Oxfam and M&S have teamed up to launch shwopping, a new idea that makes it even easier to give your unwanted clothes a second life. It will also help us raise an extra £2m to fight poverty over the next year alone.

• Donate your unwanted M&S clothes in Salisbury Oxfam shops and receive £5 off a £35 spend on clothing, home and beauty products in M&S stores and online. Terms and conditions apply.
• Donate your unwanted clothes to Oxfam at M&S. Take an item of clothing you no longer wear (even if it’s not from M&S) with you next time you pop into M&S to buy something new. Simply place your clothes into one of the ‘shwop drops’ located in all M&S stores. You can earn shwop ‘points’ each time you shwop by registering on M&S’s Facebook page

Don’t forget!
Even if you’re not looking for anything new, you can still donate your unwanted clothes to Oxfam in any M&S or Oxfam shop. You’ll get a good feeling knowing you’re helping to fight poverty.

Oxfam and M&S
Shwopping is the latest development in Oxfam’s longstanding partnership with M&S. Together, we’ve already raised more than £8 million to fight poverty – with your help, we can do even more.

Oxfam and M&S are perfect partners. M&S knows Oxfam makes the most of every donation. And here at Oxfam, we know M&S is committed to reducing the number of clothes that end up in landfill – plus they’re big supporters of our work fighting poverty.

However you choose to shwop – whether it’s by bringing your unwanted M&S clothes to Oxfam or by dropping off your old clothes at M&S when you buy something new – it’s an extremely convenient way to donate to Oxfam.

We believe that shwopping could become the new shopping – and we’re delighted to be working with M&S to make it so. We’ve set ourselves the ultimate goal of recycling as many clothes as M&S sell – hundreds of millions of clothes each year!

Salisbury Oxfam is delighted to announce that Oxfam Collects at Work is coming to Salisbury, following its success elsewhere in the UK.

Oxfam Collects at Work makes it so easy for your employees to donate their unwanted things to Oxfam as part of their working week. Oxfam will then arrange to pick these up and bring them to our shops in Catherine Street.

We tell each of your employees how much money their donations raise and the difference that could make to the communities we work with.
Plus we will provide you with a corporate report which lets you know the total the whole company has raised.

This scheme has already been highly successful in other parts of the country. In July 2010, St. Albans City and District Council signed up to the scheme. Their employees efforts have since raised nearly £5000 for Oxfam and prevented 708kg from going to landfill (http://www.stalbans.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/press-room/items/2011/December-2011/Councilraisesnearly5KforOxfam.aspx).

You can find out more information on the Oxfam GB website and read about other businesses using the scheme. Then when you’re ready you can contact Salisbury Oxfam (email s...@salisburyoxfam.org.uk or phone 01722 337187 and ask for Michelle or Richard). Alternatively, you can request someone from Oxfam contacts your business.

As Christmas approaches, we were extremely pleased to hear via @BBCWiltshire that, by purchases of Oxfam Unwrapped gifts, Salisbury is in the top 30 most generous places in the UK!

To be honest, we already knew that our customers were very generous people, judging by the wonderful donations of time and money we receive in store, but it’s great to hear it from someone else too.

Last year you spent £160,325 on life-changing Oxfam Unwrapped gifts for people in need, and we’re hoping to break that record this year with the fantastic new range already on sale in our shops and online at www.oxfamunwrapped.com

Oxfam Unwrapped gifts help those who really need them in all kinds of ways, amongst other things it has paid for safe drinking water for thousands of people, fed families worldwide, train teachers and educate children.

Once again, thank you.

Remember back in February when we said this?

For one month only, the nice people at PayPal are paying our running costs, so 100% of your money goes directly to fighting poverty.

Well, we were wrong… it wasn’t one month only, because they’re doing it again!

If you can’t remember what it was all about, take a look at our story from the time… here! Mind you it’s pretty simple:

This September, PayPal are covering all of Oxfam’s admin costs on all donations made through PayPal. 100% brilliant

We always keep our admin costs low, but some – paying bills, stocking the stationery cupboard and doing the paperwork – are an unavoidable and essential part of our work.

This September, though, PayPal have got them covered. So every penny of your donation will go on life-changing work. Like helping farmers in Bolivia earn a better living. Or ensuring communities in Cambodia always have safe water to drink.

But what it definitely won’t do is pay for those essential-but-less-inspiring things like staples or stamps. So you can be 100% certain you’re changing lives.

What’s more, you can make this special offer last beyond September – by setting up a regular gift PayPal will pay the admin costs for every donation every month for a year!

What can I do?

• Explore – You can find out more above 100% Giving at www.oxfam.org.uk/giving.
• Give – Click here to give now.

Large parts of East Africa are facing the world’s worst food crisis. Oxfam is appealing for £50 million – our largest ever appeal for Africa.

The Situation
More than 10 million people in East Africa are facing desperate food shortages following the worst drought in 60 years.

Rains have failed for successive seasons, and families across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are struggling to find anything to eat or drink. Hundreds of thousands of livestock have already died. Food prices have rocketed.

Oxfam is there
We are already reaching families in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya with the food, water and basic sanitation they desperately need to stay alive. In total we aim to reach 3 million people with our emergency response.

Find out more at the Oxfam GB website.

What can I do?

• Give - You can give online by clicking here or by phoning 0300 200 1999.