'How Rich are You?'

An interesting website is currently circulating the web which begs the question 'How Rich are You? By using this website you'll get an insight you can determine 'how rich you are' in comparison to the rest of the world. The revelation will leave you realising you are richer than you might have thought! The inspiration behind this is for the public to realise how fortunate they are and how even a £3 donation will make a significant difference in some ones life.

You enter in your annual income into a calculator which then informs you where you rank in the Global Rich List by person and percentage. On this same results page features a scale various monetary donation figures with explanations of what each figure will provide for you AND in comparison what it could provide for those in need.

This is an interesting way of convincing the public to donate to a worthy cause, and it works! The interesting aspect with the ultimate 'guilt' feeling that resonates with you when you see the results is a successful catalyst to encourage charitable donations. Which is further helped by the presence of a click through onto a charities donation page. It's a clever and interesting idea which I believe will have been successful for all charities involved.

'Eggsplore' London for Charity

On the February 21st 2012, the Big Egg Hunt will begin! 

This event has brought together two charities 'Elephant Family' and 'Action for Children' and will feature 200 eggs spread across London all individually decorated by various artists and personalities.The hunt will take place over the 40 days of lent where by the public can take part in the hunt for a small fee. Once the hunt is over the 200 eggs are set to be auctioned off in hope of raising £1million to be divided amongst the two charities. 

This collaboration is fantastic, the interactive egg hunt around the capital is fun and will become a significant talking point throughout their 40 day residence in London. Action for Children's association with this event will not only be helped through the auction of the eggs but also through increased awareness and donations. This is set to be an exciting, different and an eggstroadinary event!

ITV Talent Show Supports 'Save the Children'

An ITV talent show 'Born to Shine' has raised £2.1 million for Save the Childrens' 'No Child Born to Die' campaign. The talent show brought in children with exceptional talents to teach celebrities their talents. The competition culminated after a 6 week run on Sunday nights with the winner Jason Manford being announced just this past Sunday.

All the money raised came from on-line and telephone pledges as well as from the new UK Aid Match Scheme.

This scheme sees the Government match pound for pound funds donated by the public to charity appeals for projects in developing countries. This successful campaign and use of media shows the connection between charitable giving and entertainment. When the two are combined the public become more excited and are encouraged to donate due to the interactive quality of the campaign. 

50 social 'things' which will save lives

@5050 is an initiative launched by a group of social media types with the intention of raising money online to help save lives in Africa. Utilising the expertise of various partners throughout the market, the aim is to build 50 things; be that apps, projects or social promises which can raise money towards to the famine problem in Africa! 

There are some really cool apps and ideas kicking around in this space in the fallout from this initiative. We've already featured some stuff on the Twitter Swearjar and there are various incarnations of this floating around in the social arena. 

Amongst a sea of ideas, many of which encompass involvement from celebrities, a few real gems shine; 'The 6 Minutes Project', 'Phone 2 Food' & 'The Pound Store'

6 Minutes encourages us to donate 6 minutes of our salary to the appeal - a direct response to that fact that 1 child dies every 6 minutes in Africa at the hands of the famine. Not only an apt tie in to the problem faced but such a small and novel ask, that it should resonate well with an audience who have little time and like to get things done quickly and easily. 

Buymytronics.com are involved with the 'Phone 2 Food' initiative which see's your full phone buy-back value donated to Unicef to fund food for a child. With 1 days food for a child only costing $1.10, think of the difference a £100 or $150 phone could make. Again this is a different way to frame the ask, not asking for cash directly but for a benefit from donating an item. 

Finally 'The Pound Store' is a great place to custom shop for what you send to Africa, with items from as little as £1 (malaria vaccine) etc it's a clear, visual and engaging charitable donation experience http://www.poundstore.uk.com/

These are only scraping the surface of some of the truly unique initiatives happening as a part of this campaign. Alongside a big, A-list celebrity endorsed campaign launch, this is certainly a social initiative to watch and learn from. A lot of these ideas could be localised and adapted to other charities 

http://5050.gd/

Tweeting while they watch!

A recent YouGov survey found that more than three quarters of UK TV viewers are now absorbing other media whilst watching TV. 

It also suggested that 43% of individuals were discussing the TV shows they were watching on Twitter, Facebook & other blogging sites. While this figure was higher in the younger age brackets, 68% of 18-24 year olds, it was not overlooked in the more aged individiuals with over a quarter of over-55's also engaging in this type of activity.  

