Another selection of Christmas fundraising novelties
Howard Lake | 22 December 2011 | Blogs
We’ve already featured a range of Christmas fundraising activities and ideas, so here are some more.
Unwanted presents
St Giles Hospice is already thinking about after Christmas and is inviting people to donate any unwanted presents that they receive to its network of local charity shops. It is reminding prospective donors of the value of completing a Gift Aid declaration so that the value of their donated goods could be boosted.
Merry Mushroom to you
The New Covent Garden Coup Co is supporting The Salvation Army with its seasonal soup of the month, ‘Merry Mushroom’. The pack reads “This month, we are supporting the amazing work of The Salvation Army for the fourth year running.
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“By buying our Soup of the Month, you’re helping to contribute towards their community and social work, helping some of the most isolated and marginalised people in the UK”.
The pack is illustrated the image of a Salvation Army band. It is the work of Eileen Godsave, 87, who “lost interest in life after a long time alone, but [who] was inspired to paint after moving to a Salvation Army care home.”
About.me
You don’t need a whole website to help fundraise or donate. Even single-page CV sites like about.me are enabling users to give to charity.
AOL have agreed to donate $1 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for every about.me page created or updated during December up to a maximum of $10,000.
About.me has created two new background images as part of the campaign for supporters to download and use for their page background. Just adding it will constitute updating the about.me page.
AOL has been a corporate partner for St. Jude since 2006, since when it has donated “millions” of dollars to the nonprofit.
Embedded asks in child’s i Foundation’s Christmas video
[Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ZpZiomPN8 no longer available]
Child’s i Foundation has created a Christmas video card to all its supporters, showing Santa paying an early visit to the Malaika babies home.
Note how they’ve have used a series of relevant, embedded asks to give supporters the chance to donate to something they see in the video. For example:
• click to buy a special gift from our baby shower…
• click to buy a gift of a carer’s salary for a week…
• click to buy a gift of milk formula for a baby for a month…
Christmas number one for the Military Wives?
With sales outstripping its X Factor rival by nearly six to one, The Military Wives’ single looks likely to achieve the Christmas No. 1 title this year. Proceeds from the sale of ‘Wherever You Are’ will be donated to the Royal British Legion and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA).
These will now be boosted following the Treasury’s agreement to waive VAT on sales of the single, which sold 242,000 copies in its first two days, the biggest two-day sale figure for a single for the past six years.
Order the single from Amazon.co.uk
Intuit’s fundraising Christmas card
Finance software company Intuit has sent an email Christmas card to its clients, and included a fundraising quest. “Simply visit the Intuit Festive High Street before 31st December 2011″, the company invites clients, “and if you can find all five gifts we’ve hidden, we’ll donate £1 to Retail Trust, the only charity helping all 3 million people working in your high street this festive season.”
If you get stuck, the site will offer a helpful tip. Once you complete your search, the donation is made on your behalf, and you can then download five free tips on using Intuit’s QuickBooks package.
Virtual card yields real trees
The Good Agency has sent some real Christmas cards and some follow-up email messages to friends, colleagues and clients inviting them to create and decorate a virtual Christmas tree. For the first 100 people to do so, the agency pledges to plan a real tree in the UK during 2012.
Freedom for sprouts
Digital agency beautifulworld has brought a smile to their clients and contacts this Christmas with a spoof charity-style campaign on behalf of brussel sprouts.
“In a recent survey, nobody liked sprouts”, claimed the card. It’s always good to refer to a survey, even if you don’t mention anything about it.
“Every year, millions of sprouts are mercilessly rounded up and boiled for no other reason than that’s the way it’s always been. It’s time to put a stop to this barbaric practice.”
And now comes the call to action. “Pledge your support for beleaguered sprouts this Christmas”. It’s not a cash ask, just a request to tweet the card and campaign and spread some smiles. The campaign site, www.standupforsprouts.org, of course features the latest tweets on the subject.
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.