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FIVE TIPS for reaching your Small Business Stars

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1. Build from your loyal supporter base:

Reach out to your individual givers and volunteers to explore their potential small business networks. Someone who previously cycled through Patagonia for your charity, may also own a florist - you never know!

2. Re-engage small businesses who’ve previously offered to support you or provided gift in kind support:

Use the campaign as an opportunity to get in touch with businesses you haven't been able to accept support from in the past due to resource or capacity and offer them a way to support you this Christmas and beyond.

Hopefully their good intentions are still there and now you're equipped, you can support them in turning their wonderful intention into an action to raise funds for you through their sales, creating the agreement via your Work for Good page.

3. Where there’s a sale, there’s a potential donation; so make some suggestions that will get their creative juices flowing such as:

  • 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. Say thank you and share stories about small businesses that already support you:

Let your small business supporters know how much you value their contributions and demonstrate how their help has made a difference to your cause.

For example Sussex Wildlife Trust recently featured a local business supporter in this blog post, and used this to encourage more small businesses to do the same.

5. Double your donations:

Did you know 84%* of people are more likely to give to a charity appeal if match funded? That's good news for you as this year we have a match funding pot of £50,000 to help you raise even more for your charity. Let your supporters know that their impact will be doubled and share how they can benefit from the match fund.

Small businesses who pay their donation, via Work for Good, from 9am on Monday 6th December, will have their donation doubled** up to £250 per business, until the match funding pot runs out.

* A Great Match | A report into match funding

**T&C’s apply

You can also signpost your supporters to the FREE Small Business Star business toolkit created to help small businesses maximise their Christmas fundraising.

Return to the toolkit for more ways to inspire your Small Business Stars.