Any Putney charity could be in line for £1,500 from Waitrose Putney, and the door is open wider than most shoppers dropping a token in the box probably realise.
Waitrose has opened its latest Community Matters vote, the quarterly scheme that lets shoppers choose which of three good causes gets a share of a £3,000 pot. Drop a green token in one of three boxes at checkout, and the winner takes £1,500, second place £1,000, third place £500.
This quarter’s three are Fulham Reach Boat Club, The Brunswick Club for Young People and WEST Youth Zone. Worth noting honestly: none of them is a Wandsworth charity. All three are based in Hammersmith and Fulham, where WEST Youth Zone opened in 2024 offering young people a year’s membership for £5 and 50p a visit, and Fulham Reach Boat Club runs a rowing programme aimed partly at reducing reoffending. The Brunswick Club runs a term-time and holiday club for children in school years 2 to 6.
Waitrose isn’t drawing a border round Wandsworth for this scheme. Its own page for Community Matters says it welcomes applications from all community organisations and invites local groups to get in touch directly.
Two rounds, no result
Putney.news has covered this scheme at Waitrose Putney twice before, in January and again in April. In January it was Putney Relief Committee, Rescue Remedies Dog and Cat Rescue and Royal Trinity Hospice. In April it was Small Steps, Glass Door and Hotham School PTFA. Neither result has been made public anywhere, as far as we can find but we will seek to find out.
Hotham School PTFA was one of April’s three causes, in support of the school’s fight to save and repurpose its 1908 annexe as an arts and music space, a project we has followed since February. The Arts Annexe Appeal has now raised £25,797 of its £50,000 target, just over halfway. A single PTFA Summer Fair alone brought in £3,142.60, more than double the top prize in any one Waitrose token round.
£1,500 sounds modest against a £50,000 target, but it’s real money going free, and Hotham is proof the scheme has already reached a local cause once.
How to take part
Shoppers vote simply by taking a token at the till and dropping it in the box for the cause they want to back, no purchase required. Exactly how a charity gets shortlisted for a future round isn’t spelled out beyond that invitation, but the scheme’s own page is clear that it wants to hear from local groups. Any Putney charity or community group interested should get in touch with Waitrose Putney directly to ask.
