Oxfam Unwrapped adds new features
Howard Lake | 24 October 2006 | News
The Winter 2006 Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue of “famously funusual” beneficiary gifts includes a number of innovations and new features, including the facility to buy some items by mobile phone texting.
This year’s catalogue includes ‘little extras’ to ‘unwrap on the special day’, presumably to sweeten the impact of recipients who were rather hoping to open something more than a ‘thank you’ card from Oxfam on Christmas morning. These extras include Fairtrade chocolates, a ‘funusual calendar’, a packet of seeds, and colouring pencils.
Note the generic ‘special day’. Although the catalogue is designed for the Christmas gift market, Oxfam is explicitly encouraging supporters to use it to make ‘every occasion’, including Diwali, Eid, Chanukah, weddings, civil partnerships, and birthdays.
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To help the memory of the gift last longer for the recipient, Oxfam has introduced fridge magnets with a photo and details of the gift on them. One of them reads “Your gift is safe drinking water for 50 people”.
The catalogue is aimed primarily at consumers, but includes information on how Oxfam Unwrapped can also serve businesses. A dedicated corporate order line can handle gifts from companies to staff, clients and suppliers.
Oxfam have clearly learned from their own and others’ online retailing experience. Recognising that many supporters leave Christmas shopping until it’s nearly too late, Oxfam has introduced online e-card gifts.
In addition the charity has added a Wish List facility, enabling supporters to list the items they would love to receive, and then email it to their friends and family.
To address the issue that most items in the catalogue cost at least £20, with some costing considerably more, Oxfam has added a children’s section with “pocket-money prices just for kids”. Items on offer include fertiliser for £6, 100 school dinners for £6, and two text books for £5.
Sensitive to some media reports that buying a goat didn’t actually result in an actual goat being bought, Oxfam is this year offering goats, animal care kits, and donkeys as “limited edition” items. The charity explains: “because so many Oxfam Unwrapped animals have been given as gifts already, and we give poor communities only things they really need, there is now limited availability on all gifts on this page.”
Ten items in the catalogue are also available for purchase from Oxfam shops, right up to Christmas Eve. These are flagged in the catalogue with ‘on sale in Oxfam shops’ red shopping bag icons.
As well as buying online, by telephone, via the paper catalogue or at Oxfam shops, this year supporters can also buy using their mobile phone. Three gifts (trees, condoms and a toilet) can be purchased using PayPal Mobile.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.