Cambridge Road Methodist Church in Birmingham have been using gift cards to fund raise with great success. The following report is by their co-ordiantor Debbie (July 2007).
We have been using Gift Cards to raise money for MRCH. This year we raised a total of £400. In previous years we have raised as much as £700! This year, some of the gifts were gift-aided which will add about £90.00 to the overall total. This has involved a bit more administrative work for me to do, but well worth it for the additional money. We have provided a choice of gift cards in £5, £10 and £20 denominations stating on each card roughly what the money would buy (e.g. £5 for school shoes and shoe-laces; £10 towards a month’s medication for a child with HIV; £20 towards equipment for refurbishing the crèche). It’s been well worth the effort. In comparison with other fundraising efforts, it’s not very labour intensive. To offer gift cards just print off templates from the MRCH Resources section and then take orders and keep track of the gift aid. If anyone would like to do this at their Church or work-place next year, I would be happy to help or forward on the templates we have developed. You can contact me via the Chairman. One bit of advice would be to start early! E.g. end of November for Christmas – I was a bit late this year and it made it a bit frantic! The Gift Cards can also be used for one-off gifts for special occasions – for example, my Gran recently celebrated her 100th Birthday and was given over £200 which she decided to donate to MRCH. It was nice to be able to create a presentable Gift Card to give to her.