Crisis - Businesses Urged To Send Video E-Cards To Help Homeless People This Christmas

Crisis, the homeless Charity, has launched its annual Christmas card campaign which is encouraging Companies to send a e-card with a difference this Christmas. Businesses can pick from eight one minute video e-cards which feature individuals helped by the Charity singing classic Christmas songs.

The e-cards can be branded with the logo of the Business and sent to contacts along with a personal greeting. Crisis hopes to raise £600k from corporate sponsors and the money raised will enable the charity to run homeless projects across London this Christmas.

Specifically the money raised will help to fund up to ten Christmas centres which will provide food, companionship and vital services to around 3,000 homeless people over the festive period, between 23rd-30th December. Every company that purchases an Crisis Christmas e-card will be thanked in a series of ads to run in the Financial Times newspaper.

There are eight video e-cards to choose from, which all feature one minute films of people who have been helped by Crisis, singing their favourite Christmas songs. This is the seventeenth year of the Crisis Christmas card campaign – and the charity has raised nearly £9 million since it first began. This year’s Crisis Christmas Card campaign has once again been created by London-based creative agency Knifedge. Nearly £9 million has been raised by the Crisis Christmas Card campaign since it began in 1995.

The economic downturn combined with a severe housing shortage and austerity measures are all driving homelessness upwards. In London alone, 5,678 people slept rough last year – a 43% increase on the previous year. Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: 'The Crisis Christmas Card features real people who have been helped out of homelessness by Crisis. We hope that companies will find them moving and authentic and choose these e-cards to replace their usual paper Christmas card mailings. Not only will the money raised help us transform the lives of more homeless people, but there are also environment benefits as they are entirely digital'.

The deadline to sign up for this year’s campaign is 16th November.

Companies can get more information on how to purchase this year’s e-cards by visiting http://christmascard.crisis.org.uk or ringing 020 7036 2664. To watch a preview of one of this year's Crisis Christmas E-Cards click here http://christmascard2012.crisis.org.uk/d88c8450/