St Richard’s Hospice is calling on everyone to let their fingers do the talking and help them raise cash on Text Tuesday, 12th October through their mobile phones.
Hospice Fundraising Manager Tricia Cavell said, “This is a really easy and fast way to make a donation and support our work caring for patients and their families. So many people have a mobile phone now so it makes sense to ask for donations this way.”
She added, “We are benefitting from Textlocal’s recently launched Charity Short Code which means receiving the full cost of the donation, less the very small cost of the Network Handling Charge.
“So on Tuesday, 12th October please text HOSPICE to 70444 to make a donation of £1.50 and it all adds up to help the hospice.”
Alastair Shortland, founder at Textlocal said, “It’s fantastic that we can now offer better value for charities like St Richard’s Hospice to claw back more from donations. In comparison to our competition, we are quite unique in how we are working with charities. Through working with us, charities get to keep around 10% more of any donation made, compared to what the networks would normally take using an average premium rate short code. We are extremely proud to able to offer these rates to worthy causes and look forward to working with even more this year.”
St Richards Hospice introduced SMS text messaging into their communications strategy in early 2009 to help promote the annual Midnight Walk.
St Richard’s Hospice provides free specialist palliative care for patients living with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and supports their families. Each year the hospice team supports over 2,100 patients and family members in Worcestershire.
Patients are cared for in Day Hospice, the 16-bed In-patient Unit or in their own homes by a specialist professional team as well as many trained volunteers.
In the In-patient Unit specialist staff are on hand 24 hours a day to manage patients’ symptoms and where, if they so choose, patients may spend the last few days of life in comfort and dignity. St Richard’s is grateful for all donations towards the £5m they need to raise this year to continue their work.
Work has begun on the new Community Care Centre annex which will allow St Richard’s to expand its services across the community. The new annex will allow the Home Care Team of nurses, Hospice at Home carers and Family Support Team to help more people and to meet the increasing demand for care in the community.
For more information please visit www.strichards.org.uk