A lot of this ad hoc activity occurs via mobile phones and I'm sure we're all noticing the increase in "via iPhone" or "via Blackberry" cluttering up our Facebook feed as our friends rapidly tap out their feelings to the X Factor performances that night. I've even noticed my Dad uploading pictures of the tennis on the TV screen. Evidence that it isn't just the younger generation who are caught up in the social media bubble. 

Social media was not the only avenue people we consuming alongside their TV viewing; the internet (via phone & laptop), a games console or even listening to the radio were all popular activities. Collectively these activities saw an 18% rise YoY. 

This research solidifies the trends we're seeing across the charity market with methods of web response greatly favoured to phone. In some pockets of the market we're beginning to see text response favoured to traditional phone call, but this is not without downfalls in attaining regular givers. 

An interesting study confirming many of the trends we've been seeing for some time. Hopefully as these technologies develop we can evolve our media solutions to effectively and efficiently reach our audiences. 

Covent Garden Food Co. Supports the British Heart Foundation

In February 2010 and 2011, Covent Garden Soups and the British Heart Foundation teamed up for the charity's 'National Heart Month'. They came together and created a soup which would be 'good for the heart'. This included making sure that the nutritional traffic lights; Fat, Sat Fat, Sugar and Salt were all green/low as such the creation has come to include Tomatoes, Vegetable and Lentils. This became Covent Gardens 'Soup of the Month' for February and because of its popularity this soup still continues to have a presence on supermarket shelves.

For both February 2010 and 2011, Covent Garden pledged £10,000 of the soups sales to the British Heart Foundation and with prices at only £1.99 I'm not surprised it flew off the shelves with 500,000 cartons being sold already.

This is a creative and innovative way to support the British Heart Foundation, Covent Garden is one of the, if not the soup retailer for Britain and by allowing the public to gain something when donating to charity, something just as simple as a bowl of soup, that I feel is when charitable marketing is at its best.

Charity Swear Jar for the Digital Age

A website called Charity Swear Box have teamed up with Twitter to start an unusual way of giving, by putting money into an on-line swear box! This donation based web site allows Twitter users to pay up for use of bad language. This app requires the user to sign on with their twitter details allowing the app to detect all the users recently tweeted swearwords and suggest a donation related to the number of outbursts recorded. In addition the user can also submit an amount they'd like to be charged per swearword.

The app allows the user to choose which charity they'd like to donate to (all donations are submitted via Pay Pal), the charities they support are:

• CAMBA
• Feed the Children
• Peta
• Family Care Foundation (FCF)
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
• Childline (NSPCC)
• Unicef

The app also allows the user to post an app right there and then using as many swearwords as they wish, all in the name of Charity!

'Own a Colour' in Aid of Unicef

 Dulux are attempting to raise £1million in 24 hours for Unicef with their 'Own a Colour and Help Save a Child's Life' campaign. This campaign is ingenious, on its home page features a large scale colour spectrum, when a colour is chosen it transports you to a more in depth colour spectrum as per the colour selected.

Once you choose your colour, bearing in mind that if a colour has already been selected by someone it won't be available, you are asked your name and why you chose it. Following on from this you are asked to donate towards the campaign. They give you options of certain amounts to donate and what they can provide for the children, in addition they offer an 'Other Amount' tab if one wishes to donate more:

• £1 - can buy enough polio vaccines to immunise 10 children
• £3 - can buy 400 water purification tablets, enough to filter 2,000 litres of drinking water
• £5 - can buy 100 satchels of oral rehydration salts to combat deadly dehydration and diarrho
• £10 - can buy three mosquito nets, vital protection against malaria, which kills an African child every 30 seconds
• £20 - can buy enough vaccinations to protect 50 children against measles, one of the biggest killers of children worldwide.

This is an extremely fun and interactive way to encourage people to donate, the idea of owning your own colour is ingenious and furthermore it doesn't incur any costs for Dulux or Unicef. Such an idea is likely to encourage and entice the younger generations to donate, with people being able to ask each other 'what's your colour?'. The partnership of these two companies is an unlikely one which makes it even more interesting. The creative and quite literal colourful nature of this advert is a great example of charities and companys thinking outside the box and hopefully as a result of this they'll be able to reach their goal within the next 24 hours.

To see this campaign/website please visit: http://www.ownacolour.com/

'Google Wallet' - Tap, Pay and Save

Google have just released a new revolutionary technology which will allow customers to pay with their phone or should I say 'Google Wallet'. The Tap, Pay and Save campaign has just been launched and is set to take the U.S. by storm.

