Five of our favourite Christmas charity campaigns
Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for charities. It offers the opportunity to fundraise in a variety of ways or to simply do something nice for supporters. Here are five charity Christmas campaigns that we really love:
Heart Research UK – Sing For Your Heart
Sing For Your Heart is a campaign led by Jaxon Green-Moore, a 6 year-old boy with a rare, incurable heart condition and has gone viral after receiving celebrity backing. How it works is people and celebrities upload a short video of themselves singing on social media, make a donation and then nominate up to three others.
So far Sing For Your Heart has reached over 12 million people via social media and some of the celebrities who have got involved include Boyzone, Beverly Knight, Strictly Come Dancing stars Brian Conley and Davood Ghadami, Britain’s Got Talent’s Alesha Dixon, Loose Women’s Linda Robson and Stacey Solomon.
We love this campaign because anyone can get involved – even if you’re not a great singer!
Action for Happiness – Advent Calendar
Action for Happiness is part of the charity, The Young Foundation, and its aim is to create a movement of people committed to creating a happier society by making positive changes in their personal lives, homes, workplaces and communities. So their Advent Calendar is a perfect example of their mission. Every day, on Twitter, they share what’s behind the window but you can also print off the whole calendar and stick it on your wall or fridge. We love anything that tries to make the world a kinder place!
Save the Children – Christmas Jumper Day
Save the Children first launched Christmas Jumper Day back in 2012. Five years later and it’s a popular mass participation fundraising event. The beauty of this campaign is how simple it is – wear a Christmas jumper and donate some money to Save the Children. It’s fun too as some people take it very seriously – even crafting their own Christmas jumpers with baubles and fairy lights. And the tag line is perfect – Make the world better with a sweater.
Dogs Trust – A Dog Is For Life Not Just For Christmas
Did you know that this famous slogan was coined 38 years ago by Dogs Trust? It is certainly one of the most iconic and long-lasting charity campaigns in the UK. Christmas is a time when many families buy puppies or dogs for Christmas but then sadly abandon them for various reasons – leaving animal welfare charities, such as Dogs Trust, to pick up the pieces.
This year, Dogs Trust has launched #WhyILeftYou, to reveal real reasons why owners ‘break up’ with their dogs. Although humorous (it needs to be shareable after all), it carries a very serious message – a dog is for life not just for Christmas!
Small Charities Coalition – Christmas Advert
To celebrate #LocalCharitiesDay on 15 December, Small Charities Coalition has released their first ever Christmas advert to remind people of the thousands of small, local charities doing amazing work and who rarely feature on people’s Christmas donation list. They don’t have the budget to create TV ads or slick social media campaigns like many big, household charities do. So Small Charities Coalition has created one on their behalf.
What are your favourite Christmas charity campaigns? Tweet us @Lightful.
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