Friend Funding Meets Gift Registry

Something Old, Something New – Friend Funding Meets Gift Registry

February 4, 2016

A Christchurch start-up company has produced New Zealand’s first of its kind online wedding gift registry.

When a couple are getting married people can go to www.onegreatgift.co.nz and set up a campaign for friends and family to contribute to a wedding gift.

Terry Fullerton, One Great Gift managing director says most people are familiar with the idea of crowd funding for good causes through websites like Give A Little and so it is easy for them to use our website to make a contribution to a gift for the bride and groom.

“The big difference between our site and other crowd funding site is that ours is just for collecting funds between friends rather than an appeal to the general public.

“The organiser can be the bride and groom themselves or a friend doing it as a surprise The gift can be for a targeted dollar amount or for a specified high dollar value gift such as a dining room table and chairs. The campaign can be run as a public campaign visible to all or as a private campaign only visible to people invited to contribute.

“Once the campaign is setup, the organiser then contacts people invited to the wedding and other friends to ask them to contribute to the gift by making a pledge online with their credit or debit card. This is done by emailing them the link to the campaign or posting it on Facebook and other social media sites. Facebook has a function where it is possible to exclude the bride and groom from seeing the post if it is to be a surprise.

“The campaign page then shows a barometer of the total funds raised. Contributors can elect to give anonymously if they choose or have their names displayed on the campaign page. The page does not display the amount given by an individual.

“One of the big pluses of using the site is that it enables people to chat prior to the wedding. It is possible to chat on Facebook without the bride and groom knowing and also people can leave comments on the campaign page which the bride and groom will only see once they are given the link.

“As far as we are aware there are no other websites in New Zealand which enable people to give towards a wedding gift online and normal ecommerce sites do not have the facility to set up a campaign for a gift. At present the most common practice is for the bride and groom to set up a Gift Registry at a department store which guests can then select a gift from the list. Doing it this way results in the couple receiving a large number of small gifts whereas by pooling funds using One Great Gift the gift can be substantial.

“Another option is to have a Wishing Well at the wedding where people can leave an envelope with money in it instead of a present. This feels very much like people are being asked to pay for their meal and very few people carry a lot of cash or use cheques these days. The big difference with using our site is that they can pay by credit or debit card,” Fullerton says.

In just over a year One Great Gift has gone from clever little idea to live website, and attracted investment from Graham Robertson, former president of Federated Farmers and ex-chairman of Crop and Food Research.

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