For the time being this new technology is fairly limited to specific mobile phones and card carriers. For example Citibank MasterCard is currently the only card available to use with your Google Wallet, however this I'm sure will change as it becomes more widely used. For now, rest assured, those without Citibank MasterCards will be able to link up their own card with a Google Pre Pay credit card system which is also available with 'Google Wallet'. 

'Google Wallet' can be used anywhere a MasterCard paypass is available with hundreds and thousands of locations already in place in the continental U.S..

Google have pledged that this is only the beginning as they announce what the future of 'Google Wallets' might hold; Boarding Passes, Tickets and much more. What is for sure is that this is an exciting new venture and it's going to be interesting to see how it will ultimately develop.

Reaching out for Younger Volunteers Using Social Media

Punch Communications have recently released an article about how to utilise Facebook and Twitter more effectively in order to reach younger audiences.

Twitter:

They continually stress the need to build relationships with ones followers, whether by sending them direct messages or interacting by 'retweeting' relevant information that they had posted. In doing this your presence and visibility within Twitter will continue to grow.

Facebook:

For new users, having a fan page does not allow one to invite people as a result they recommend to start out with a personal page and then once one has sufficient fans change it to a fan page. Also by 'liking' or 'commenting' on other brands pages with a large fan base you automatically increase your visibility. However they point out that you shouldn't 'post ‘spammy’ messages, ensure your comments are relevant and not overtly promotional'.

In a more general message, Punch stresses that ones account should not be used solely to report on an organisations services and products. Instead they should also engage the user by posting interesting and relevant information, whether that's news stories, blog posts, videos and photos. However Charities should be aware of their audiences. For example if one is trying to engage in a younger audience posting news stores from the Financial Times in unlikely to draw their attention, one should be aware of their interests or hobbies, whether that be the new fashion trends or new restaurants. In doing so and by posting relevant information, the Charity is more likely to grab their attention and ensure a return user and are more likely to draw in people who otherwise might not have noticed or known about them.

Oxfam's Interactive Shopping Experience

Oxfam have just made shopping at their stores more interactive. In their Manchester shop they've recently tried and tested a system, in what their calling "a social network for objects", allowing customers to access information about items such as past geographical locations, stories from previous owners and video clips. Using QR code technology consumers will be able to scan barcodes with their phones, subsequently downloading all the relevant information about the item. 

An initial example includes this green dress donated by the singer Annie Lennox, in a video clip she explains about how she wore it to Nelson Mandela 90th birthday party or how another owner wore an item the first time she met her ex boyfriend. 

An Oxfam spokesman felt that 'items with an interesting history instantly have an added value for our customers' whilst 'promoting sustainability and encouraging consumers to look beyond disposable fashion'.

As a result of this new innovative technology the Manchester shop have seen their turnover increase by 41%, which have spurred Oxfam into installing this technology into a further 20 shops. Hopefully this new venture will continue to spread throughout the country.

Aviva Revives 'You are the Big Picture' Campaign, Benefiting Save The Children

In 2010 Aviva ran an ad campaign entitled 'You are the Big Picture', whereby consumers could upload a picture of themselves through Aviva's Facebook page, which would then be displayed in prominent cosmopolitan areas (see picture). Aviva have once again launched this campaign. Consumers are charged a sum to upload their photo which is then donated to Save the Children's Street to School program. However where as in 2010 consumers paid £1 to submit a photo, this year they will be charged £2, with all submission fees being paid into Save the Children's program.

The aim of this program is to provide education and counselling to 2.000 children a year in India by funding two mobile learning centres.

This partnership is a great way for this program to raise money. It allows the consumer to not only donate but appear on an Aviva ad campaign, a great incentive! In turn Aviva appears not only in touch with their consumers, treating them as individuals, but in touch with the need for charitable giving around the globe. 

It has promising prospects as last year Aviva's Facebook page received 2 million views, while in excess of £150,000 was donated to Save the Children. Hopefully they'll be able to surpass that this year.

Charities Using Social Media to its Full Potential?

The Charity Social 100 Index is a recently released 6 month study on whether UK Charities are utilising different forms of social media effectively. The areas in which they were assessed include their strength of income, strength of brand and social performance, covering responsiveness, whether they demonstrate social leadership and engagement in social media as part of their corporate communications style.

