Chingford Bells & Highams Sparkle Christmas Present Fundraiser FAQs

ALL AUDIENCES

1. What is the Christmas Present Fundraiser?

We’re raising £5,000 to ensure vulnerable children across Chingford and Highams Park have a present on Christmas morning.

We aim to provide each child privately referred to us by food bank organisations, social workers and schools a voucher to spend in participating shops in Highams Park and Chingford, also supporting our businesses and local economy.

2. Who is funding the campaign? How much has been raised?

A crowdfunder Just Giving page was launched on the 12 November, appealing to the local community to donate to the fundraiser. Thanks to their generosity, as of writing, we have raised £5675. This includes a very generous £500.00 donation from Chingford and Woodford Green Labour Party.

Additionally, a funding bid was submitted to the AD Charitable Trust to fund a further £1000. During the summer, a research project exploring the digital challenges, successes and future needs of Charities and Community Interest Companies across the London Borough of Waltham Forest was carried out.

A subsequent research report presented a number of recommendations and support solutions which we have tested, using the Christmas Campaign as a pilot:

Report Recommendations:

Collaboration – Strategic partnerships – Individual, strategic and digital Fundraising – Leveraging resource economies of scale – Re-usability and future proofing

On the basis that delivery of the Christmas campaign exercises these elements, the bid was successful. Already, many facets of these recommendations are proving to be a success.

In addition to the £1000 towards the fundraising target, the Trust have funded the delivery of the project covering costs of digital development; unique voucher/QR code creation and bank reconciliation via Ticketlab; development of voucher code redemption online; voucher design and print and *Project Management.

As of writing, the total amount raised for the campaign is £6675.

3. Who is organising the campaign?

A small number of volunteers and residents in the community who have come together to provide support for local families and businesses within Chingford and Highams Park, and a *Project Manager.

Catherine Marcus – volunteer and local resident

Faiza Shaheen – volunteer and local resident 

Lyndsey Nassim – *Project Manager and local resident

4. Why run the campaign – is help really needed?

Covid-19 has compounded an already challenging landscape for our local families and businesses. *Waltham Forest is just outside the bottom 10% of the most deprived local authorities, ranking 35th out of 326 in England, (according to the overall measure of multiple deprivation).

Out of 33 London boroughs, Waltham Forest currently ranks 7th most deprived. Additionally, Food Banks in the Borough have seen increased referrals during Covid. Equally, businesses have been forced to close during two national lockdowns and yet still pay rents and other overheads. It has been crippling and many talk of facing closure without support.

The Chingford Bells and Highams Sparkle fundraiser will support many cash-strapped families, while ensuring that the funds raised, remain in the local economy, providing the custom they need during these difficult times.

*Source: https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/content/statistics-about-borough

5. Who is eligible?

The gift vouchers will be distributed to the children of families who have been privately referred by schools and or social workers to local food organisations: Highams Park Food Hub, Peabody Pantry and Friday Hill Rescue Hub. We are also distributing vouchers to schools where there are considerable numbers of children in need. In total, and with fundraising exceeding the initial target of £5,000, this is likely to be about 300 families. 

6. What businesses are signed up as partners?

In Chingford, the following businesses have signed up:

Bailey & Ash

Oh My Coffee

The Craft Cabin

In Highams Park, the following businesses have signed up:

Grace & Albert

Ziggys

7. When does the campaign start and when will vouchers be distributed?

Vouchers were distributed w/c 7 December. Faiza, Catherine and Lyndsey distributed the vouchers to the three operating organisations and local schools in Chingford and Highams Park (see point 5).

8. What do vouchers look like?

Please note the terms and conditions: 

1. 1 x voucher per child (under 18). One time, one transaction used in full
2. Voucher must be redeemed by 31 January 2021
3. Non-transferrable – only to be redeemed in store or online with participating businesses including: Bailey & Ash, Grace & Albert, Oh My Coffee, The Craft Cabin and Ziggys

9. When does the campaign end?

Fundraising ended on Sunday 6 December. Vouchers must be redeemed by 31 January 2021. Whilst we are hopeful that most vouchers will be redeemed by Christmas, this allows for any extenuating circumstances families may find themselves in and also supports businesses who will need to reconcile accounts within a reasonable time frame.

