Unleashed114

Hi, Perhaps our response was a little long, so in short: At least 30% goes to the Charity A significant % (that rises as books are sold) goes back to the businesses involved. We keep the rest to cover our HR, Finance, Marketing, PR, Sales, Admin etc costs, this enables us able to do the project again and again. If you have any concerns about the funds raised for the charity, please contact Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity or us directly to discuss these. Perhaps the best thing to do though, is buy a book and use the vouchers, you get £1,052 now for your £50.

Hello all, We have just found this post and wanted to say thanks to Spasm for starting it and recommending the book (as they have said they have nothing to do with us) and also to answer a couple of the questions raised on here. Having read all of the posts, there seem to be the following questions: a. Why isn't all the money going to Charity? b. Why should the businesses receive any money? c. Problem with 1 of the vouchers d. Is there a spend attached to them? The financial side of things: The simple answer to this, is that the book has a 3 fold aim, to raise money for Weston Park Hospital, to give everyone a great time in the Sheffield area and to get people out and about visiting local businesses. So we are donating at least 30% of the revenue of the book to Weston park, this is a not insignificant % (most companies donate 5%-15% of profit.) The businesses involved are donating (if all 7,500 books are sold) £7.5M worth of goods and services to the people who use the vouchers. We are giving back to them a significant % of the book to help defray the early costs of people using the vouchers, this is a not insignificant cost and rises sharply as more books are sold, so it is not unreasonable to return a proportion of the money to the businesses involved. They are obviously doing this to get people through their doors and hopefully spending additional money when there (not an unreasonable expectation or hope) and to help Weston Park Hospital raise funds. The simple maths on this is that the total revenue on 7,500 books is £375,000, with £112,500 going to the charity leaving £262,500. Now even if they got all this money, they would be receiving less than 3.5% of their offers donated. Significantly below the cost of donating these products and services and so we do think that they are donating that much money (if all books are sold) to everyone who is using the book. And finally we take the smallest portion to pay us a salary, cover all associated printing, marketing, HR and financing costs, something that will enable us to do the project again and again and so continue to raise funds for the charities involved and to continue with a job we love. Problem with 1 of the vouchers I am not sure which restaurant this was but we have spoken with the restaurants to make sure they honour the voucher correctly and if anyone has any problems using the vouchers they should let us know and we will work to remedy the situation, so please contact us directly so we can help. One thing we would like to note, is that you do not have to spend any money to use the voucher concerned, so there is absolutely no required spend attached to the vouchers. We do agree that the wording on the restaurant vouchers needs to be clearer and so we will ensure that in the future we are much more explicit in that description. But again, if you spend a further £20+ and you have a £30 voucher, you potentially have eaten a £50 for £20, you have donated a chunk of money to Charity and helped support a local business and local jobs, not a bad return for a £30 voucher? All you then need to do is use one other voucher or maybe 2 if you use the Sakushi voucher and you have had your money back. In essence, this is the first time we have done this and we will be doing it next year and thanks to all those who have bought books or recommended them to friends, and we will endeavour to ensure that the experience is even more worthwhile next time (we are going to support at least 2 charities next year.) Thanks The Unleashed Team PS Not sure about the cryptic comment 'books are out and sales might be slow.....', I cannot emphasis enough that we have no idea who Spasm is and as for sales, all I can say is that things are picking up, as people realise it is not a rip off and that they can have a great time in Sheffield with the books (thanks Hels14 and clea_4eva)

Afternoon folks, New collection and purchase points for next week are as follows: Monday 7th September - Sheffield Town Hall - 11:00 till 15:00 Tuesday 8th September - Sheffield Town Hall - 11:00 till 15:00 Wednesday 9th September - Olive Bar and Restaurant - 12:00 till 15:00 We're also in Olive Bar and Restaurant, Division Street, till 15:00 Friday 4th Sept (Today) See you Soon. Charity Unleashed

Hey Everyone, We're in the Sheffield Town Hall on Tuesday 10:30 till 17:45 (Tuesday 1st Sept). Books available to buy and walk away with and also collection if you've already purchased. Charity Unleashed

They are here! Containing £1,052 worth of offers. Check them all out on our site but don't worry if you have not bought one online yet, you can come along to any of the collection points and buy one there and walk away with it. Though you still wil have to wait until the 1st September to use them....

