DontSendMeACard.com launched a pilot of its system in November 2015 with a handful of charities on board, to test their idea of a platform for donations in lieu of Christmas cards.
Since then over 1900 organisations have joined up and have uploaded a huge library of e-card designs to choose from. These designs are then offered to supporters by charities as an alternative to sending printed cards. Both static and animated cards are supported.
The charities participating in the fundraiser range from small to large, with well-known names such as The Salvation Army, Dogs Trust, and Stroke Association investing the time to generate designs that can be sent electronically, saving paper as a result.
DontSendMeACard Co-founder Alex Furness said, “The range of designs on offer now is superb. When we started off our content was minimal, as we only had a few dozen charities on board who agreed to the pilot. However we saw the potential for our model with people still using our initial offering.
For our platform and brand to have grown in popularity the way it has really is in part down to how brilliantly creative the designs that charities have come up with. You wouldn’t typically think of charitable organisations as inherently creative, but they really do have it in them. You can clearly see this by looking at the designs on offer."
In addition to designing e-cards, charities are engaging with artists, illustrators, and running Christmas e-card design competitions to add to their e-card collections.
Patrons that have offered artwork to fundraise with include Sir Quentin Blake, Harry Hill, and Nick Park creator of Wallace and Gromit.
You can browse the designs on offer on DontSendMeACard by occasion e.g. Christmas, and by searching through the listed charities and viewing their designs on offer from their landing pages.
With first-class UK stamps increasing by 15p in October to £1.25, the third increase in 18 months, more consumers and businesses who typically send physical Christmas cards may well be looking at alternatives such as DontSendMeACard for Christmas 2023.