Updated 05.01.2021

In light of the governments latest announcement and with a National lockdown in place from Wednesday 6 January, vouchers will now be extended until 31 March 2021.

BUSINESSES

10. Is there anything I need to do before the 7 December?

If you haven’t already, please email Lyndsey your business email address and bank details so we are ready to reconcile funds when vouchers are spent at your store. lyndsey@nassim.co.uk. We will then – by email return – provide you with a log-in to Ticketlab, which is the software we are using to run the voucher redemption element of the campaign.

11. How will families know where I’m based and what I offer?

We have created a Christmas campaign page on the Waltham Forest Mutual Aid website. We have listed businesses here, together with contact details and a brief summary of product offer. Please contact Lyndsey if you wish for any amends to be made:

https://walthamforestmutualaid.org.uk/chingfordhighamsparkgifthub

We have also listed participating shops on the back of each gift voucher.

12. A family comes in-store to spend their voucher, what do I need to do?

a. Simply scan the QR code which is on the voucher (and will be merged into the white box on example shown above) with your Smartphone. This will take you to the Ticketlab holding page: https://ticketlab.shop/chingford-highams-park-christmas. When logged in, enter the transaction amount – £20.00 – and press submit.

b. If you can’t scan the QR code, log into voucher.ticketlab.shop and simply enter the unique code on the voucher. Enter the transaction amount and press submit.

13. A family wants to redeem their voucher online and I don’t have the facility to do that. What do I do?

Don’t worry. Just advise the customer that you can’t offer this option at this time and encourage them to either come in store or make a telephone order for collection or delivery (if that is something you can offer). Simply ask for the unique voucher code and enter this when logged into voucher.ticketlab.shop, enter the transaction amount – £20.00 – and press submit. 

14. A family wants to redeem their voucher online and I can offer that facility. What do I do?

We have unique ways of working with the businesses who are able to transact online and have confirmed how this will work for both The Craft Cabin and Ziggys. Essentially, voucher codes will be swapped for gift card codes at the point of transaction and business owners are aware of how this will work. For more information contact Riley Ramone at riley@dingdigital.co.uk 

15. What if the products the child/family want don’t quite equal £20.00?

We appreciate that it won’t always be possible to spend exactly £20.00. Encourage the child/family to maximise their spend as much as you can. Regardless of the total amount products total (as long as it is less than £20.00), when redeeming the voucher enter £20.00 and submit and we will transfer that amount.

For anything over £20.00, of course the child/family will need to cover the balance as the voucher will only cover £20.00 per transaction.

16. When will I receive my money and how?

As long as you have provided us with your bank details (see point 10), and we have therefore set you up a log-in to Ticketlab, we will transfer funds once a week and on a Wednesday post transaction/s have taken place. 

OPERATING ORGANISATIONS

17. When will I receive my vouchers?

W/c 7 December and from either Faiza or Catherine.

18. How many will I receive?

Tracey Rogers at Highams Park Food Bank coordinated a master list of families across the three organisations and 180 vouchers have now been allocated. An additional 170 vouchers have been distributed via local schools in Chingford and Highams Park. 350 vouchers were printed and distributed in total. 20 of these vouchers were kindly funded by our designer for the project as he donated his time pro bono.

19. How shall I track what voucher has been assigned to who?

It is essential that on the masterlist, each voucher code is assigned to families in receipt of a voucher/s. One family could have three children who are eligible. That way, we are confident that each voucher has been assigned as per the criteria the Food Banks have previously worked to. This record will also be important for evaluation post campaign.

For any other questions about the Community Christmas campaign, please contact the following support team who will be able to help:

Catherine Marcus – voucher distribution and general campaign queries: catherinemarcus81@gmail.com

Faiza Shaheen – voucher distribution and general campaign queries: Faiza@faizashaheen.co.uk

Lyndsey Nassim – Project Manager: Voucher and website queries: lyndsey@nassim.co.uk/ 07368 192 784 

Riley Ramone – voucher codes, redemption and bank reconciliation/Ticketlab queries: riley@dingdigital.co.uk / 07753 806 078