If Christmas really is the season of peace and goodwill why not start planning now to make it a truly ethical occasion for yourself and your loved ones?
Charitable gestures in this season of giving are so easy to make at a cost which would even have Scrooge smiling with approval.
Just what does the way you wish someone a happy Christmas say about you? Old traditions die hard and it seems that writing a few scrawled cliches on a Hallmark greetings card is still the favoured method of most Brits.
The Royal Mail delivers as many as 150 million cards per day in the pre-Christmas run up but it is a sobering thought that these cards can take up to 30 years to decompose.
So why not send an ecard (an email wishing someone well) instead? You can actually make them more personal than a shop-bought card by pasting in a scene from a famous Christmas film (what about Jimmy Stewart's It's A Wonderful Life?) and using PhotoShop to superimpose a speech bubble with your greeting.
Charity Christmas cards are a fine alternative if this idea doesn't appeal.
Cards that you receive can be recycled by organisations such as the Woodland Trust.
A compost bin can be a good Yuletide investment which will help you recycle much of the waste that the festivities generate.
If you're dreaming of a green Christmas it is best to buy presents which don't harm the environment. Buying the adoption rights to an animal can prove to be a great gift and what better time of the year can it be for adopting a reindeer?
For just £32 a year you can adopt a Cairngorm Mountain reindeer and receive photos, souvenirs and newsletters. The money will be well-spent on food and welfare (in the form of medicine and vets' fees) for these magnificent creatures.
Polar bears can be adopted even more cheaply. For as little as £3 per month the World Wildlife Fund will let you adopt one of these Arctic animals.
It doesn't take much imagination to decorate your house without ruining the planet. Plastic trees are not environmentally-friendly so you could always grow your own holly tree instead of supporting the trade in holly branches. Put seeds, a compost pellet and a terracotta pot on your Christmas list and watch your green credentials grow!
If it's too late to do this in time for the big day, you can always contact Oxfam and make a donation so that a tree can be planted in a developing country.
No decent Christmas is complete without the chance to gorge yourself on food before slumping in front of the Queen's speech with a paper crown on your head. Buying your choice of dinner locally, perhaps at farmers' markets, is a sure-fire way of ticking the right green boxes.
With time off work, Christmas is a time to reflect on those less fortunate than themselves. You can always bring some seasonal cheer by taking part in a 'Considerate Christmas' at Everyclick. Send online greetings and buy an Everyclick eVoucher to give to someone to donate to their favourite charity before the year is out.
Showing posts with label donate to charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donate to charity. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 October 2008
The problems faced by small charities in an online environment
A new breed of website helps people donate online for free, even if their chosen charity doesn't have an online presence, but why is there such a demand for its services?
In this electronic age surely every charity should have a website accepting online donations?
Part of the reason for the success of fundraising platforms, such as Everyclick.com, is the fact that it is becoming understandably difficult for charities to find the funds to run their own website.
It is a cruel fact of life that some charities have more resources and higher-profile supporters than others. Not all charitable organisations can have celebrity backers like Ian Botham who has just gained much well-deserved press coverage for completing his remarkable trek across Britain in aid of Leukaemia Research.
Charities can feel that they're competing against each other to try and attract attention and donations from consumers who are finding it increasingly hard to meet the rising cost of living.
There are 200,000 charities in the UK, all, in the nicest possible way, trying to stand out from the crowd to make a difference to people's lives.
Only two per cent of the £8 billion that Britons donate to charity each year is given online, according to recent research from NFP synergy.
This makes charities the poor internet relation of sectors such as travel, banking and shopping where a significant proportion of transactions have migrated online.
It is also proof of how many charities are reluctant to invest in websites to accept online donations, considering that it is more cost-effective to pursue other methods such as employing people with clipboards to solicit direct debit contributions from passers-by.
But there is no escaping the fact that online donations are the way forward. Recent research from internet media and market research company Nielsen Online found that Britons are spending four per cent more time online per month than they did a year ago.
The relatively low proportion of online donations could also be explained by consumers' fears that their contributions might not be secure. A reticence about becoming a victim of fraud when you are trying to give cash to an honourable cause is understandable.
Which is why sites such as Everyclick can be a God-send for charities as it has a secure payment system.
While money is one factor deterring charities from setting up a website, another is time. Websites need to be maintained so that they retain their relevance and don't have outdated information or old news stories on them.
Someone could be put off from supporting a charity by seeing an unprofessional website.
The charities which don't have websites are often the smallest ones with the least resources - the very organisations that might need your support the most. So don't be put off if you can't find a website representing a cause close to your heart. Visit a fundraising site which will accept online donations for them.
In this electronic age surely every charity should have a website accepting online donations?
Part of the reason for the success of fundraising platforms, such as Everyclick.com, is the fact that it is becoming understandably difficult for charities to find the funds to run their own website.
It is a cruel fact of life that some charities have more resources and higher-profile supporters than others. Not all charitable organisations can have celebrity backers like Ian Botham who has just gained much well-deserved press coverage for completing his remarkable trek across Britain in aid of Leukaemia Research.
Charities can feel that they're competing against each other to try and attract attention and donations from consumers who are finding it increasingly hard to meet the rising cost of living.
There are 200,000 charities in the UK, all, in the nicest possible way, trying to stand out from the crowd to make a difference to people's lives.
Only two per cent of the £8 billion that Britons donate to charity each year is given online, according to recent research from NFP synergy.
This makes charities the poor internet relation of sectors such as travel, banking and shopping where a significant proportion of transactions have migrated online.
It is also proof of how many charities are reluctant to invest in websites to accept online donations, considering that it is more cost-effective to pursue other methods such as employing people with clipboards to solicit direct debit contributions from passers-by.
But there is no escaping the fact that online donations are the way forward. Recent research from internet media and market research company Nielsen Online found that Britons are spending four per cent more time online per month than they did a year ago.
The relatively low proportion of online donations could also be explained by consumers' fears that their contributions might not be secure. A reticence about becoming a victim of fraud when you are trying to give cash to an honourable cause is understandable.
Which is why sites such as Everyclick can be a God-send for charities as it has a secure payment system.
While money is one factor deterring charities from setting up a website, another is time. Websites need to be maintained so that they retain their relevance and don't have outdated information or old news stories on them.
Someone could be put off from supporting a charity by seeing an unprofessional website.
The charities which don't have websites are often the smallest ones with the least resources - the very organisations that might need your support the most. So don't be put off if you can't find a website representing a cause close to your heart. Visit a fundraising site which will accept online donations for them.
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