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FIVE tips to engage your small business supporters.

Gift for Good (4)

Here are our top tips to help you inspire businesses to gift for good this Christmas:

  1. Include sales fundraising in your Christmas comms

You’ll be pleased to hear that there’s no need for you to create a separate campaign to engage businesses to give this Christmas.

That’s because their motivations for giving are very similar to that of an individual donor - emotional connection, shared values and a desire to give back...

So you can simply use your existing Christmas campaign or appeal, with the inclusion of some business friendly language, to engage them with a festive fundraising ask.

2. Engage businesses with simple but effective messaging

Use your newsletter, emails and direct mailings to let businesses know that they can support you through sales fundraising and tell them about the wonderful opportunities it presents. Keep the messaging simple and effective by using our ready-made templates.

Add sales fundraising as an option on your ‘Ways To Fundraise’ page. Illustrate to supporters that sales fundraising is an easy and sustainable way for their business to donate, no matter the size. Here is an example of how PDSA and Cool Earth have done this and you can use our templates to help you.

3. Inspire your audience with supportership suggestions

Connect with your supporters and offer them suggestions of how they could fundraise for you - the more aligned with their business offering the better; to help build a sense of understanding and shared purpose.

Here’s some suggestions to get you started:

  • A restaurant/pub: For every Christmas lunch/ dinner booking, donate 2%.
  • A florist: Donate a % of the sale of each Christmas wreath.
  • A beautician: During November and December, fundraise by donating £2 from every manicure.
  • A deli: Donate £3 from every Christmas hamper sold.
  • A website designer: Donate 10% of November invoices to charity.
  • A dog walker: Give 2% of December dog walks.
  • Charity Christmas cards: You may have your own official charity Christmas cards, but Etsy sellers will be creating Christmas cards and may well want to raise money for your cause.

4. Use key shopping days to build momentum

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest shopping days in the UK and where there's a sale there's a potential donation. Why not turn these days on their head and encourage businesses (and their customers) to use these events in a more ethical way by gifting for good!

After Black Friday weekend comes Giving Tuesday. It's great for businesses to tell their customers that they are fundraising for charity and this can be even more impactful when they join in with the global day of giving. Share these four tips with your supporters to help give their campaigns a boost.

5. Encourage businesses to use Small Business Saturday to make an impact

This year, Small Business Saturday, 3rd December, is celebrating 10 years and thousands of different types of UK businesses are getting involved - online, in offices and in stores. Many small businesses take part in the day and will use it to celebrate their sales fundraising. Help your small business supporters make the most of the big day by sharing their fundraising on social media or in your comms. Make sure you tag in @smallbizsatuk and use the hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday #SmallBizSatUK. Learn more about the big day and why charities should get involved here.

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There are so many reasons why businesses should fundraise through their sales this Christmas. Check out this blog post and share with your supporters to educate businesses about the benefits of sales fundraising.