Throughout 2021, Original Cottages and guests visiting their properties in England and Wales, have been donating to raise charitable funds to support local wildlife, build beach board walks, help fight food poverty and support community arts projects.

As a national family brand run by locals, who truly understand their communities, Original Cottages’ brands have chosen to partner with charities who contribute to the local area – with donations made to 29 different organisations across 2021.

Throughout the year, guests made voluntary donations to charity partners when booking their stays, with 100% of donations going directly to the charities. This was coupled with direct donations from Original Cottages, as well as match funding and individual employees raising funds.

Original Cottages’ most sizeable single donation has been its £20,000 contribution to UK Community Foundations (UKCF), a charity that leads a movement of community foundation committed to positive social change in the UK. Original Cottages donated £1 for every booking made over a six-week period this year, to assist in reaching the final amount of £20,000.

Rosemary Macdonald, CEO at UK Community Foundations, said: “We were so delighted that the Original Cottages family chose to team up with UKCF to give vital support to the communities where they operate. The community foundations are using these funds to strengthen local efforts to tackle the big challenges in their area, including food poverty, mental health, and loneliness.”

Original Cottages’ family brands have also recognised the increased urgency to support local communities in 2021, with donations including:

  • To replace the physical Christmas cards Original Cottages would usually send to its family of homeowners they have donated the £2,000 usually spent to Ecologi, a charity working to plant trees across the globe and reduce the world’s CO2 emissions, this year. The donation will allow Ecologi to plant nearly 16,000 trees – which is approximately 3 trees per homeowner.
  • Original Cottages’ brands in Norfolk and Sussex have helped vulnerable wildlife to thrive in the local area with donations to the Norfolk and Sussex Wildlife Trusts, in addition to sponsoring the Trust’s Cley Calling event, which offers an array of activities celebrating wildlife and landscapes across the county.
  • Suffolk Secrets donated £9,300 to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, sponsoring a new beach board walk, benefitting both residents and holidaymakers to Suffolk. The brand also supported community arts projects by donating to ‘Theatre on the Coast’ in Suffolk during summer, the musical brought a taste of the West End and Broadway to the area during the school holidays.
  • In Wales, over £3,500 will be donated to Mind Pembrokeshire, Abersoch RNLI and Wales Air Ambulance to support the vital work the charities do in the local community caring for residents’ health, wellbeing and safety.
  • While guests of Cornish Horizons, part of the Original Cottages family have helped raise £11,390 for the Cornwall Air Ambulance service since the end of 2019.
  • Guests visiting Original Cottages properties in Yorkshire in 2020, helped support local wildlife with a £1,234 donation provided to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at the start of the year. In addition, the Original Cottages’ team in Northumberland supported local communities by participating in a local beach clean, as part of the Marine Conversation Society’s Great British Beach Clean, collecting over 12kg of rubbish.

Sonia Holman, Marketing Director at Original Cottages, said: “We’re proud to have supported over 29 charitable causes across the business this year, and are very grateful to our guests for their generous donations when booking with us. We hope that our donations will ensure that each charity is able to carry out its cherished work in the community. Original Cottages is committed to contributing to the local areas we operate in by fundraising for charitable causes and we look forward to continuing our work in 2022.”

For more information about Original Cottages visit, www.OriginalCottages.co.uk, and if you are interested in staying in a property with Original Cottages, please visit the website or call 03332 020 899.