Despite the the staggering number of Facebook likes and Twitter followers within the top 100 UK charities, the study showed that charities may be neglecting social culture as an important part of further creating their brand awareness. The need to create cloud communities whereby one can interact with the brand on various media levels, in this case within social media, is becoming ever more important it allows contributors to feel connected a sense of belonging and will help in developing an in-depth interest.

The report stresses that Charities need to develop their communication and bring out their personality within social media in order to capitalise. See below the link to an info-graphic depicting the Charity Social 100 Index, giving an in depth analysis of how each Charity is currently interacting with each of the main social media platforms.

- http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2011/sep/19/the-charity-social-100-index-infographic?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487#zoomed-picture

Charity Shops Using the Internet to Obtain Higher Prices

Charity Shops such as Oxfam have now started to use the Internet in order to sell items such as clothing, antiques and books. They are using sites such as eBay in order to address a larger audience and ensure higher prices. The bidding nature of eBay ensures that charities are getting the highest price possible when compared to the knock down prices set in charity shops where prices will only be haggled down. The Charity Retail Association announced that not only will this continue to increase year on year, as it already has with a 123% increase since 2008, but that it's already accounting for 3-5% of total donations.

Charities are seemingly becoming more and more sophisticated about their retail operations, selling through internet outlets, their own websites and expanding store their numbers thanks to cheap rent from the current high vacancy rates. It is reported that there are now 8,500 charity shops across Britain, a 28% from June 2009.

Despite these impressive figures Charities are also reporting that they are struggling to compete with commercial retailers on the internet, citing a lack of computer equipment and skilled staff. Despite this report it is likely that Charities will start to orientate themselves more with e-commerce as they continue to see the financial benefits whereby in years to come we may see a large shift to internet charity shopping and a decline in charity shops, despite the current increase in shop numbers.

NSPCC's New Campaign Receives National Exposure

The NSPCC  have announced the launch of a new campaign. 'Rebuilding Childhoods', this launch has come in response to the considerable increase in referrals that the charity has received this year in comparison to the 2008/2009 time period. They have revealed some shocking statistics, one of them claiming around 60,000 children miss out on therapy every year, another, that in some cases the victims grow to become the abusers themselves.

Many are not receiving the treatment that they need with unfavourable consequences, as a result the NSPCC have pledged 'treble the number of therapeutic centres in Britain from 6 to 18 over the next three years'. They are also appealing for those close to children they may suspect to being abused to keep a vigil eye out as they continue to stress that most children being abused will know their attacker.

This campaign launch was featured on the front page of the Metro (ABC 1,373,472), the free national newspaper that the average commuter will read on their way into work. At the end of the article they provide a mobile phone number and code, which if sent will incur an automated £4 donation to the campaign. This exposure is fantastic whether pitched by the Metro or suggested by the NSPCC, every new campaign launched by large scale charities should attempt to feature in a free newspaper. It would be interesting to see what awareness this article created or what level of response they received because it certainly caught my attention this morning.

People Being Misled Over Door to Door Charity Bag Collections

The British Heart Foundation have conducted a research about the scrupulous dealings of sub contracted door to door and independent charity bag collectors. Most charities have a deal whereby for each tonne of clothing the commercial firms collect they in return pay the charities £50-£100. However less than 30% of the items collected end up on the high street charity, with most being taken by the commercial firms and sold abroad where each tonne can fetch a price more than 400 times that given to the charities originally. These returns are for profit and will not used as a charitable donation.

The British Health Foundation released a poll showing that in fact around 70% of charity bags are from commercial companies which use these donations primarily for profit. Furthermore, 65% of those using the service weren't aware that the money raised would not be going to a good cause.

As a result the British Heart Foundation has found that due to the dramatic increase in commercial companies donations to legitimate charities has decreased, with them estimating that over the past two years they have lost £4.6 worth of donations. 

The British Heart Foundation has now called for increased transparency for all companies and charities involved, with them further urging for those wishing to make a donation to simply take it to their nearest charity shop.

Rise in those Sleeping on the Streets

Crisis, a homelessness charity, has recently released a report showing a rise in those living without a home. In addition, the report shows that they believe with a continuing economic downturn and planned government welfare cuts the crisis could spread up into the middle classes, leaving many on the streets.

Over the Summer figures were released stating that '44,160 had been accepted homeless and placed in social housing' this was the largest increase in almost a decade. Government, Councils and Organisations turned to B&B's and small hotels to temporarily house the new overwhelming increase in the homeless as space in social housing has started to stretch as far as it will go. This is becoming more and more evident as the homeless are increasingly spilling out onto the streets, unable to find accommodation. Interestingly, those living on the streets are predominantly migrants form Eastern Europe and not British Citizens.

