Raising money the easy way
I love using easyfundraising. I can do all my online shopping and raise money for RAFT at the same time - all without it costing me anything extra.
It is such a great idea that I asked Becky from easyfundraising to explain how it works
Who or what is easyfundraising? Everything you ever wanted to know…
You may already know that RAFT raises money via easyfundraising.org.uk but you might have wondered what’s it’s all about. Raising money just by shopping as normal? How does it work?
It’s only natural that when you put your trust in someone, you want to know as much about them as possible so here’s a run-down of everything you ever wanted to know about easyfundraising:
1. easyfundraising are Ian, Tracey W, Gary, David, Phil, Chris, Mark, Becky, Nicola, Stuart, Paula, Jannine, Dennis, Izzi, Fay and Pam.
2. easyfundraising was started in 2003 by Ian who came up with the idea while recovering from a serious illness. He says, “While I was ill, I was helped by a number of charities and was struck by how many of them were struggling to make ends meet. I realised that fundraising can be incredibly difficult for charities and not for profit groups so I created easyfundraising to help causes help themselves. It’s been a labour of love but well worth it when I see the difference easyfundraising makes.”
3. Here’s how it works: when you use the easyfundraising site to visit online retailers, then make a purchase, the retailer will pass a percentage of what you spend to RAFT at no additional cost to you.
4. It’s totally free to use and your shopping won’t cost you a penny more but you will raise funds for RAFT.
5. We work with over 2000 well known retailers including Boden, M&S, Argos, Vodafone and many more. Each one will pass a donation to RAFT when you shop with them via easyfundraising.
6. We’ve raised over £3 million for good causes across the UK so far, including £1m last year alone.
7. You can even use easyfundraising to raise money without spending anything – many retailers will pay donations just for trialling their service and others will pay donations if you switch an existing service to them, such as credit cards or phone & broadband services.
8. We’re a real family company, with Ian’s wife, mother in law and sister in law all involved.
9. We are passionate about fundraising. Tracey, Becky, Nicola and Pam ran the Race for Life for Cancer Research and raised over £500. Ian, Becky and Tracey all volunteer at a homeless shelter at Christmas and Gary is running a half marathon for charity in 2012. Plus, we each support a cause of our own, from our children’s schools to cricket clubs.
10. We’ve just created a reminder tool call Find & Remind which reminds you to login to easyfundraising every time you shop online, to make sure RAFT doesn’t miss out on any valuable donations
11. You can also raise funds for RAFT just by searching the web with our search engine, easysearch. By switching from Google to easysearch, you raise half a penny with every search you make. An average easysearcher raises around £25 for their cause each year! http://raft.easysearch.org.uk/
12. We’ve helped RAFT raise £164 to date – and looking forward to helping raise lots more in 2012!
To raise funds for RAFT, go to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/raft
Becky Coleman, Partnerships Manager,www.easyfundraising.org.uk
