Rays of Sunshine, a UK based charity that grants wishes for seriously ill children, is working with Amazon Business to launch their first ever Christmas Donation Driver. This new initiative allows the public to select and gift Christmas presents to children all over the country who are spending the holiday on a hospital ward. By working with Amazon Business, the charity can address key logistical and resource barriers in identifying, sourcing and delivering gifts during this period, adding Christmas present gifting to the diverse ways Rays of Sunshine help children facing serious illness.
Rays of Sunshine wanted to do something at Christmas to make the festive season brighter for seriously ill children in hospital who can’t go home to celebrate. However, coordinating donations from the public, sourcing gifts for different ages and interests, and dispatching the presents to hospitals nationwide would be next to impossible for the Rays of Sunshine team, faced with limited resources.
That’s why Amazon Business introduced the idea of a Christmas Donation Driver to Rays of Sunshine. By integrating Amazon Business’s Direct Order API Donation Driver technology onto the Rays of Sunshine website, it allows donors to select and pay for gifts from predefined lists on the charity’s website, and then Amazon Business takes care of all the rest, dispatching and delivering straight to the hospitals for free. Working with Amazon Business allows the charity to drive positive impact with little time commitment, as beyond the setup of the Donation Driver, it runs by itself.
Working with Amazon Business for the Christmas Donation Driver was inspired by the efficiency the Rays of Sunshine team saw when utilising the platform all year round. In their day-to-day operations, Rays of Sunshine receive many wacky and wonderful wish requests. From niche books to specific gaming consoles, these gifts can be time consuming to find. Rays of Sunshine use Amazon Business to source these unique and specialised items for wish requests all year round to save time and focus more resources on creating impactful experiences for the children they work with. By using the Donation Driver this Christmas, they can continue to focus on this meaningful mission.
At Rays of Sunshine, our wish-granting team have been using Amazon Business for many years to add extra magic to our wishes and help us easily reach families that need us across the UK. Working with Amazon Business for our Christmas Donation Driver means we can take our impact to the next level at what can be a challenging time for seriously ill children and their families. By allowing our donors to choose from a predefined list of gifts, and automating the process, we’ll be able to bring joy to even more children this festive season.
– Dan Assor, CEO of Rays of Sunshine
There is no greater mission than bringing happiness to the children who need it most, so we are delighted to be able to help Rays of Sunshine on this journey. We’re particularly excited about their Christmas Donation Driver, where we’ll be able to simplify the donation process for contributors and streamline gift management for the charity. Together, we hope to make this Christmas their most impactful yet.
– Amy Worth, Director and General Manager, Amazon Business UK
