Asda is looking to raise £7.5m for primary schools by encouraging shoppers to use its loyalty scheme.

The supermarket firm is to donate 0.5% of the value of any shop, until the end of November using its Asda Rewards scheme, to a primary school of each customers’ choice.

The Cashpot for Schools campaign is launching with Asda putting £50 into each school’s fund and offering a top up of a £1 for every customer that selects that school.

Asda says the initiative is a first for the supermarket loyalty scheme market as it allows users to select their own benefactor via the app without impacting their own funds.

Its Asda Rewards scheme launched two years ago and has six million weekly users. Users have accumulated a total of £525m in the funds, which can be put towards their shopping.

“We know that 87% of families are asked to contribute to their primary school to support funding – with some families contributing up to £138 per year, which is a significant sum when budgets remain tight,” said Asda’s chief customer officer David Hills.

The supermarket’s campaign is being fronted by Youtube fitness expert Joe Wicks and has been developed with the charity Parentkind, which has provided data for all 22,000 state funded primary schools in the UK.

“Cashpot for Schools is by far the largest single opportunity brought to our members in recent memory. We are thrilled to be working with Asda to help realise this bold ambition,” said Parentkind chief executive Jason Elsom.

“Not only can ‘Cashpot for Schools’ benefit every state primary school, but it also brings Asda’s 18 million customers one step closer to the needs of their local primary schools, with everyone able to play their part in helping the life chances of children simply by choosing a primary school they would like Asda to support.”

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