National community support

Each November, Share the Dignity calls on Australians to help ensure women and girls spending Christmas in domestic violence refuges, homeless shelters, or living in poverty, receive basic essentials and the gift of love and hope for Christmas through their It’s in the Bag campaign.

The initiative is in its ninth year and encourages people to pay it forward by filling a bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, soap, roll-on-deodorant, and period products - as well as optional extras such as lip balm, socks, or a handwritten note.

Filled bags can be dropped to any Bunnings store from Friday 10 November until Sunday 26 November 2023.

You can also purchase a virtual bag directly from Bunnings, which will enable Share the Dignity to create a bag on your behalf for women and girls in need this Christmas.

Each virtual bag purchased will contain essentials such as period products, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste.

Learn more about Share the Dignity

For the fourth year running, Bunnings has supported FightMND by selling beanies in our stores and trade centres, and online. This year, we’re excited to be committing to a 3-year partnership with FightMND and look forward to continuing to build on our success with the Big Freeze campaign all the way through to 2024.

Who are FightMND?

Founded in 2014, FightMND was established with the purpose of finding effective treatments and ultimately a cure for Motor Neurone Disease. The horrible and debilitating disease gradually takes away the patient's use of their arms and legs, their ability to eat and swallow, their speech and ultimately their ability to breathe...all in an average timeframe of just 27 months.

Following on from last year’s theme, FightMND once again put out the call for the team to ‘Beanie On, Play On’ in 2022. With the key theme of resilience in mind, the FightMND army is encouraged to put their beanie on to show how they are ‘playing on' in the face of life’s adversities and challenges, especially after what has been a tough couple of years.

What is the Big Freeze?

The Big Freeze is an annual fundraising event that takes place on the Queens Birthday long weekend. Each year, a limited-edition beanie is released for sale to raise funds for research to find treatment and a cure for Motor Neurone Disease.

FightMND 2022

From 11th May to 21st June, all Australian Bunnings stores and trade centres sold FightMND beanies to support the Big Freeze. We are proud to announce that thanks to your efforts, Bunnings has raised and contributed an incredible $1.5 million for FightMND in 2022. With over 55,000 beanies sold during this year’s campaign, you’ve made an outstanding contribution to FightMND’s record fundraising tally.

Over the past few weeks, we have felt the impact with our communities in NSW and QLD following the devastating floods in these regions.

Our team are a part of these communities, and alongside many amazing groups and individuals, we have worked to do our bit and support our neighbours in the clean up and recovery.

In addition to these efforts, on Friday 11 March, all Bunnings stores across Australia joined together to fire up the BBQ and host a Flood Support sausage sizzle.  This event raised money for communities impacted by the recent floods in NSW and parts of QLD. Customers and team members were also able to show their support by making a donation at our registers.

All funds raised have been donated to GIVIT Storms and Flooding Appeal. GIVIT is working with QLD and NSW governments to ensure all donations of goods, services, volunteering and funds are managed, to support all communities impacted by the floods.

The recent floods and storms have impacted so many of our communities and team and we are grateful to be able to actively support the many communities impacted by the storms and flooding with this nationwide sausage sizzle.  

If you were unable to make it in-store for the BBQ, you can still show your support by donating to the GIVIT Appeal online.

Our stores are actively supporting the many communities that continue to be impacted by bushfires. This has included providing products, time and services to those in need, supporting emergency services and those who’ve lost homes, businesses and livelihoods.

In addition, over 100 team members have taken paid time away from work to fight fires as members of the CFA, CFS, RFS, SES and defence force reserves. Bunnings continues to provide unlimited paid support to these team members who are a critical part of the response effort.

Bunnings has also helped to raise and contribute over $850,000 for Australian communities impacted by bushfires through donations and a fundraising sausage sizzle at all stores across Australia and New Zealand on Friday 24 January, which was manned by team members. The final contribution included more than $100,000 of direct donations from team members which was matched dollar for dollar by the business. All funds will go to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund who will use these funds to continue their work in evacuation and recovery centres, provide food, water and other emergency supplies, supply emergency cash grants, support people experiencing vulnerability, and plan recovery programs that are tailored for each community.

This follows a national fundraising sausage sizzle held in November 2019 which helped raise and contribute $620,000 for GIVIT to support Australian communities impacted by drought and bushfires. GIVIT are currently utilising the funds raised to help those who need it most; such as supplying water and other essentials to Queensland families who have used all of their house water to fight the fires, and providing food and grocery vouchers to families who lost their homes in the bushfires in NSW.

We recognise that the recovery and rebuilding effort will be long term. Our support will continue on a local level where our stores operate and team members live.