Online retailers are being invited to sign up to a new fundraising initiative launched by a consortium of leading UK charities.
Give Change Make Change will raise money for four high-profile charities, Cancer Research UK, Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Children’s Charity, WWF and the British Red Cross, by giving online shoppers the opportunity to round up their online bills and give their change to charity. It was unveiled to online retailers at last week’s Internet Retailing 2010 conference and will go live early next year.
Sophie High, senior project leader at Cancer Research UK, explains how it works: “By just checking a box to round up their bill to the nearest pound at the online checkout, consumers can donate their extra pennies to the four charities. The idea behind the scheme is simple and we hope that we can revolutionise the way we raise money online so that it becomes second nature for consumers to donate as they shop.”
The first retailer to take part in the scheme is The Hut Group, which includes Thehut.com and Zavvi.co.uk, and it is hoped that many more will sign up by the time the scheme launches to consumers in 2011.
The Give Change Make Change website , being launched this month, will give retailers the opportunity to find out more about what the scheme has to offer. Cancer Research UK’s Sophie High says that the initiative brings retailers a cost-free way to meet their CSR objectives while raising their brand profile at the same time. Research carried out ahead of the project launch showed that many consumers would be more likely to shop with retailers who offer Give Change Make Change. Next year’s launch of the scheme will also be supported by consumer marketing, PR and five million marketing messages to be sent to charity supporters in the first year of the scheme.
High said: “I think one of our strongest USPs is the fact that Give Change Make Change is an online fundraising initiative run by charities for charities, so there is total transparency about where consumers’ money is going. Retailers who collaborate with us by applying Give Change Make Change to their online shopping can help us realise our vision of turning people’s small change into big social, health and environmental change.”
For more information about Give Change Make Change visit www.givechangemakechange.com or contact Sophie High on 020 3469 8825.