Are You Ready For Christmas?

Christmas is a great opportunity to engage people and raise funds, but you need to plan it in advance. Many christmas markets are already being cancelled, but less big, commercial events offer charities a real opportunity to engage people, fundraise and have some fun, which we all need right now. Here's how to do it well, with lots of ideas to try out. 

 We don't know what impact COVID will have at Christmas, but we need to keep people safe, so here's the Fundraising Regulator's guidance. 

This is a resource from the Charity Excellence Framework, which enables you to health check your charity in half a day. The CEF itself, its huge resource base, including the 6 charity COVID19 toolkits, and the funder database, provide a powerful set of completely free tools that will enable you to increase impact, improve funding and save money. Why not make joining a very early New Year's resolution and arrive in 2020 ready for what next year will bring us? It takes only 2 minutes here.

It's not all about tinsel and commerce....

It's also a great opportunity to thank people and engage your community.

Too many charities talk about it, but don't actually take the time to thank staff and volunteers. Even if you're one of the great ones that do, an extra thank you for the brilliant work they do isn't wasted.

Is it time to arrange your Christmas party? And how about a handwritten Christmas card from the CEO, directors or trustees? And if you're one of those great charities that gives staff a little something extra, if you avoid cash or cash vouchers, you can also avoid paying tax - more here. And don't forget to give them a shout out on your social media.

It's also time to update your Christmas card list for stakeholders and, not least, funders. Remember to put more into those you most need to engage. Ideas I've used in the past have included circulating an entire pack of cards at the start of a trustee meeting and inviting everyone to sign them. You can do the same with staff and beneficiaries.

Ordering cards branded for your charity can work well and you can sell these too, and if it works for you, handmade cards by staff/beneficiaries can be very powerful.

And don't forget your social media - here are some of the best charity Christmas campaigns and tips to inspire you.

Speaking of making money, I'm Scottish....

And it's obviously also a great opportunity to ask for money.

If a (virtual) Santa Run works for you great, but there are lots of great ways to raise funds and have fun. Here are some ideas, use any that appeal to you and tailor them to suit your charity.

• If you're on this really early, you could kick off your awesome Christmas planning with an Alternative Black Friday.
• A good way to raise some money and get your name out there is to have your own charity Christmas card.
• And - why not get your trustees, CEO, staff, beneficiaries to sign a whole box of them and send a personalised card covered in signatures to your key donors?
• And - in a season of excess, why not do something for the planet, by sending e cards instead of cardboard ones? They can feel a bit naff, but Making A Difference are offering some nice ideas to personalise these and they also offer bespoke, personalised traditional cards, as well.
• And say a big thank you to your brilliant volunteers by nominating them for a fantastic free stay in a nice hotel with Room To Reward. It's completely free.
• Apply to be part of a Christmas newspaper appeal - here's a list of them from 2019.
• Join the Big Give Christmas Challenge to access matched funding; it's 1 to 8 Dec this year.
• Create a calendar or advent calendar. Thankfully, taking your clothes off is no longer mandatory.
• Or how about a reverse advent calendar - invite your supporters to donate an item a day for set number of days.
• Or even a digital advent calendar. Want more festive digital ideas? Here are 20 from Charity Digital News.
• Get your festive season social media calendar sorted in advance and upload it into a social media management system, such as Hootsuite, to make life easy.
• Set up Amazon Smile and invite supporters to buy your charity a Christmas present.
• Everybody loves Secret Santa, so why not encourage supporters to add a 'Secret Santa Extra' option. Those who do, donate to buy an item for your beneficiaries from your charity shopping basket.
• And, if you run a charity shop, take advantge of your low prices by having a Secret Santa display in your window and advertising it on the local area social media, such as you town's Face Book page.
• Hold a Christmas Fare or Bazaar, or breakfast with Santa and his helpers, or a Christmas cookie bake off.
• Or a Christmas quiz or games evening, or an auction, or go large and have a Christmas Ball.
• How about a Christmas concert, or carol service and, if you don't have the facilities, who doesn't like Carol singers.
• Arrange a Christmas challenge fundraiser, such as a 'polar plunge' in the sea or a local pool. With suitable safety arrangements, obviously.
• Offer a 'local Santa' service - parents deliver presents for their child to you, plus a donation, and on Christmas morning Santa delivers it to their house.
• Invite supporters to set-up a Christmas shopping packing or gift wrapping service in a shop or shopping centre.
• Go one step further, by creating a pop-up shop that allows people to 'buy' products or services for your beneficiaries.
• If you have food services, with pubs etc very restricted, how about offering an 'Office Party in a Box', suitably branded and with good messages about you, obviously.
• Or hold a toy/food appeal, or the opportunity to ‘buy’ Christmas hampers to be made up for delivery to your beneficiaries.
• Or schmooze a local shop into providing them for you. Great if you have contacts, but I’ve had a lot of success by just starting at one end of a High Street and going into every shop, asking for the manager and making an ask. You get a lot of ‘Nos’, but….
• Offer the opportunity to offset your Christmas, perhaps by setting an extra place at the dinner table, or twinning a tree, and making a donation.
• Or, if you have access to suitable greenery, such as ivy, run a festive wreath workshop, or just make it into wreaths to sell.
• If you haven't, do you have the transport etc to run a Christmas tree disposal service after Christmas is over?
• Failing that, offer an unwanted presents service, to sell in your shop, or to be used by your charity. Or invite them to sell them on E Bay and donate to you via E Bay for charity.
• Tackle post-Christmas lethargy by holding an event to get people, out, active and having fun.
• Invite people to make an early New Year resolution, to do good by joining you as a supporter or volunteer.
• If you've any energy left, arrange a New Year's Eve event.
• And don't waste all that good publicity from your ideas above - make a video and get it out on social media. Here's how to make a Christmas video on a shoestring budget.

Fired up to run an event? Here are some top tips to help you.

That should help make everyone happy.

Except me, being Scottish, I'm pretty miserable....

Let it snow...... or rain, blow, whatever - some forecasters are predicting this'll be the worst winter in years; great. You don't want the heating to fail, just as it arrives, so you've had your boilers serviced and repaired the 'couple of loose slates' that might just turn into a huge problem, right? And, when did you last review your insurance?

And in case it does go horribly wrong, is your staff contact list up-to-date? Or better still do you have a cascade list, where one person phones several people, who them phone others in turn; much quicker and easier?

But how will you manage to keep things running? It's surprising how many charities don't make more use of home working. It's better for staff and helps to make you far more resilient, when the weather and commuting all go bad on you.

If you haven't, at least you've got an up-to-date, workable contingency plan? Even if you manage to come through a Game of Thrones type winter unscathed, the pipes might burst come Spring........ Maybe you should have checked the lagging last October, when you still had time to do something about it.

And, finally, if you're closing or reducing services over Christmas, get the message out early and clearly to everyone.