These figures are worrying as Crisis stresses that if welfare benefits are further reduced, combined with increasing rent, salary freezes and increasing unemployment, figures could continue rising for the next few years. The Government has introduced a few initiatives such as the £4.5 affordable homes programme, hoping to generate 170,000 affordable homes, although many argue they will fall well short of their target with some expecting a creation of only 50,000 affordable home.

It is hoped that interest rates will be kept low in order to ease the strain being put on those trying to get back on their feet. Hopefully an upswing in the economy is on its way as many see this as the only hope in keeping people off the streets.

Celebrities Dive into the Deep Blue Sea for Cancer Research

Samsung have teamed up with a Cancer Research fundraising event which hopes to raise £1,000,000 for the charity. Today, ten celebrities including Jenny Frost and  Ronan Keating started the 56 miles relay swim between Holyhead (Wales) and Dublin (Ireland), with Ronan taking the first plunge. They will complete the crossing in what is expected to take a total of '30-40 hours'. This crossing is 'three times the length of the English channel' where they will be up against more than the temperature of the water as the variety of sea life and choppy waters will make the task ahead of them even more challenging.

(Richard Branson was originally supposed to co-lead the team however due to the recent fire on his property he had to pull out)

Alongside the donations pledged through Cancer Research, Samsung have pledged an additional £3,500 for every mile the team swims. In addition, the swim will be documented on Samsung Galaxy S II smart phones and Galaxy 10.1 tablets. Not only is this a great way to help a wonderful charity which supports a disease that arguably affects everyone in one way or another, but it is also great exposure for the electronics giant. More and more companies are seeing the benefit of associating themselves with charities, especially celebrity driven campaigns which tend to be broadcast and documented on a wider scale allowing greater exposure. This in turn generates greater returns for Charities as these for-profit companies can help monetarily and help raise further awareness. All in all these are great partnership for both parties, which I believe we'll see more and more of.

We'll have to wait and see if Cancer Research successfully reach their goal, maybe Samsung's pledge will help push them over that threshold.

'An Apple a Day' for Great Ormond Street Hospital

Pink Lady have announced yet another fundraising effort for Great Ormond Street Hospital. They have provided an ongoing support for Great Ormond Street through their website and Facebook page with various previous campaigns encouraging donations to the the charity.

This time they are appealing to all those with a passion for food and photography to pick up their cameras and take a picture to be entered into up to four of nine categories available. There is one category however, where all proceeds will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital, aptly named 'An Apple a Day'. This category is asking for "the most exciting, creative, inventive, beautiful images of an apple", the applicant will be asked to donate £2 in order to submit a photo, all of which will be donated to Great Ormond Street, the picture will then be judged by a panel and the winner announced in April 2012.

 A partnership such as this can only be beneficial. This provides long term exposure for Great Ormond Street and the chance for Pink Lady to be associated with a widely recognised and supported charity. It'll be interesting to see what Pink Lady will do next and how it will benefit Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Big Brother Comes to the Aid of the British Red Cross

Big Brother has once again come to our screens and while we think back to previous years we may remember some of its more memorable sets and props that played a part in the show. Channel 4 is now giving us the chance to own one of these props as it sets out to auction off some of its most bizarre items with all proceeds being donated to the British Red Cross Disaster Fund.

When Channel 4 was broadcasting Big Brother, despite its many controversies, they had a large following with viewership often reaching into the millions, therefore this auction and sponsoship is set to be extremely beneficial for the British Red Cross and the Disaster fund, not only financially but in terms of awareness and exposure.

Bidding has already started with this particular item (Bob Righter) reaching 22 bids within its first day to reach its current bid of £200. All auctioneers have until 2nd September to bid on these items through their respective eBay pages in which time hundreds of bidders are expected to name their price.

Save the Children Teams up with Bob Marley

Save the Children have launched a new fundraising appeal by teaming up with an unlikely source, Bob Marley.  

The “I’m gonna be your friend” appeal is in aid of the famine currently taking place in East Africa. Save the Children have cleverly decided to use one of Bob Marley’s songs as the backdrop and theme of this campaign, clever, not only because his philosophy of hope, unity and love will help to encourage donations, but also because they're asking people to download his track ‘High Tide or Low Tide’ for £0.99 from ITunes, Amazon and various other music purchasing sites, where all sales go directly into the fundraising appeal. The downloaded track features a music video directed by Kevin McDonald which shows the conditions with which they are currently facing in East Africa. 

