NCT uses trading paperclip for a house idea
Howard Lake | 2 September 2008 | Blogs
I’ve sometimes lamented the fact that the successful quirky online income generation ideas like milliondollarhomepage.com don’t derive from or even benefit the charity sector. So, I’m pleased to see that pregnancy, birth and early parenthood charity NCT is at least making use of one of these ideas and aiming to do even better.
Do you remember the man who traded a paperclip for a house? Kyle MacDonald started with one red paperclip on 12 July 2005 and 14 trades later, on 12 July 2006 successfully secured a house in Canada.
He first swapped his paper clip for a fish-shaped pen, swapped that for a ceramic door-knob, which was traded up via a camping stove, snowmobile and recording contract to the house.
The NCT is challenging supporters and the public to trade up from a pen to a more expensive item. The final item will be sold to raise money for the charity on a three-day eBay auction.
Trading for the NCT Great Swap Up Challenge starts on 1 October 2008 and runs until the end of the month.
The charity is looking for teams or individuals to take part – a sports team, scout group, pub quiz team, group of friends or a department at work to challenge another. The aim is to trade up a pen, step by step, for a higher value item each time. The item can be upgraded many times until it reaches an estimated value of £50. Teams can keep track of how other teams are doing by registering in the forum online.
www.nct.org.uk/swapup
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.