Quarriers launches Ten Minute Tea Break campaign
Howard Lake | 27 January 2009 | News
Scottish social care charity Quarriers is launching the Ten Minute Tea Break fundraising initiative with the aim of persuading employees from 1,000 companies to stage their own Ten Minute Tea Breaks on Friday 6 March. They will be encouraged to raise funds through collections, auctions, cake sales and other simple fundraising methods.
The charity tried out the event on a small scale last year by contacting fewer than 100 companies, of which 12 held tea breaks. Along with 38 other tea breaks held by community groups and individuals, the event raised more than £3,500 and its success has persuaded Quarriers to roll it out across the Scottish business community this year.
Quarriers’ telephone fundraising agency Relationship Marketing is handling most of the recruitment for the event, aiming to place packs in 800 companies. Calls began last week, on and so far nine packs an hour are being sent to interested companies, two more than the target of seven an hour.
Quarriers itself is communicating directly with 200 companies with which it already has a close relationship, using a mix of telephone, email and letter.
“The Ten Minute Tea Break is one of the simplest ways to engage people with our cause,” said Bryan McCall, events and community fundraising manager at Quarriers. “Once you get down to it, the fundraising itself is all pretty simple stuff – leaving a collection box on a table, selling home made cakes, holding a raffle or auction. But the key is to find something that brings everyone together to do these things in the first place and a works tea break is such a great rallying call.
Gordon Michie, Relationship Marketing’s director of development, said: “It’s not easy being a telephone fundraiser. We can call at the wrong time and it’s important that we don’t make people feel guilty about saying no.
“The great thing about calling for the Ten Minute Tea Break is that there’s no wrong time to ask British workers if they fancy a cuppa”.
Relationship Marketing has been working with Quarries for the past four years and now handles all welcome, upgrade and reactivation calls, along with the placement of the successful home money box programme.
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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.