Swap Christmas cards for virtual choir, Crisis urges companies
Howard Lake | 12 September 2007 | News
National homelessness charity Crisis is urging companies to swap the traditional corporate Christmas card for a tailor-made video e-card of homeless choristers.
All of the parcipating singers are homeless people who will be spending the festive period at Crisis Open Christmas. Companies can request a choir of three (for a donation of £3,000) to sing ‘Jingle Bells’, a chamber choir of five (for £15,000) to perform ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’, or a full choir of about fifteen (for £25,000) to perform ‘The Twelve days of Christmas’.
The charity is hoping to raise £1 million from its Christmas Card Challenge. Last year 114 companies donated their Christmas card budget to Crisis “preventing over 150,000 Christmas cards ending up in the bin, saving over 50 trees and helping to raise over £800,000”, according to the charity.
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Crisis will thank participating companies by publicising their support in two double-page adverts in worldwide editions of the Financial Times and on the FT.com website, “reaching a global audience of over 1.5 million”.
Simon Haslam, Chief Administrative Officer, Fidelity International, said: “Christmas Card Challenge provides an excellent mechanism for demonstrating our commitment to good corporate citizenship to our customers whilst still conveying our seasonal good wishes through the e-card. It also saves time, is environmentally friendly but most importantly it supports homeless people by developing their skills and employment prospects through the Crisis Open Christmas Project.”
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.