Post Offices sell Reindeer Food for Help the Hospices
Howard Lake | 6 November 2007 | News
Packets of ‘Reindeer Food’ will be available for a suggested donation of £1 from 422 Post Offices across the UK from 12 November to raise money for Help the Hospices. The Royal Mail Group is in a three-year partnership with the charity which has already raised over £1.3 million.
Each pack contains a mix of oats and sparkly crystals. The initiative is expected to raise tens of thousands of pounds.
Nick Gittens, head of corporate social responsibility at Post Office Ltd, said: “The thinking behind the Reindeer Food is to build on the Christmas tradition of leaving treats outside for Santa’s Reindeer and to attract into the hospice movement some of the millions of pounds that people in the UK spend on novelty items at this time of year”.
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Previous fundraising initiatives in the partnership between Royal Mail Group and Help the Hospices have included the sale of cause-related marketing items such as Christmas angels and specially designed Post Office® ants badges, and the publication of ‘Unseen UK’, a collection of photographs taken by postmen and women throughout the country.
Postal staff nationwide have linked up with their local hospices to organise fundraising activities and volunteer their free time and there has been “an exceptionally high level” of payroll giving, leading to Royal Mail Group’s payroll giving scheme winning awards at the Institute of Fundraising’s National Payroll Giving Awards and Pay Magazine’s Pay Awards.
Last year retailer Argos raised £100,000 in three weeks for Help the Hospices through sales of packets of “reindeer food”.
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.