E-cards, the easiest way to show you care!

You’ve landed as the one responsible for sorting the card and gift for Joanne’s birthday, Peter’s retirement or Lucy’s maternity leave (or all three simultaneously!).

Whether it’s because of your capacity as their line manager, maybe you’re the company PA or because for some reason these things always seem to land with you, create a Collctiv account for free and make collecting money from a group quick and easy.

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What is an E-card?

Quite simply a digital version of a greetings card, an ecard is an online 'card' or design with a greeting that's sent usually via email to a recipient so that they can view it on their computer or print it out.

They can often feature animations and allow those signing the card to choose their font style, colour of the text and add emojis and images, increasing the level of personalisation for the recipient.

For those signing the e-card, they will usually receive a link which will allow them to access the card. They can then leave their desired message and add any extras that they would like to. They then confirm that they are ‘done’ and the message is committed to the card, visible to the person responsible for sending the link to the card out, and of course eventually the recipient who can scroll at their leisure through all of the messages.

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What occasions do you use an E-card for?

One of the great things about an E-card is how flexible they are. Think of all the reasons in your workplace that you might have previously had reason to buy someone a physical card - birthdays, Christmas, work anniversaries, sympathy cards, leaving cards, retirements, new babies - E-cards cover them all and provide an almost endless choice of designs so that you can tailor your choice to the occasion and the person.

From humorous cards to stylish designs, as the person organising the card you get the privilege of choosing what the recipient will receive. You can even opt for an animated card that the recipient ‘e-opens’, or one that contains a video message from the team.

You may be asking yourself how it ended up being you that has the responsibility of sorting the card, and invariably if you are sorting the card, you’re probably also sorting the leaving present? If that’s the case, make it easy on yourself - create a Collctiv account and start collecting money today.

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‍What message should I put in an E-card?

Do you have writer’s block? Are you staring at the blank space where your farewell message should go? Well, worry not - we’ve got you covered! Check out our blog about the top 20 farewell messages and simply pick one or more!

If the occasion is something else, like a birthday or the celebration of a new baby, check out this article for a wide variety of messages for you to choose from. You’re welcome!

What are the benefits of an E-card?

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin:

Convenience

Think back to how this used to be done. You’d have to go to a card shop/supermarket to choose the card, you’d pay for it (which you’d invariably never actually get back), then the card gauntlet would start. You would sign it, then pass it on to the next person, who would scramble around for a pen, put their message in the card as they were heading into a meeting, then they would throw it at the next person and so on. Days would pass by with you having no idea where the card now was!  Who had or hadn’t signed it? Which keyboard was it under? Which drawer had it found its way into? Then, with just a little while to go until the recipient arrives into the office, it would magically appear, partially signed with a tea stain on the envelope. Not ideal!

With an e-card you simply choose the design and then send the link out to everyone who you’d like to sign it. Done!

Why not send a link for gift contributions at the same time? Simply create a Collctiv account, create a pool and then send both links in the same email!

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Practicalities

Since Covid virtually every workplace has a degree of hybrid working, with people working from home much more than ever before. The joy of e-cards is that you send a link round via email, the company slack channel, intranet, WhatsApp - whatever is the best way to communicate to the team - and regardless of where they are, they will get it!

No waiting until Thursday for Robert to be in to sign the card, he’s the last one to do it… oh, and Paula’s off work currently, but she’s one of the most important people to sign the card! Worry not! An e-card solves these challenges.

Covid can also be blamed for the distinct lack of anyone carrying cash. If you’re looking for a contribution to the card and present, you are constantly going to be met with ‘I don’t have any cash on me at the minute’, or ‘oh shoot, I forgot to bring the money in, I’ll bring it tomorrow I promise’. (They won’t).

Solution? Collctiv. Just like an E-card you simply share a link and the recipient can pay into the pool in seconds. They don’t need to download an app, create an account or do any banking. They just tap to pay and you have the money!

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Reach

Often, the number of people who sign the card is taken as a reflection of the popularity of the person. There can be few things worse than getting a card, only to find that precious few people have signed it. It is often a highlight for recipients to read through all the lovely things that people have said in the card, and it can be a memorable keepsake if they are leaving the business.

Because it is convenient, an ecard attracts many more signatures than a physical card, and better still, it can reach people in other offices, in different parts of the country or even the world. Often the recipient might deal daily with someone on the other side of the world. They’ve never physically met them but they are close, and a message from that person is a must-have!

Creativity

Is your handwriting not exactly something to write home about/with?! Worry not, an e-card allows you to say exactly what you want to in perfectly legible font without the need for the recipient to squint, hold the card super-close to their face or ask someone else for help them decipher what it says!

