The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide To Purchasing A Group Gift With Joy

Collecting Money For A Group Gift

Organisers bring people together; that's why we love them. 

One of the main challenges facing an Organiser is arranging and organising group gifts. That's because the sequence of organising a group gift becomes a balancing act between finding that perfect gift the recipient will love and chasing contributors for pledged contributions.

Frequently Organisers are faced with the protests and excuses of contributors. Protests such as "No worries, I will pay you back next week" and "I thought I already paid you for that?" Next week? NEXT WEEK? I'm out of pocket - I don't have till next week. You will get yourself together and pay me back RIGHT NOW. 

There is also the added anxiety of never being sure if the gift you've selected is even something they will come to cherish anyway. Of course, this can differ from person to person. You're more likely to be able to identify a gift for your mum, the woman who raised you, then Jill from the office, for example…

Similarly, should you be collecting for your mum, you have access to a different set of persuasive tools when chasing up siblings than you do in an office where such tactics will probably get you black-listed by HR.

What's needed is a one size fits all framework for organising a group gift. A framework that I wish to present now.

How To Collect Money For A Group Gift

Being assigned The Task Of Purchasing A Group Gift 

Okay, this first step is probably out of your hands and decided by people who have no intention of helping you along your way. As an Organiser, your urge is always to organise and take charge of whatever needs organising. A penchant for Organising has probably led you along a path of being professionally relied upon to get things done.

Still, you can't shoot without a target; that's why the first step is to work out who the gift is for in the first place. So, In summary, step one is asking yourself:

• Who will the gift be for? 
• Who will the gift be from?

Create a budget for purchasing the gift

The next step is to figure out a budget for purchasing the gift. The budget will be dependent on who the gift is for and in what context. If this is a gift for a family member, you will likely be in control of the budget. In a work context, the budget will be out of your control. The same usually applies to a social group. Although amongst friends, there is room for persuasion. 

Setting a budget is about defining the markets available to you. From there, you can begin to let ideas fly about, armed with the confidence of well-defined parameters.  So, in summary, step two is asking yourself:

• How much money do I have available to buy this gift? 

Making a shortlist for the gift

Step three is the fun step. It's also followed by the most frustrating, so consider this the calm before the storm. A small perk of being an Organiser is those moments when you get to see plans come together. There's great satisfaction in pulling together a plan when nobody else would, executing a vision to perfection. Step three is the chance to let your imagination run wild and start brainstorming ideas for the gift. That involves loading up Amazon baskets and spending an hour of your workday browsing our gift blogs! Especially if you know the person, the process of brainstorming ideas for gifts you think they will like can be very rewarding.

So, in summary, step three is asking yourself: 

• Having decided on a budget, what should you buy for them?

Collecting for the gift

Historically, this is the frustrating part. Collecting the money was the step when you painfully passed around the brown envelope only to watch Jim from accounting rummage around his pockets and empty whatever shrapnel was roaming the bottom of his wallet at the time. Doing this would leave you out of pocket because having received contributions from only half of the pledged colleagues, you would go ahead and buy the gift anyway. You would have to or risk ruining the entire operation.

What's the alternative? A bank transfer? I don't know about you but I certainly don't want to share my personal bank details with all and sundry. And even when I do, half the people don't get round to setting up a new payee and actually transferring the money anyway. So no, a bank transfer is not a sustainable solution. 

So what's the best solution? Collctiv. Collctiv is the best solution. We've broken down the process of collecting money into three simple steps:

1) Create a pot

2) Share the payment link

3) Watch the money roll in!

The best thing about Collctiv is that only the Organiser needs to create an account. Everyone else can Contribute in only one step. And it's free! So, in summary, step four is asking yourself: 

• Why has collecting money been frustrating in the past?
• Have I downloaded Collctiv yet? Which, by the way, you can do here - https://collctiv.app.link/download 

Purchasing the gift

Let's quickly recap everything we have achieved to this point. 

By step five, you should have: 

• Been assigned the task
• Defined a budget
• Worked out what you want to buy
• Downloaded Collctiv and collected the money.

Now, all that remains is the penultimate step. Buy the thing! In summary, step five is asking yourself: 

• Have I bought the gift yet?

Presenting the gift

Part six is the part where you present the gift. Society suggests this moment should be full of warmth and good feeling towards our comrades. But in reality, we would sympathise if you felt all you wish to do is go home and lie down in a dark room. We've all been there. We had tried to think of some unique ways to present a gift.

Having wrung our brains, we thought a unique way could be a cannon presentation. But then again, maybe the cannon is best saved for those contributors who can't stick to their word when they pledge to chip in...

Let's go with a summary to round this off:

A Step-By-Step Guide To Purchasing A Group Gift

1. Accept the task of purchasing a group gift.
2. Create a budget for the gift.
3. Make a shortlist for the gift
4. Collect money for the gift
5. Purchase the gift.
6. Present the gift.

Organisers bring people together

Since 2019 - Collctiv has helped over 200,000 people from 83 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's group gifts, retirement presents or sports teams - download our free app today and start bringing people together!