Charity & Community

We work with local schools and groups, much of which is through our community partnership with the local Lions Clubs and other charities. John Tate was a founder member of the Portslade and West Hove Rotary Club and Chairman of the Porthove Housing Association.

In 1992, Jonathan Tate built a museum to house the Newhaven Local and Maritime Museum charity at the Paradise Park garden centre in Newhaven. This was provided to the charity free of charge and continues to be let long-term at a peppercorn rent. 

In 2016, The Museum of Gardening opened at South Downs Nurseries, home to The Budding Foundation Charity. From their base here, the charity support children and families in need across Sussex and work with our own team to fund a wide range of children’s gardening projects in local schools and the wider community.

Our current projects include a charity bookshop in the South Downs Heritage Centre in Hassocks. We also operate several charity fundraising events throughout the year including our popular Santa’s Grottos at South Downs Nurseries and Old Barn Garden Centre, which raised more than £43,000 for The Budding Foundation Charity in 2019. We also support and encourage our staff members to raise money for local good causes that are important to them.

If you are a charity, local school, church or local community group requesting a raffle prize for a fundraising event, or you are looking for a donation of goods for a project you are working on, please send an email to promotions@tatesgardencentres.co.uk and we will send you a Charity Donation Request Form to complete and return to us.

If you are fundraising on behalf of a charity, you will need to provide us with a letter from the charity on headed paper, authorising you to fundraise on their behalf.

Please bear in mind that we receive a large number of requests for donations and unfortunately, we are unable to help everyone. We do not make monetary donations, except in rare circumstances.