Better still, e-cards provide additional functionality to the good old fashioned pen. Add images, emojis, little designs, borders, colours or GIFs to your message. The level of personalisation is second to none!

Environment

In the modern world, where we are consuming resources at an alarming rate, an e-card provides a much-needed digital and sustainable alternative to a paper card. Yes, it may be recycled and as eco-friendly as possible, but the fact remains that the impact of creating the physical card, the carbon footprint of its journey from factory to shop floor and your journey from home to shop and back to buy it far outweighs the footprint of an e-card.  

How do I arrange an E-card?

First you’ll need to choose your ecard supplier of choice. From Moonpig to Kudobard, Group Greeting cards to Funky Pigeon (lots of other e-card providers exist!), let Google be your friend and choose whichever you prefer.

Simply select your card of choice, sign it yourself and then share the link however is best to reach the most number of people (this can be via a combination of methods, for example email and WhatsApp)

Send reminders and set a deadline for messages to be added, then once complete, send the final link to the recipient for them to open and read at their leisure!

Group money collection

With any event that warrants a card, there is almost always an accompanying gift. Whether that’s flowers and chocolates, or something bigger like an experience voucher, a spa day or a meaningful gift.

With a gift, comes the need to collect money from a group. If you are the person responsible for making this happen and have ever done this before, you will know this is something of a challenge. To the people paying in, it’s £10. To you, it’s 25 tiny nightmares!

There are a number of ways to do this, which we will explore here.

Firstly, there’s the option to just pay for it all yourself and then get the money back off everyone else. This may work, but invariably there are at least one or two people that don’t cough up what they owe. Why? It is not usually because they have a personal vendetta against you or your credit card balance. It is much more to do with the fact that they are disorganised, promise themselves (and you) that they will bring you the cash or transfer you the money, but then forget and simply don’t. Then it becomes harder and harder for you to chase for it.

Maybe you’ll ask once, maybe twice, but rarely do people chase a third or fourth time. The social anxiety is often just too much. The result? Despite putting all of your time and effort into ensuring the gift is perfect, delivered on time and makes the recipient feel wonderful, it'll cost you £10 or £20 more than everyone else. Hardly fair is it?

You could share your bank details across the organisation. But that feels kind of uncomfortable right? Your personal bank details being sent far and wide on an organisational level…the other discomfort with this is that it’s your personal bank account that you’re using for a professional reason.

It can’t be easily ‘audited’ and you’re loathe to share redacted copies of pages of your bank statement to show the total amount raised and all transactions in and out.

It also relies on the payee making the (considerable) effort to add you as a recipient to their online banking, flicking between apps to ensure they input your details correctly, getting a one time only password that they need to enter before finally transferring what they owe you. This level of friction is often enough to put people off doing it, or persuade them to ‘do it later’ when the kids have gone to bed or after the meeting they’re about to head in to. Then they forget, and then we’re back to how many times you feel comfortable chasing it up!

Finally, there’s peer to peer payments. Monzo and many other banks now allow you to send a link to a person for them to transfer you some money. Super easy - but only if they bank with the same provider as you. When we’re talking a card and gift on an organisational level, the chances of everyone banking with the same provider are minuscule, and then for this to work you are asking them to open a new bank account to give you £10! I think we know that isn't happening!

The final challenge is in the reconciliation of all of the payments. If they go into your bank account they merge with direct debits and Starbucks splurges and it becomes a full time admin job to go over your statement and separate who has paid what and when. You have the odd £10 note that someone handed to you by the water cooler which you somehow need to pay into your bank and suddenly it becomes a load more of your time and effort when let’s be honest, you were busy enough to start with!

The solution? Collctiv. Sign up now and you can pool money as easily as sorting an e-card. Why not send the links in the same email? ‘Sign the card here, contribute to the collection here!’

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Collctiv allows you to collect the money up front, so that you only spend what you have. No IOU’s and no chance of you being out of pocket.

It allows you to see at a glance how much you have raised, who has paid what and when, whilst keeping it all ring-fenced in one place, separate from anything else.

Collctiv makes it super easy for people to chip-in. They simply tap the link that you send them and if they have ApplePay or GooglePay setup then it takes less than 5 seconds to pay or they can add their card details and pay that way. You will raise more than ever before, even if the person isn’t that popular!

Create a Collctiv account and start collecting money today!

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Organisers bring people together

Since 2019 Collctiv has helped over 550,000 people from 97 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's gifts for colleagues, group holidays or grassroots sports teams - create a Collctiv account today and start bringing people together!