Blogger: Gena Correale-Wardle, Community Fundraising Officer
It’s amazing how something small can be really noticeable. Yesterday my colleague Matt, Community Collections Scheme Officer, wore a shirt with cufflinks into the office. Coming from his background in insurance, his smart office shirt wouldn’t normally turn heads, but in our office it stuck out like a sore thumb!
He took quite a bit of stick for his formal dress from some of us casual dressers in the office, but then the teasing turned to more productive talk and a new idea was born... pin badge cufflinks!
We decided to have a play around, and lo and behold, the idea worked – a turtle dove and a yellowhammer now proudly adorn his cuffs, not only showing Matt’s love of farmland birds but also his support of the RSPB’s campaign to stop EU Pillar 2 funding being cut for farmers and landowners to manage their land in wildlife friendly ways.
As well as proudly showing his love for wildlife, Matt also stepped up for nature by donating £2 for the badges, money that will go to projects where it is needed the most. So Matt not only got a real bargain with his new cufflinks, he now gets to wear a smug smile of satisfaction knowing he has contributed to nature financially too – there’s no way we can tease him for that!
And what a conversation starter those pin badges will be – with over 200 designs to choose from, he might have to start investing in some more cufflink shirts...
We are always looking for fun and novel ways of using pin badges and increasing not just our revenue through this stream of fundraising but also our public visibility with people showing their support of the RSPB by sporting a badge. Get in touch if you have any great ideas – gena.correale-wardle@rspb.org.uk.