring a Bag to School collection and help inform pupils about our work in their local community.

Social clubs and groups - for a different way for your group to support their local children's hospice, why not contact our Retail Team to organise a Bring a Bag collection? By asking your club or group members to take part, they can ensure that any unwanted items they might have are put to good use to raise much needed funds for Acorns whilst helping to reduce the amount of waste reaching landfill sites.

To find out more about organising a Bring a Bag collection, please contact our Retail Team on 01564 825027 or email:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Donations to shops

Donating good quality items to be sold in our Acorns shops is an easy way you can help to support our vital work with local children and young people who are life limited or life threatened.

We need more stock in our shops to keep up with demand as more and more people are turning to charity shops to help them through the current difficult economic climate. We want to make the most of the extra customers to raise extra income to support our three hospices.

We welcome donations of the following at all our shops:

• Children's clothes from 0yrs to 15yrs
• Children's toys, games, books and media
• Children's nursery equipment
• Ladies clothes, handbags, shoes and accessories
• Men's clothing, shoes and accessories
• Household items - such as bric-a-brac, small electrical items, china and pottery, linen, curtains and blankets
• Books and media - including CDs and DVDs.

We also recycle used computer ink/toner cartridges and mobile phones.

We can also take your old worn and torn items! Although we are always grateful for donations of good quality items to sell in our shops, we can also raise money from goods which are not in a saleable condition.  Working with 'rag' merchants, we can still raise vital funds for Acorns by selling these items on as 'rag'. So by donating your worn and torn items to us, you can help Acorns to raise more funds whilst ensuring your textiles are recycled and not sent to landfill sites.  If you are able to, it would help our volunteers enormously with sorting out donated items if you could bag up and mark these items as 'rags' by attaching a note to the bag. The types of items we can accept as 'rag' are:

• Frayed, ripped, faded clothes, household linen, curtains and other textiles such as towels and blankets
• Belts with broken or missing buckles
• Broken handbags
• Worn or broken shoes.

Please take your donations to your local Acorns shop between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday. You can find your nearest Acorns shop by using our Acorns shop locator.

We also have a team of house-to-house stock collectors working in certain areas collecting bags which have been supplied to local households through their letterbox to fill with items.  These bags can be filled with goods to be sold in our shops and left for collection at the roadside.  Find out more about our house-to-house bag collections here and how you can help to ensure your items are being collected by a genuine Acorns collector. 

If you have any questions about donating items to our shops please contact the Retail Team at Acorns on 01564 825027 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. who will be happy to answer any queries you may have.