Alternatively the appeal homepage has the option of donating directly to the appeal, where they suggest donations of £10, $15, €15.

This appeal has already been spread through various forms of social media with Celebrities taking to Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness. Save the Children have used a large selection of social media and successfully associated their appeal with an icon that is synonymous with, as mentioned before, hope, unity and love. All these ingredients point towards the “I'm gonna be your friend” appeal  being set to for success, it'll be interesting to see if other charities start associating their future appeals with music.

Cheating Death & Raising Awareness for Gifts in Wills

August 2nd saw the live, social launch of the 'Remember a Charity' 2011 campaign, featuring stunt man Rocky Taylor. The campaign objective is to raise awareness and encourage more donations in the form of gifts in wills.

The charity aims to increase gifts in this fashion by 4% or £1bn and Taylor has signed up to a series of stunts in an attempt to raise the profile of the charity. Launching via a live Facebook stream on Tuesday evening Rocky performed the stunt which almost ended his life in 1985 on the set of 'Death Wish 3'.

An innovative social launch enabling viewers every possible opportunity to engage and interact during and after the filming. With an integrated social presence, Remember a Charity has a number of touch points online and it will be interesting to see how they adapt their social behaviour as the campaign develops.

Save the Children - Arsenal's First Global Charity Partner

Arsenal's pre-season match with New York Red Bulls kicked off the global partnership between the Premier League football team and multi-national charity. 

The partnership has no fixed term for the collaboration and there is no donation target in place. Both parties are looking at a long-term relationship and not just a charity of the year deal. The partnership will focus on educational initiatives with Arsenal already pledging support to "Families & Schools Together" (FAST) and Eat, Sleep, Learn, Play (ESLP) in the UK and currently deciding on which international initiatives to support.

This latest corporate tie-in for Save the Children bolsters their already impressive list which now includes; Lloyds Banking Group, Mothercare, Thorntons, Ikea and now Arsenal.

Charities Braced For Difficult Period Among Government Cuts

Recent Government decisions to cut back funding or withdraw it entirely in the voluntary sector is causing problems for more than 2,000 charities who are being forced to close services or lay-off staff. The report has been compiled by the union-backed anti-cuts campaign 'False Economy' and reveals that Children's and Young People charities will be the hardest hit with more than 380 organisations hit. 

The report estimates that £110 million will be removed from charities' bottom line this coming year alone. However, this analysis does not include information from major cities i.e. Manchester & Leeds etc, so this figure is likely to rise quite significantly once this has been taken into account. 

Disney Memories Mean £1m for Children's Charity

Disney has pledged to donate £1m to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity if one million individuals /families share their first Disney memory via the campaign specific Facebook page; http://www.facebook.com/disneyjunioruk

The campaign came to fruition after research revealed to Disney that 92% of UK parents and grandparents believed that memories of Disney characters stay with you for life. People have currently 'donated' 2,433 memories and with a list of A-list celebrities including Sir Michael Caine, Edith Bowman & Sophie Ellis-Bextor joining in this number is likely to rocket in the coming days and weeks. 

Currently the campaign is being promoted socially via Twitter & Facebook with support on the Disney Junior TV channel. 

This campaign is an excellent example of a strong corporate partnership between a company and a charity, with the public being asked to donate memories instead of money it is likely to be popular. The Disney effect will appeal to adults and children and the monetisation of Facebook interaction is particularly impressive. 

What Made Them Feel This Way?

This is the title of Macmillan's short film which will be released on Monday August 1st. The film shows 6 different people affected by cancer and their reactions to what they are reading on screen. The purpose of the video is to drive people directly to http://www.biggestthankyou.org.uk

The Biggest Thank You was launched at the beginning of 2011 to mark the charities centenary and it gives people the opportunity to thank the people who helped them through their cancer experience. The site produces a mosaic of everyone's profile and allows visitors to interact with and read through all the thank you messages posted by users. 

A very touching concept, it would be difficult to finfd someone that this campaign wouldn't resonate strongly with. The site not only allows users to thank someone but a donation function and social sharing tool is also available. It will be interesting to see if the site will explode with content after the video release on Monday. 

Shelter Scotland’s Foursquare special

A really interesting insight into how a charity is embracing location based social networking in an attempt to interact with a new audience via a medium they hadn't previously explored. 

