Argos sells 'reindeer food' for hospice appeal
Howard Lake | 3 November 2006 | News
Argos are aiming to sell 150,000 packets of ‘Reindeer Food’ consisting of oats and glitter to raise funds at Christmas for its charity partner Help the Hospices. The food will be available for a suggested donation of £1 per packet.
The novelty Christmas item is part of Argos’ two year partnership with the charity, which is on course to raise over £1 million by July 2007.
Lorna Liggett, community affairs manager at Argos, commented: “Although putting out treats for Father Christmas’ Reindeer is a family tradition which has existed informally for decades, until now it has never been marketed commercially through a major national retailer such as Argos. Every year, hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on novelty Christmas gifts in the UK, and we want to channel some of this money into the hospice movement.
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To date, the partnership between Argos staff and customers and Help the Hospices has included the ‘Tick to Give’ scheme which invites customers to tick a box on their Argos product selection slip to donate 20p to Help the Hospices when making a purchase in-store. Other projects have included the sale of World Cup wristbands which raised over £114,000, a mobile phone recycling scheme, and in-store fundraising tied in with events such as the launch of Argos’ new catalogue.
A key element of the partnership has been the relationship between Argos’ stores, distribution centres, contact centres and head office with individual local adult and children’s hospices in their area, giving the company’s 24,000 employees the opportunity to make a difference within their local community.
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.