12 ways charities are fundraising #PoundForPound with the new £1 coin
Howard Lake | 28 March 2017 | News
The new design £1 coin was introduced in the UK today. Already many charities are using the #PoundforPound hashtag to invite supporters and the public to donate the new pound or indeed the ‘old’ pound.
It is a significant opportunity. The Institute of Fundraising thinks it isn’t small change – it claims that the switchover could raise up to £21 million for charity!
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Here are some of the different approaches taken to this unusual fundraising opportunity.
1. Putting a value on (28) £1 coins
Macmillan Cancer describes the new coin by numbers. And points out that 28 of these coins could pay for one hour of care from a Macmillan nurse.
The new £1 is here and we absolutely love it! #poundcoin pic.twitter.com/yk7YjqQapM
— Macmillan Cancer Support (@macmillancancer) March 28, 2017
Thames Hospice have done something similar:
The new £1 coin is here, so why not donate your old pound coins – £1 pays for a patient's breakfast at our #Windsor Hospice #PoundForPound pic.twitter.com/uDrQxkptmx
— Thames Hospice (@thameshospice) March 28, 2017
2. Promote Gift Aid and make your £1 go further
Rhythmix Music have used the new £1 design to update the popular image depicting how much extra a £1 is worth if given using Gift Aid.
#poundforpound Got a new £1 coin? Pop it over to us on https://t.co/1i6RKCaILv and you can add an extra 25p for free through GiftAid! pic.twitter.com/ZK0c5bYx4I
— Rhythmix (@RhythmixMusic) March 28, 2017
3. Donate the old coins too while you can
St Joseph’s Hospice is inviting the public to donate the ‘old’ £1 coins, before they are withdrawn from circulation. They are just as valuable of course.
The old £1 coin won’t be round for long! Collect yours for @StJoHospice & turn coins into care #PoundforPound #CharityTuesday pic.twitter.com/kLqYZLfM6E
— St Joseph's Hospice (@StJoHospice) March 28, 2017
4. Donate new and old £1 coins
St Luke’s Hospice is covering its bets, asking for donations of the new and old £1 coin.
Donate your first #newpoundcoin or give #PoundForPound and donate your old ones towards our care. https://t.co/5sGUPEsV1S #sheffieldissuper pic.twitter.com/qvHYHFQs5r
— St Luke's Sheffield (@StLukes_Sheff) March 28, 2017
5. Make the most of the transition
Not all retailers can accept the new £1 coin in all their devices. That’s a lot of people with an extra £1 coin in their hands which they could donate to charity.
That's another good reason to donate your old or new pound coins. Thanks @tesconews 😀👍 #PoundForPound#MakeAPoundGoAround https://t.co/oEha3sGzKK
— John Thompson, aka Johnny Five (@JTCHANGINGBIZ) March 28, 2017
6. Make the most of an existing £1 appeal
If you’ve got a £1-focused appeal running, you’ve timed it well. Human Appeal are linking the new £1 coin to their Purple Pound scheme.
Well why not donate to our Purple Pound scheme! Just £1 will contribute to not just one of our projects but all of them #PoundForPound pic.twitter.com/tbyjQ1WyYu
— Human Appeal (@HumanAppeal) March 28, 2017
7. Corporate fundraising
There are plenty of shops that have the word ‘Pound’ in their name or focus on selling items at £1. How they can be involved in this opportunity?
I hope @Poundstretcher1 and @Poundland get behind #poundforpound #fundraising https://t.co/7Bg0wbCCrx
— John Thompson, aka Johnny Five (@JTCHANGINGBIZ) March 27, 2017
8. Picture this
We might know what the new £1 coin looks like, but what does its impact on your charity look like?
Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust didn’t have access to the new coins yesterday when it posted this, but it’s a good image, encouraging you to donate perhaps not £1 but many.
The new pound coin is out tomorrow! How about donating yours to support women with #cervicalcancer? Text JOTR01 £1 to 70070 #PoundForPound pic.twitter.com/Kj0gdPBvnu
— Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust (@JosTrust) March 27, 2017
9. Text £1
It’s 2017 and cash isn’t the king or queen it once was. So St Margaret’s Hospice is encouraging us to donate £1 by text. They’ll never know if it was a new or old £1, but they won’t mind.
The #newpoundcoin comes in to circulation today! Donate your first at 1 of our 36 charity shops or txt to donate #poundforpound – thank you! pic.twitter.com/rPgz4yQwmR
— St Margaret's Hospice Care (@st_marg) March 28, 2017
10. Moving pictures
Given there are 160,000+ charities in England and Wales alone who could be asking for donations of the new £1 coin, how might your charity stand out? A video is certainly a good choice, so here is Action for Children’s.
The new pound coin is here! Donate your old pound coins & help children in the UK https://t.co/LI9UwPQbc3 #poundforpound #charitytuesday pic.twitter.com/gM5b2lOxOc
— Action for Children (@actnforchildren) March 28, 2017
And here is NSPCC’s:
Donate your first #poundcoin to help us support more children through their firsts – from baby steps to big schoolhttps://t.co/63r9f9Abqp pic.twitter.com/qaTqaJuL3l
— NSPCC (@NSPCC) March 28, 2017
11. Save your £1?
There could be an argument for saving your 2017 new £1 coin, given that coin collectors might, in future years, pay more for one. Certainly charities overseas have noticed the new currency.
That said, a £1 donated now to a charity is probably a better investment.
There's been an international run on the #PoundForPound @bankofengland @RoyalMintUK https://t.co/1kOxRou42N
— John Thompson, aka Johnny Five (@JTCHANGINGBIZ) March 27, 2017
12. Update your collecting boxes
If you have collecting boxes, flag up the opportunities of the new £1 coin. The Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums are doing just that.
Royal Pavilion & @BrightonMuseums embracing the #PoundForPound opportunity pic.twitter.com/nt1MgdLbTb
— David Burgess (@DavidBurgessFR) March 28, 2017
Bonus
Can you introduce humour into promoting the new pound coin? Here’s HM Treasury’s attempt, featuring its resident cat Gladstone, apparently.
The #NewPoundCoin rolls out from today & Gladstone's got his paws on it. Find out where to get yours https://t.co/dEPz5q4aKZ #FoundThePound pic.twitter.com/C30OGfRuA5
— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) March 28, 2017
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.