Albert Kennedy Trust enlists celebrity support in hard-hitting new ad

The Albert Kennedy Trust, the homeless charity founded in 1989 to help homeless gay people, have enlisted a roster of celebrities in a hard-hitting new advertisement. Entitled "What Might Have Been", the ad focuses on what the lives of these celebrities could have been like if they had come out and had no support.

This is a great example of a lesser-known charity creating fame by enlisting celebrity support - the ad has already  gained PR through the media wanting to interview one of its stars, Sir Ian McKellen.

Watch the ad and behind-the-scenes footage here

Donations to Charity Fall by £70m

Donations to charities are down £70m on last year with the recession and a squeeze on household incomes blamed. 

Researchers from the Cass Business School say that charities specialising in foreign aid were among the hardest hit.

The British Heart Foundation has replaced Oxfam as the UK's second largest fund-raising charity. Cancer Research UK remains top; it raised £379m from donors

Source; Independent 070711

Charity Restaurant Coming 2012

Jay-Z & Ashley Cole are teaming up to launch the rappers restaurant franchise in London next year. The venture will give first option on jobs to talented, long term unemployed young people and each month a percentage of profits will go to local youth charities for music and sport projects in deprived communities. 


Another interesting way that charities can benefit out with the realms of general donation driving. With the launch next year set to play host to some of the world's biggest celebrities the restaurant will certainly land in London with a bang and the concept could be something other restaurant ventures try to get involved with. 

Keep A Breast with MacBeth

American clothing brand 'MacBeth' partners with 'The Keep a Breast Foundation' to help them raise money and awareness for breast cancer among young people in a slightly more artistic way!

A nice twist on the wrist bands of the early 2000's.

A Million Smiles for £100,000

'Keep Britain Smiling' is Colgate's newly launched social and outdoor campaign for Barnardo's Children's Charity.

Colgate are collecting 'smiles' via a Facebook page for the campaign (http://www.facebook.com/ColgateKeepingBritainSmiling) with different levels of interaction earning different numbers of smiles.

Uploading your smile to the wall = 10 smiles.
Posting a comment on the wall about what makes you smile = 2 smiles
Liking the page = 1 smile

With just under 700,000 smiles in the bank at the moment Colgate aren't far from their target which will see them pay Barnardo's £100,000.

A great example that giving doesn't always have to be monetary and people can help a charity through as little as a 'Like'

Coppafeel recreate Hello Boys

Coppafeel, the breast cancer charity, have recreated the Wonderbra "Hello Boys" campaign made famous by Eva Herzigova in 1994 in a bid to encourage women to check their breasts for lumps. As eye-catching as the original, this new iteration is a fantastic example of a charity using a disrupt strategy to cut through in a cluttered market.

Social Media Revolution 2011

Action for Children - Official Charity of the Scottish Open

The world's leading players will tee off on the outskirts of Inverness next month for the Scottish Open and today, Action for Children have been appointed as the official charity for the prestigious event. 

An interesting initiative from Barclay Capital will see the charity benefit from donations worth £10 for every birdie, £50 for every eagle, and £100 for every albatross scored across each day of the 4-day tournament. 

With an average of 1,500 birdies and 35 eagles per tournament to date on the European Tour this year, the initiative could see Action for Children receive up to £20,000 worth of donations from Barclay Capital alone. The initiative has also been extended to allow other organisations and individuals to complete a pledge form donating as little or as much as they like per birdie. 

This initiative coupled with the various hospitality fundraising activities AFC have planned over the weekend, not to mention the 50,000 fans attending the event dropping change into boxes, could make for a very successful 4 day weekend for the charity.

The Fight Against Cyber Bullying

The fight against cyber bullying has a new weapon on its way. A mobile phone application called "Block'em" aimed at 11-15 year olds. The app is designed to block unwanted calls and texts from any number and the app developers see this as a step towards protecting children on their phones. 

Whilst this is not the first app to offer this service it is certainly the most high profile launch with the NSPCC backing the app and benefiting from 70% of profits from sale. Priced at £1.79 it is an expensive purchase for children to make but with phone bills most likely handled by parents, it's a small price to pay to keep your child safe in the cyber space. 

This is a great link up by the charity attaching themselves to a relevant app which provides real value to it's users, something some organisations struggle to do in the app market (Depaul UK). Not only will it generate PR for them but they will gain revenue in an entirely different way to their normal donation driving tactics. 

Like the Red Cross Air miles initiative this is another great example of a charity raising funds in an innovative and less intrusive way. 

