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MNHQ

Mumsnet Christmas Appeal/Secret Santa - your thoughts please?

9 replies

JustineMumsnet · 08/09/2014 11:14

Hi all,

It's that time of year again where we are looking towards Christmas and thinking about the annual Mumsnet Secret Santa.

For those of you who've no clue what we're on about, the Mumsnet Christmas Appeal is an annual (obviously) tradition in which MNers nominate other MNers whom they feel to be particularly deserving of support/reward/love to receive a Secret Santa gift. More about it here - and here's how it works plus some FAQs, too.

As we said, it has a long and honourable history on MN - but some have suggested that now we've got Giving Week we should think about retiring the Secret Santa.

So we thought we'd take this opportunity to ask you, before we launch it as usual, if you'd like us to continue with it. We do love helping with the Secret Santa and the thankyou thread is always a very moving read, but it's quite a mammoth thing to organise and there have been a number of complaints about gifts not arriving and/or a lack of thankyou messages which has put a slight dampener on it in recent years.

In short we're happy to stop if folks think it has run its course - and happy to continue if people still think it's worthwhile.

We'd be very grateful for any and all thoughts. Please do post them here.

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MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 16/09/2014 11:56

Hello, hello
Ok, so from what we can see general opinion is that, notwithstanding a few irritations (including the word Appeal), the MN Secret Santa is worth keeping.

So we will soldier on - or more accurately SandyMumsnet will Smile - but we will also make a few modifications, namely

a) Change the name to Secret Santa or similar as appeal isn't right

b) Work on some tech modifications to improve the operation of things and to try to ameliorate some of the usual causes of disappointment/gripes (eg auto notifications/reminders/tracking)

We'll also look at including an alternative call to action to donate to a charity (eg Shelter/Refuge) - can't see any reason why we couldn't do this.

Thanks everyone for the input. We'll be kicking off 2014 Secret Santa in the next week or two.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 16/09/2014 12:02

@ItsNotEasyBeingGreen

I had to look up "ameliorate" on dictionary.com.

Good word! :)

Thank you very much

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/09/2014 10:13

@usualsuspect333

It just makes me feel uncomfortable that HQ are discussing people who have been nominated with other posters.

I know you have to give a reason for nominating someone, but you don't have to go into detail about their financial affairs. After all unless you know the poster off board they could be making shit up on here.

It just doesn't sit right with me. I was given a number and an address and basic information I wouldn't have dreamt of probing any further than the information I was given.

Morning

As BIWI says, we'd never 'discuss' recipients with anyone (donators or otherwise). Recipients can, if they like, tell us a few facts about themselves - from memory this is things like how many children they have, boys or girls, what ages and so on, and when we have that we pass it on to donators. It's absolutely not a case of gossiping over the garden fence about posters' personal situations or financial affairs - that's not something we'd EVER do.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/09/2014 10:20

From BIWI's posts it sounds as though we passed on to her the nominator's reasons for nominating the recipient, which is usually something like 'She's had a tough year because [eg her mother has been ill], but I really admire the way she's kept her chin up and she's a lovely presence on on the boards.'

MNHQ

SandyMumsnet · 17/09/2014 11:34

@FruVikingessOla

Yes, you can decline Wips. Either by not responding to the PM/email from MNHQ in the first place - or you can respond, but say that you feel that you don't want anything sent to you.

A handful of folk each year do prefer not to accept their nomination and we completely respect that. It would be really helpful to us if you'd let us know. We feel it's important to check, so giving us a heads up would save us having to send out an email.
Thanks

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/09/2014 12:31

@GodPlayedByJamesMason

I'm so pleased its carrying on, I know it must be a ball-ache for MN (or specifically Sandy!) but I just think it gives this place some of its 'heart' Grin

We actually were speaking about this in the office yesterday and SandyMN said it's one of her favourite parts of her job. It is a massive task for her, but thankfully she's an organisational demon. She also has special dispensation to wear tinsel in her hair from mid-October onwards, which is a big incentive obvs.

Re information about recipients: the mail we send out to recipients asks them to tell us any extra info (such as children's ages) they think would be useful for their donor to know, and clearly says that any info they choose (and it's entirely up to them) to give us will be passed on to the donor to enable them to give something appropriate.

Our team is extremely aware of potential confidentiality issues and we simply wouldn't pass on extra information without the recipient's permission. But we'll add a line to that email this year to make possible anonymity issues extra-clear.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/09/2014 16:12

We've kicked the spending limit idea around a bit, but to be honest we'd rather not - it's not our preference to set lots of rules about things (although we appreciate it may not always seem this way Grin) and we'd much rather that MNers carry on acting in the spirit of the thing, which is:

a) to be excellent to each other,
b) to create a magic circle of joy-giving, and
c) to know that whatever you give and whatever you get, what counts is that someone out there is thinking about you and/or that you've made someone's day.

We will add a sentence to our gift-giving guidance, though, setting the 'norm' mark at around a tenner (while emphasising that homemade and good quality second-hand are also hugely welcome, and that NOBODY should spend what they can't afford, and that it's really the thought that counts).

We're going to be a bit stricter this year about posts and threads saying 'where's my gift/where's my thank you' - if you report these to us we'll zap them and drop the posters a nice mail asking them to do any necessary chasing off-board via MNHQ. We're also going to try to automate it so that donors and recipients get messaged when gifts are received/despatched - not to replace the 'Thank you' thread but just so people know what's happening.

And we'll add something to the email to recipients asking them very nicely if they could hold off from describing their gifts in great detail (to avoid making donors feel bad if their gifts weren't of equivalent value) - but this probably isn't something we'll police closely, it will just be a suggestion.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 18/09/2014 10:48

We're happy to say no self-nominating. (It's only been allowed in really exceptional circumstances in the past!)

MNHQ

SandyMumsnet · 23/09/2014 12:35

Thanks for the Wine and kind words of support.
I can't wait to get my spreadsheets out!

Mumsnet Christmas Appeal/Secret Santa - your thoughts please?
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