‘A Christmas Like No Other’ – taglines like this turn up all the time during the festive period, but in 2020 this is no longer a tagline, but instead describes the reality of a society caught up in a pandemic.
Everything is different about Christmas this year, there’s no turning on festive lights in cities, no packed gift shops, no visiting Santa, no office parties.
Businesses and retailers across the country are facing into uncharted territory as the country trudges through the harsh reality of a second lockdown, Covid-19 – a phrase totally unknown to us this time last year, is now dominating our lives.
For the Simon Community, funding is needed now more than ever, but fundraising initiatives had to be completely re-imagined to cope with the new reality, the need is still there, but the normal Christmas fundraising campaigns are not.
Challenging time for fundraising ...
Although Covid supports and moratoria on evictions are slowing down the numbers of people entering homelessness, the situation is still very bleak for Ireland’s homeless and at risk population. Last year Simon Communities across Ireland supported nearly 17,000 people, 5,000 of them were children. More than 6,000 people availed of the services of Simon food bank services.
All across Ireland local Simon Communities tirelessly deliver this support with a range of low-threshold services, including: street outreach and emergency accommodation, harm reduction, homeless specific health and wellbeing services, homelessness prevention, tenancy sustainment and resettlement services, food banks, drop-in centres and soup runs, personal development, education, training and employment services.
... and a challenging time for the business community
The first thing to do was to recognise just how challenging this time was for businesses who have regularly supported the Simon Community. The annual Simon House of Cards Appeal has been running for more than two decades but this year’s campaign has to change to reflect the reality of a world in a pandemic.
A very established corporate fundraising campaign needed to be adapted and instead of a thank you message projected on to the high-profile Powerscourt Towncentre over the course of a weekend in a fanfare festive event, the thank you messages will appear online on The Irish Times alongside a series of full-page advertisements in the newspaper’s print edition.
Jennifer Kitson is National Partnerships manager at the Simon Community: “Like everyone else we are facing an enormous challenge in continuing to operate during a pandemic, while so many people are working from home, we are trying to protect residents and clients who don’t have the security of a home of their own.
“Keeping our doors open during this pandemic has be one of the biggest challenges we’ve ever faced, so we are acutely aware that in fundraising we are asking a lot of a business community that is facing its biggest ever challenge too. We have been bowled over by the generosity and willingness of the business community to help us and we hope that their help this Christmas will help us to support those who are homeless and at risk of homelessness.”
Simon House of Cards
The House of Cards campaign has packages to suit all budgets. All donors will receive access to bespoke branded e-cards and web banners to use during the festive period, selected from a range of available designs. Companies may wish to share these with staff working remotely, as well as their clients and customers to let them know they’ve helped the Simon Community this Christmas. All donations over €100 receive our E-card package with a bespoke e-card and web banner.
Additionally, there is a range of extras at specific levels at which supporters can get involved. The Platinum package is at a donation point of between €9,500 - €14,000 (depending on the number of additions in The Irish Times print ads a company opts in for). Platinum donors receive a large logo in the print advertisement, and additionally a feature logo appearance on The Irish Times online takeover, along with our sincere thanks from all at Simon Community. Platinum donors also receive an acknowledgement on the Simon Community social channels and a choice of branded e-cards and web banners for your organisation.
The Gold package is for donation points from €6,000 to €9,000; it includes a medium sized logo in print and online advertising options and an acknowledgement on social media. The Silver package is for donations from €3000 to €5,500 and includes a medium company listing on print and online ads and a name acknowledgement on social media. The Bronze package varies from €1,250 to €2,500 and incudes a small company listing in The Irish Times print ad and a sponsor acknowledgement on Simon social media channels.
It is our hope that with the support of the business community that we can make this campaign as successful as is possible in these extraordinary times.
[ hoc@dubsimon.ie ]