Christmas fundraiser with charity designed cards becomes increasingly popular

A Christmas fundraiser that started eight years ago continues to grow in popularity as a choice for sending festive greetings.

DontSendMeACard.com launched a pilot of its system in November 2015 with a handful of charities on board, to test their idea of a platform for donations in lieu of Christmas cards¹.

Since then over 1900 organisations have joined and have uploaded a huge library of e-card designs to choose from. These designs are then offered to supporters by charities as an alternative to sending printed cards. Both static and animated cards are supported.

The charities participating in the fundraiser range from small to large, with well-known names such as The Salvation Army, Dogs Trust, and Stroke Association investing the time to generate designs that can be sent electronically, saving paper as a result.

DontSendMeACard Co-founder Alex Furness said, “The range of designs on offer now is superb. When we started off our content was minimal, as we only had a few dozen charities on board who agreed to the pilot. However we saw the potential for our model with people still using our initial offering.

For our platform and brand to have grown in popularity the way it has really is in part down to how brilliantly creative the designs that charities have come up with. You wouldn’t typically think of charitable organisations as inherently creative, but they really do have it in them. You can clearly see this by looking at the designs on offer²."

In addition to designing e-cards, charities are engaging with artists, illustrators, and running Christmas e-card design competitions to add to their e-card collections.

Patrons that have offered artwork to fundraise with include Sir Quentin Blake, Harry Hill, and Nick Park creator of Wallace and Gromit.
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You can browse the designs on offer on DontSendMeACard by occasion e.g. Christmas, and by searching through the listed charities and viewing their designs on offer from their landing pages.

With first-class UK stamps increasing by 15p in October to £1.25, the third increase in 18 months³, more consumers and businesses who typically send physical Christmas cards may well be looking at alternatives such as DontSendMeACard for Christmas 2023.

Sources:
1. Timeline of project progression of DontSendMeACard – https://www.dontsendmeacard.com/about/timeline.html
2. Charity Christmas e-card designs on DontSendMeACard – https://www.dontsendmeacard.com/ecards/christmas.html
3. The Guardian: First-class UK stamp to rise by 15p in October to £1.25 – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/05/first-class-uk-stamp-to-rise-by-15p-in-october

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Contact: Alex Furness
Tel: 01392-684450
press [ at ] dontsendmeacard.com

Images

Example Christmas e-card designs by charities

Example ranges of Christmas e-card designs by charities

Editors Notes

DontSendMeACard in summary provides:
- The function to send ecards and donate the cost of greeting cards and stamps. View How it Works
- Upon donating up to 100 ecards can be sent to recipients
- An account dashboard for charities to manage campaigns

Using the system:
- Individuals send ecards by selecting a charity and an occasion to send cards for and donating via PayPal
- Charities can register to become a Listed Charity and access a range of fundraising resources
- Companies can support a charity with corporate ecards

Background:
- The social enterprise was started in 2013. Founded by Alex Furness of Future Imaging and Craig Lawson of Web Engineer, both based in Exeter.

- How it works in 30 seconds Demo Video
- Read our Mission and Vision
- How charities can benefit from the initiative on Slideshare
- Testimonials

"Incomparably wonderful." – Simon Bates, BBC Radio Devon

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