Tweetathon

Today Wateraid are hosting a non-stop 24hour Tweetathon which started in Australia and will travel throughout the day to finish in America.

Their aim is to give a new level of transparency to the public by reporting on everything that the charity does on a daily basis from back office services to water point mapping and even their role in the upcoming Glastonbury festival. 

They're the first International charity to take on an initiative like this and with the various concerns surrounding 'what charities do with your money' this could go some way to giving people the insight they desire.

Check out the activity on #wateraid24 or check back in a week when we'll take a look at the fallout when everything will have quietened down a little. 

£100 million in 3 and a half years

After forming in October 2007 the 'Help for Heroes' charity was tipped to break the £100 million bound barrier from public donations this week after their latest fund raising bike ride from Portsmouth to Paris started on Sunday.

After strong backing from The Sun newspaper and a huge array of fundraising activities the cause has resonated with the British public and breached this incredible barrier. Even more incredible is the fact that they've raised this sum throughout a recession and with so much fundraising still going on they don't show any signs of slowing down.

Red Cross Miles: Social Donation Concept

This is an initiative run by the Red Cross in the US with a number of high profile airlines participating in the campaign.

It's a really innovative idea and a new slant on charity donations, particularly in harder times. It provides consumers with a way of contributing to a good cause without a monetary output.

The donator would follow a very simple, socially focused journey;

They click the "Donate your miles" button on the flight booking page. This takes them to the Red Cross microsite where the miles are donated and users can link up with their Facebook and Twitter accounts. The idea here is that they can share their donation with their friends and hopefully encourage them to do the same.

A simple concept and an interesting spin on encouraging donations.

Green day for kids in NSPCC fundraiser

Seventeen schools in Swindon participated in NSPCC's 'Green Day' last week with the charity raising an estimated £10,000 from the initiative.

Pupils from participating schools paid £1 each to wear a green 'non-uniform' for the day which raises money for NSPCC's local services in Swindon.

It's a vast improvement upon last year where the charity raised £3,500 from 6 participating schools and a very encouraging sign for 'Green Gear' in 2012 to mark the 25th anniversary of Childline.

This is an interesting and unique way for a charity to not only raise money but engage with their market and encourage people to get involved with the brand. Maybe GOSH could run something similar around local schools in London....

V.I.P Fundraiser Sees Star's Memorabilia hit eBay

Paul Weller, Ronnie Wood, Coldplay, Mark Ronson, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode & Toploader are among a number of artists auctioning off their guitar plectrums for charity.

The V.I.P (Very Important Plectrum) fundraiser is for the Trekstock cancer charity and LifEbeat Hiv organisation. 

Each lot includes a signed card to verify the plectrum's authenticity and each plectrum is mounted in a special frame (like the above). The eBay.co.uk auction kicked off on Sunday (29May11) and will run until 19 June (11).

This initiative is very similar to the response by punk-rock outfit Blink 182 who auctioned off memorabilia in the wake of the Japanese disaster earlier in the year. Certain lots from bassist Mark Hoppus sold for upwards of $17,000 so it will be interesting to see how much the VIP can raise. 

Watch this space and we'll report back after the auction closes...

Princess Beatrice's hat sells on Ebay for £81,000

The Philip Treacy hat worn by Princess Beatrice at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton has sold on ebay for £81,000. The money was donated to Unicef and Children in Crisis.

Undoubtedly a princely sum for a hat that has been almost universally panned by the fashion critics, the sale will have boosted Unicef's funds as well as their public profile.

Innocent Smoothies hold onto money pledged to charitable foundation

It has been revealed this week that Innocent, the UK's largest manufacturer of smoothies, has been holding onto cash pledged to its charitable foundation. Totaling just over £500,000, Innocent raise the money by pledging 10% of takings to the foundation which helps build community projects in the countries where Innocent source their fruit. However, in analysis of documents filed at Companies House and the Charity Commission, it has been revealed that no money has been donated since 2008. A spokesperson for the company remarked that the company's commitment to charity was "true and decent". She said the foundation benefited by allowing Innocent to look after its money, explaining that Innocent's bank account accrued more interest than that of the charity.

She expressed regret that an "oversight" had led to no interest being paid to the foundation in 2008, and said the charity would be invoicing Innocent for the £5,000, which would have been accrued were interest charged at 2%.

Innocent have also pledged a one-off donation of £250,000 to the foundation for 2011.

Read the full story here

Source: The Guardian