I'm hoping to do a macmillan coffee morning? Aibu to think that this will be harder as nobody carries cash?

[whatthehellnpw]

Anyone hosted a macmillan coffee morning before and able to give me any tips? How do you actually charge for items etc? I'm a total novice but really want to do my bit.

I've organised a few of these in my role and they are very satisfying. I've never raised loads, anywhere between £58 - £165 on each site I've worked - I'm a site administrator as well as document controller.

You need to print out posters advertising the event and saying 'cash only'. You will also get a lot of items from Mac Millan to help your event, like invitations, posters, bunting, tablecloth, food tags, etc. I photo copied the bunting and made three times as much, cutting them out and sticking the bits together to dress up the room. Same with the tablecloth so I had a few. My boss told everyone during a team meeting that they all had to chip in with either buying or making cakes and savouries and everyone had fun - we had about 200 subcontractors on site so we were able to make £165 that day.

Agree with this. Many charities are a bit dodgy, especially at the top! But MacMillan is one of the good ones. It has helped people immensely, for more than a century!

Also agree with this poster @whatthehellnpw say CASH ONLY on any publicity you have for your coffee morning.

Really the QR codes are brilliant. Say "cash or QR code" and most people will understand.

I worked for them was bullied by them & won an employment tribunal & guessing by the number of likes/thanks in my comment im definitely not the only one. but they ho it's your money to throw away. If you like big bonuses for chums then the Tory party offers better value

That would have been funded by an NHS contract & not by the cake sales!!

If I didn't know the organiser well, I think I'd prefer to donate via QR code directly to the charity.

Too many people would pocket the cash sadly.

So I think a 'CASH ONLY' warning may put people off.

Exactly this! But yet you can't seem to get it through to people!!

They bid for contracts along with other NHS/private companies & then deliver the contract logoed up to the eye balls giving the impression that dying grandpa is being tended to by virtuous nurses funded by cake sales. They then pressure you to 'give back' & donate in dead grandpas 'memory' the funds go to the wealthy chums not to the NHS/tax payer that actually paid for the care.

Definitely give to local hospices but don't give your money to MacMillan etc al

I too was bullied by them. Ended up on anti-depressants. Would never work for them again ! At their shipley headquarters they had a mental health chill out room where stressed staff could go and eat chocolate. What a load of twaddle - bullying managers caused MH issues !!!

Are you sure that wasn't Marie Curie ? Just asking as Macmillan don't tend to do all night stays. They have specialist palliative care Nurses who tend to pop in to tweek medications, monitor symptoms but not stay all night.

It was definitely MacMillan. This was 20 years ago though.

That would have been an NHS contract. The nurses would have been funded by the government/tax payer.

100% hear you & believe you. Hope you have managed to move on.

I think the people commenting here were n support of them have either been taken in by their big budget advertising campaigns or have had genuine good experience of nurses they mistakenly think have been funded through fundraising.

I don't think MacMillan nurses should be wearing any kind of charity branding/lanyards etc unless they are funded by the charity.

Every MacMillan coffee morning I take part by going to Costa or Starbucks instead.

Order one of their coffee morning packages. It comes with a cash box thingy foe people who bring money, and qr codes for people to scan and donate online.
You could either have a set amount per cake/biscuit or just ask for general donations.

Only in Ireland. For some reason, it hasn't taken off in the UK. I think some people use Monzo but it's nowhere near as popular as Revolut is in Ireland. I really miss the ease of Revolut!

When I turned to MacMillan for help when my partner was undergoing treatment for cancer they were absolutely hopeless. No help at all.

Was it a macmillan nurse?

they refused with my uncle, said nursing wasn’t their job. They only did stuff like benefits and money, and want to talk about dying.

the actual end of life nurses were Marie Curie. MacMillan don’t do end of life care. Read their website- they actually state that and refer to Marie Curie.

macmillan also have a cunning trick where they pay to set up a service and fund it till it’s up and running. Then funding is taken over by the nhs/hospice or whoever, but they are obliged to retain the macmillan branding. So many people think their care is “macmillan”, and subsequently fundraise for them. But none of that goes back into the service they used.

Could you get a sum up card machine? I do craft fairs and use them and they take 1%. You can even pick them up second hand. I would miss out on so many sales if I did not have it. Am in London at the moment and have noticed that buskers have them

I'm sure anyone planning to come along to a fundraising event in someone's home would bring a bit of cash along, but anyone who really never uses cash at all could make a donation to Macmillan online.

This.
Re 'charging' -don't! Just ask people to donate whatever they would like to. You will make a lot more.

Revolut is available in the UK but most people don't use it/have never heard of it.

Although there was a thread here a few weeks ago where most people agreed that a man having a Revolut account was a sure sign that he was having an affair! People seem to think it's only used to keep payments secret instead of being incredibly handy.

That's amazing, it's so popular in Ireland, all our work collections are through Revolut. And I went to a flea market recently, everyone there used Revolut too.

Si what is the main alternative to Revolut for small sums of money?

The nurse would have been funded by an NHS contract so the nurse would have been paid by the government/tax payer & not by charity donations.
That's what is so distasteful about MacMillan as a charity. I don't think they should be wearing any kind of charity branding, lanyards etc whilst treating patients unless the charity is actually funding the service

MacMillan & Marie curie both bid for contracts in the NHS just like any other private company eg Bupa or Randox
The company/charity that wins the contract is then paid to deliver the service on behalf of the NHS and receives government/tax payer funding for this - they don't fund the service from their charitable donations.
They deliver the service heavily branded in charity logo giving the impression that they are charity funded. The bereaved relatives & anyone 'touched' by cancer then feels they have to 'give something back' or 'do something in loved ones memory' eg beg for money through cake sales in the mistaken belief that this helps fund the service they experienced.

Most of the fundraising through cake sales etc goes on the bosses big salaries, bonuses to fundraisers, advertising budgets etc

It really is so deceitful the way they operate. they also operate through partnerships like Citizens advice to offer benefits advice but pay a pittance to those partnerships whilst staff employed directly by themselves get paid hugely more to do exactly the same job. When I got my job with macmillan the interview was held in the swankiest hotel in town, there were about eight people in a group interview with a similar number of mangers all sat round 'observing'. They had travelled from all areas of the UK, they outnumbered the candidates ! There was absolutely no way that this amount of managers were needed to interview eight people, half of whom didn't even get recruited and were sent home at lunchtime. Such a waste of hard raised funds. Douglas macmillan would be turning in his grave if he could see the waste after he started the charity giving charitable grants to the poorest people in society with cancer. To be fair they do still give a lot of grants out but there is so much wastage of funds. They could help a lot more people if they cut back on some of the waste.

They seem to create jobs with high salaries for their friends. It's very vague what alot of them actually contribute.

It really upsets me when I see some of the innocent & unsuspecting people begging on their behalf. They honestly think they are doing something good in loved ones 'memory' or to 'give back' & its so emotive friends, family etc feel compelled to give money to make the bereaved feel better. MacMillan et al prey on this to generate more revenue.

No one wants to criticize a bereaved persons fundraising efforts so they continue without scrutiny.