9 kinds of fundraising activity on Black Friday
Howard Lake | 25 November 2016 | News
Although Giving Tuesday is the international response from charities and causes to the commercial focus of today’s Black Friday, that doesn’t stop charities fundraising and organisations giving today.
Here are a few examples of fundraising campaigns on Black Friday together with campaigns using the day to promote their future fundraising campaigns.
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1. The Big Give Christmas Challenge
The UK’s largest matched giving campaign for charities takes place on Giving Tuesday this year, 29 November.
2. Black Pie Day
There are puns galore going free today on Black Friday. Here is one campaign benefiting Shelter.
3. Christmas is coming
St Margaret’s Hospice is using a Black Friday discount code to sell even more Christmas cards.
4. #Thanks4giving
Last year Fat Face declared it would not join in the sales frenzy of Black Monday but donate to charities instead. It is doing so again.
It has just followed up with a thank you of its own on Black Friday:
Others are taking a similar approach, including Patagonia which is donating to environmental organisations:
5. Low cost membership
Sometimes you don’t need to offer a price reduction when you are confident of the value of your offer. In this vein Civic Voice has promoted its £10 a year individual membership fee as “one of the biggest bargains” you’ll see on Black Friday.
6. Different day, same ask
Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from fundraising on Black Friday. Here is Breakfast in a Bag and its efforts to provide breakfast to people who are homeless in London. No price reduction of course: just a request for support.
[Tweet at https://twitter.com/breakfastinabag/status/802049952532824064 is no longer available].
7. Companies doing the right thing
Charities don’t always have to ask their corporate friends to support them: plenty of them will eschew Black Friday’s discounting and turn it into a giving opportunity.
[Tweet at https://twitter.com/whatyousow/status/802130128897802240 no longer available].
8. Orange is the new black
Who said it had to be Black Friday? Prostate Cancer UK are encouraging us to look ahead to a week’s time and Orange Friday:
9. #LackFriday
Did we mention that there are plenty of opportunities for puns on ‘Black Friday’?
World Jewish Relief turned the day into #LackFriday, the campaign featured “photos of the people we support and boast a special offer deal of just £5 to help provide warm clothes, warm meals, warm homes or warm hearts through our befriending and homecare support services”.
More on Black Friday, fundraising and giving
- Have we missed your Black Friday fundraising campaign or promotion? Let us know in the comments below.
- We covered Black Friday fundraising by retailers last year too.
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.