The most wonderful time of the year is here once again, and with it comes Christmas appeals, frantic shopping trips and plenty of last minute gift wrapping. As a fundraiser, you may have toyed with the idea of making and selling gifts to put the profit back into your cause - this is a great idea. So, we've written a round-up of the best Christmas Gifts with Heart to inspire you.  You can buy anything from products you might use every day to a goat for a village. 

Don't forget these top tips if you decide to make and sell something yourself:

• Budget: cost out your project meticulously.
• Be time-efficient: create items that will sell, and that aren’t too time-consuming or costly to make.
• Make plenty! You’ll need at least enough to fill a stall, and possibly some back ups to restock when you’ve sold out.
• Choose a sales pitch with high traffic.
• Tell people!
• Remember, if you buy any supplies you need through easyfundraising, you’ll get free donations to boost whatever you raise through sales.
• Evaluate: it’s tempting to head straight to the celebration after a great event, but always pause to make a note of what worked well, and what you’d change for next time.
• Make sure you’re complying with any legal requirements. See if you need to register with HMRC for tax purposes here, and check if your product needs to comply with any regulations here.

Charitable Christmas Gifts

If you’re looking for inspiration, have a browse of our roundup below of charity gifts that are not only life-changing for many around the world but also a way for your loved ones to feel like they’re really giving back:

Kids Out Giving Tree

A great idea for workplaces, clubs, schools and community centres, the Giving Tree works by sending you tags to hang on your communal Christmas tree which have the fictional name of a child and their age written on them. Everyone then chooses a tag and buys an age appropriate gift for that child that costs between £5-10. The gifts can then be placed back under the tree and delivered to a collection point where they’ll be handed out to kids living in refuge from domestic violence.

ActionAid Gifts in Action

This wonderful idea from ActionAid lets you choose from a selection of virtual charity gift ideas to buy for friends and family that help disadvantaged communities. The recipient will then be told of their gift, whether it’s a temporary shelter or a handy toolkit, in a unique Christmas card. All proceeds raised from the sale of the gifts goes towards helping people living in extreme poverty.

Charity Gifts

From adopting a polar bear or buying seeds for farmer in Nepal to purchasing a charity Christmas card, Charity Gifts has a range of fantastic present ideas that help children, adults and animals all around the world. It sells charitable gifts on behalf of organizations like Help for Heroes, Oxfam, Cancer Research and the WWF, and has ideas to suit all ages and budgets.

Water Aid Charity Gifts

As you’d expect from Water Aid, their charity gifts are all to do with helping provide clean water facilities to communities around the world. Their gift cards allow you to help hire masons to construct toilets, provide handwashing facilities for several families and purchase toolkits for whole villages to benefit from. Once you’ve chosen a gift card for your friend or family member, WaterAid will then send off a Christmas card to them detailing what life-saving service they’re providing as well as a personal message.

MacMillan Virtual Gifts

MacMillan’s range of meaningful virtual gifts allow you to directly help out a cancer patient by funding support work sessions, nurses salaries and health and wellbeing clinics. You can also purchase gift cards to help keep information centres stocked with cancer guides which could help people recognise symptoms and seek help early on.

Save the Children Wish List

Save the Children’s virtual gift list of charitable items all go towards helpings kids around the world life better lives. You can purchase virtual gifts such as winter clothing, school textbooks, mosquito nets and even goats which will all help a child survive and stay in education.

Christmas Gifts from Social Businesses

If you’d still like to send physical gifts to your loved ones but want your money to go towards a good cause, why not buy from a social business? These are businesses who reinvest or donate their profits to worthy social causes in an effort to help change the world.

Divine

Who doesn’t like getting chocolate for Christmas? Divine sells a whole host of delicious and uniquely flavoured chocolate bars, and is the only chocolate company in the world that’s 100% Fairtrade and owned by its cocoa farmers. This means that their farmers receive a share of the profits as well as a fair income which they reinvest back into their communities. Buying Divine chocolate therefore allows you to indulge while helping support others too.

From Babies With Love

If you’re looking for gifts for new parents, From Babies With Love is the ideal charitable company to choose. They sell a collection of high quality baby toys, clothing and food products, and all their profits go towards helping abandoned children around the world.

Tea People

We all know a tea drinker, and what better gift to buy them than some wonderful blends and accessories from Tea People? They’re a social business that helps support schools and educational programmes in the tea growing region of Darjeeling in India. 50% of their profits go towards projects that directly help get more young people into the area’s schools, especially young girls who are often at a disadvantage.

Better Lessons and Courses

Better Lessons and Courses have some great gift ideas for kids and those looking to try something new. From swimming lessons for kids to creative writing groups for adults, they provide access to clubs and community facilities which they themselves help run and support.

Sniffy Wiffy

This quirkily named company sells beauty products to both men and women which directly help with the early detection of breast and testicular cancer. They achieve this by providing detailed instructions on all their product labels on how to perform a self-examination. Sniffy Wiffy also donate money to Cancer Research UK and Ballboys.

If you're looking for some more Christmas fundraising ideas you might enjoy reading: 

4 Christmas Jumper Day Fundraising Myths

Quick and Easy Ideas for School Christmas Fairs

Cheeky Fundraising Ideas for the Christmas Jumper Season

Charity Christmas Card Round-up