Give It reaches £250,000 mark for charities
Howard Lake | 25 April 2007 | News
Give It, the not-for-profit organisation behind charitable wedding list service The Alternative Wedding List, has generated £250,000 for participating charities since it was launched in 2004.
The Alternative Wedding List was followed by The Alternative Gift List, a service for birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations, and The Alternative Christmas List, which allows individuals and groups to hold a list for their friends and family to make donations to different charities instead of buying each other Christmas presents.
Andy Hickey, who heads the operation said: “most of the first £250,000 has been generated through The Alternative Wedding List and this year will be the third full wedding season the service has been available.
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“We’ve made steady but slow process as couples often plan far ahead and it’s taken some time for the concept to be widely accepted, particularly amongst guests invited to make donations by the couples who have registered. However registrations for lists continue to grow year-on-year and we expect 2007 to generate significantly more than last.”
The not-for-profit company has also launched The Scottish Wedding List and The London Wedding List.
Participating charities have not had to pay any upfront costs to be part of the service, and “ongoing costs are covered by whatever Gift Aid can be generated on donations”.
The social enterprise has generated these funds for charities without grants or similar funding. It has managed to secure some zero-interest investment which has helped it to develop and operate the services and to invest in a programme of advertising in the wedding industry.
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.