gosave.ie produces discount cards aimed at helping non-profit organisations raise funds, while simultaneously providing their supporters with discounts and special offers in hundreds of businesses throughout
Ireland.

Commenting on the new fundraising initiative, Elaine Leinaweaver,
Fundraising Manager with Fighting Blindness, said: “The way
this works is really simple: from now on, we will be encouraging our
supporters to buy Fighting Blindness gosave.ie cards, which only
cost €10. For that small amount, people can use their cards over a 12-month period to avail of all the discounts and special offers in shops, businesses and leisure facilities involved in gosave.ie. For example, anyone with a gosave.ie card can now avail of up to 50% discount in beauticians, 25 % discounts in Mens wear shops and reduced prices on hundreds of shops nationwide as well as lots of great deals from other businesses and events.

“The money we raise by selling gosave.ie cards to our supporters will go directly to Fighting Blindness. That’s one of the reasons why I really like this initiative. The second is because it means we’re not just asking people to give us money out of the goodness of their hearts – with the gosave.ie cards, we’re offering them a means of saving money and availing of hundreds of discounts around Ireland, which is rather appealing in these recessionary times.

Full details of how the gosave.ie community saver cards work – and of the businesses and shops offering discounts – are available on www.gosave.ie. Supporters of Fighting Blindness who would like to purchase a gosave.ie card can do so by contacting either Fighting Blindness or gosave.ie directly. Businesses who would like to get involved in the program should contact gosave.ie. Contact details are as follows:

Fighting Blindness                                                               gosave.ie
1 Christchurch Hall,                                                           Pembroke House
High Street                                                                             28 – 32 Pembroke Street
Dublin 8                                                                                   Dublin 2

Tel: 01 709 3050                                                                Tel: 041-9760202                                

Email: info@fightingblindness.ie                                Email: info@gosave.ie
Web: www.FightingBlindness.ie

Fighting Blindness has teamed up with an exciting new Irish company – gosave.ie – to launch a fundraising initiative that will not only help raise funds for the organisation, but will also ensure supporters receive a little something in return.

 gosave.ie produces community saver cards aimed at helping non-profit organisations raise much-needed funds, while simultaneously providing their supporters with discounts and special offers in hundreds of businesses throughout Ireland.  Elaine Lineaweaver, Fundraising Manager fighting Blindness and Damien O’Brien, Managing Director, gosave.ie

Commenting on the new fundraising initiative, Elaine Lineaweaver,  Fundraising Manager with Fighting Blindness,  said: “The way this works is really simple: from now on, we will be encouraging our supporters to buy Fighting Blindness gosave.ie cards, which only cost €10.  For that small amount, people can use their cards over a 12-month period to avail of all the discounts and special offers in shops, businesses and leisure facilities involved in gosave.ie.  For example, anyone with a gosave.ie card can now avail of up to 50% discount in beauticians, 25 per cent discounts in Mens wear shops and reduced prices on hundreds of shops nationwide as well as lots of great deals from other businesses and events. 

“The money we raise by selling gosave.ie cards to our supporters will go directly to Fighting Blindness.  That’s one of the reasons why I really like this initiative.  The second is because it means we’re not just asking people to give us money out of the goodness of their hearts – with the gosave.ie cards, we’re offering them a means of saving money and availing of hundreds of discounts around Ireland, which is rather appealing in these recessionary times. 

“Thirdly, gosave.ie cards are a way for businesses to show their support for charitable causes and to build up customer loyalty.  I would encourage businesses and shops throughout Ireland to get involved in this initiative – it costs them absolutely nothing to come on board: all they have to do is commit to offering a discount or special deal to customers who produce a gosave.ie card.  By doing so, they generate a considerable amount of goodwill but – more importantly – they contribute directly to raising funds for organisations like Fighting Blindness which supports world-leading research into cures and treatments for blindness including counselling for people affected by blindness and their families.”

Full details of how the gosave.ie community saver cards work – and of the businesses and shops offering discounts – are available on www.gosave.ie.  Supporters of Fighting Blindness who would like to purchase a gosave.ie card can do so by contacting either Fighting blindness  or gosave.ie directly.  Businesses who would like to get involved in the program should contact gosave.ie.  Contact details are as follows:

Fighting Blindness                                                                          gosave.ie

Tel: 01 709 3050                                                                                   Tel: 041-9760202

Email: info@fightingblindness.ie                                                     Email: info@gosave.ie

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We also did an interview with Kate Fennel on the Fios Feasa Show on Raidió na Life 106.4 agus bhain muid sult mor as an agallamh a dheanamh (we will post the interview online once we get hold of it)

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According to the umbrella group, which represents 890 community, voluntary and charitable organisations, 68% of respondents had their statutory funding cut during the past year, while more than half of organisations were reliant on government grants to provide at least 50% of their income.The Government’s revised 2011 Budget is expected to be revealed in December, and sector representatives are urging ministers not to slash spending any further.

Revealing the survey’s results at a special “Building a Better Ireland” conference at Croke Park, Dublin, Deirdre Garvey, chief executive of The Wheel, said: “The reduction in social welfare funding and rising unemployment have led to a surge in demand for support from charities, and further cuts will result in a collapse of services for the most vulnerable people in our society. “We believe that economic recovery can be achieved without targeting the most vulnerable people. This can be achieved by raising Ireland’s total tax take in a fair and equitable manner while still maintaining a low-tax economy. This will provide the resources to rise Ireland’s social services and infrastructure to at least EU levels.”

It is estimated that the voluntary and community sector in Ireland contributes €2.5 billion to the economy and employs 8.8% of the nation’s workforce. A recent report carried out by social researcher Brian Harvey earlier this year found that community sector budgets had been cut by as much as 20%, compared to just a 1.8 % reduction in overall government spending.

Source: The Wheel, 27/05/2010