Fundraising through online shopping tools such as EasyFundraising or AmazonSmile comes with its own set of challenges this year as people face rising costs. But this also gives you as a charity an advantage as these sites offer a great way to raise money for your charity at no cost to your supporters – donations are from retailers on the sites. So how do you make the most of these sites in the run up to Christmas?

• Start close to home

Ask your volunteers, staff, trustees, supporters and even your suppliers to consider supporting your cause when they’re shopping online for food or presents. Personal requests can be very effective.

• Use your channels

Make sure you promote your shopping sites through your social media channels. Consider adding a link to your email footers too. EasyFundraising has a Christmas toolkit to make things easy for you:

• Creative events

Are you running any events on the run up to Christmas? Consider how these events could be used to support your shopping sites. This could range from ordering your catering via your shopping site to offering vouchers to retailers featured on your shopping site in a prize draw.

And what about after Christmas? If your supporters have items to sell, could they use eBay or Browsio to make a donation while they pass on unwanted gifts.

You could offer an unwanted presents service, to sell in your shop if you have one, or host a bring-and-buy sale if you have enough supporters. You could even open your own online shop – charities on Browsio keep 100% of the sale price, minus £1 listing fee (which the buyer can opt to cover).