ITV to Host Christmas Jumper Day

The festive fundraising campaign, Text Santa Christmas Jumper Day, is back. Once again, everyone is being asked to pull on a fancy festive sweater (preferably from Primark – see below) and raise some cash for charity.

It's a VIP affair...

The star-studded appeal, which has raised more than £21 million in the last 5 years, will culminate in an evening of live entertainment on ITV on Friday 18 December. Some of our favourite celebs will be sporting winter woollies in the 3-hour TV extravaganza, while encouraging people to donate. Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK and Save the Children will all benefit equally from every penny raised by the campaign.

Also, the government will match each pound raised for Save the Children up to £5 million.

Text Santa hopes to inspire a whole army of fundraisers to raise more money than ever before to fund nurses and other essential workers so people affected by cancer get the support they need; granting wishes to enrich the lives of children and young people fighting life-threatening conditions, and transforming children’s lives here and abroad to give hope to families in difficulty at Christmas.

Why should SMEs fundraise?

It's not only celebrities doing their bit in a Christmas knit, companies also make up a big portion of the generous fundraisers. Big brands like Primark, which is donating £1.50 for each Christmas Jumper sold until Thursday 17 December, Vodafone, Papa John's, Truprint and 20^th Century Fox are involved, but smaller businesses are also doing amazing things to raise money.

The list of reasons to get involved is too long for this article but the opportunity to give something back in just a starting point.

You’ll also be raising your business' profile in the community and meeting your own corporate social responsibility objectives. Not only that, but people want to work for companies that support charities, so generating staff loyalty and being seen as a good employer are further reasons.

Christmas is the perfect time of year to let your employees celebrate, but if you’re an SME you won’t have huge HR budgets for fancy dinners or away days. So why not tick that employee engagement box while fundraising for Text Santa? It's the ideal excuse to unleash that stocking stitch while giving your team something to smile about at the end of a busy year.

Small business fundraising ideas

As a busy, small or medium-sized business, you'll need some easy fundraising ideas. If any of these take your fancy, why not get something organised?

• Christmas bake-off and sale
• Raffle with prizes sourced from local traders
• Creative Christmas jumper competition
• Knitting lessons over lunch
• A staff knit-off
• Christmas carols in your jumpers
• Cosy coffee morning for colleagues, clients and the community
• After-work Christmas karaoke competition
• A festive office quiz

You could always buy colleagues goodies from retailers that are donating some of the sales to Text Santa. Check out the fundraising pack for a list.

Celebrity inspiration

This year's ITV's Text Santa team includes Paddy McGuinness, Olly Murs, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. Alesha Dixon is also on board, and sums up why this is the perfect time of year to give:

At this time of year, everyone is spending lots of money on presents, so it's good to stop and think, 'So man‎y people need our help. Let's each do a small thing to make a difference to their lives'. Alesha Dixon, Text Santa presenter

How to get involved

If you’re feeling the Christmas Jumper vibe, visit the campaign website for more information and fundraising ideas: http://www.itv.com/textsanta.

Donations can be made via the following platforms: To give £5 text SANTA5 to 70760; to give £10 text SANTA10 to 70760; to donate by phone call 0300 123 6060; or donate online at itv.com, stv.tv or u.tv.

Follow the campaign news on Twitter and Facebook too.

All images in this article are credited to ITV.