newsXpress started promoting support for the Red Cross bushfire relief appeal last Monday. In addition to promoting direct donations, we have been collecting change from customers. Many customers donate more. The support is overwhelming, people cheerfully giving without being asked. We are banking this money direct into the Red Cross account and will display the receipts for our customers as we go.
If we see ourselves newsagencies community focused then supporting the bushfire appeal is important, not something to think too long about. VANA took days to engage and provide advice to its members of their fundraising plans.
The collection containers are chained to the counter because of stories of some being taken.
We’ve also had an overwhelming response here in Qld, having put out a donation jar alongside the Cancer Council one. However, we also realised that the floods were still not resolved for many people in nth Qld, so we started doing half/half after a few weeks.
A way for us to keep contributing for ourselves as well as an initial more substantial donation, was to use our own money (a bag of 50c coins) each time we banked, to weigh down the empty cup.
Because we’re so little, and not under any particular umbrella or association, we could just go ahead and do this as soon as we could.