All books ordered with the delivery option will be dispatched on Wednesday 26th August. All collection points have now been announced on the Charity Unleashed website

Hi All, Just a quick one to let you all know that the collection dates for the Sheffield Gift Book have now been announced on our website Books can still be ordered online for collection or delivery and can also be purchased from the individual collection points. For those of you who have already ordered a book and have requested the post and package option, your book will be dispatched on Wednesday 26th August 2009. Collection points are as follows: Location Date Day Start Time End Time Town Hall 26-Aug Wednesday 10am 6pm 27-Aug Thursday 10am 6pm Olive 26-Aug Wednesday 12pm 2pm 27-Aug Thursday 12pm 2pm 28-Aug Friday 12pm 2pm 29-Aug Saturday 10am 8pm Lounge 26-Aug Wednesday 4pm 6pm 27-Aug Thursday 4pm 6pm 28-Aug Friday 4pm 6pm Weston Park 26-Aug Wednesday 9am 5pm 27-Aug Thursday 9am 5pm 28-Aug Friday 9am 5pm Bar360 26-Aug Wednesday 5pm 8pm 27-Aug Thursday 5pm 8pm 28-Aug Friday 5pm 8pm We look forward to seeing you then. Charity Unleashed

Hi Scottf, There are still books available, so not to worry (too much!) With regard to giving them as gifts, each book will come with a unique ID card that needs to be shown when you use the vouchers. This is to stop people selling the vouchers on, however the card could be shared amongst a family or close friends with the voucher (i.e. you might not like the spa day but your partner might etc) I hope that answers your questions, Thanks, The Unleashed Team

Hi All, Thought you all might like to know that we will be appearing on BBC Sheffield, monday 17th @ 1015 for 20 minutes or so and taking questions...... Be kind The Unleashed team

Hi, In general the vouchers will last 1 year, though the one for Losehill House Hotel & Spa lasts for 2 years.

Hi go4it, I am not sure how much extra you need to know about us. We own a website business in Sheffield and have several friends in Sheffield who either own businesses or have had cancer treatment. Having lived in Sheffield for a few years, we like it and the life here a lot. So when we had a good idea that we thought would raise funds for a very good local charity, get people out and about enjoying at least some of Sheffield's businesses and pay us a salary. We figured that the logical place to start was Sheffield. As for the normal voucher books. We did a lot of research into them before doing this project and the ones with the larger discounts and volumes are all run by private businesses who just do these and so make money out of them (offering a % to the businesses or charities that resell the books.) The ones with your standard discounts might well be run by a local firm who do it for PR but again, they will earn some income from them in a variety of ways. We are working with the council and pretty much all the business associations in Sheffield as well as the Charity to put the book together. All of which we hope, will help people understand that this is neither a one off project and nor one that is not to be trusted. It is really very much less to do with us and more to do with those businesses, the Charity and everyone in Sheffield who buys a book and uses it. By taking a salary, we are able to work full time on this and hopefully to do bigger and better versions each year that get people out and about in Sheffield and raise money for charity. I hope that this answers your question, if you have any others please do not hesitate to contact us directly, and that you feel able to buy a book now and enjoy Sheffield and support Weston Park. Kind regards, The Unleashed Team

Hi Littlelady, I am sorry to hear about your father but I am glad that you found Weston Park Hospital very good. We have passed your message on to the people at the charity we work with. Again I am sorry about your father and thank you for your comment. Kind regards, The Unleashed team

Hi Gaikokujin & Iwork2shop, Thank you for your interest and I am sorry to hear about your father, Iwork2shop. The voucher book contains a Master Voucher, that needs to be shown when you use the relevant experience voucher. The master voucher is linked to the book but not to you. What this means is that you can share the book with your family or friends, so long as you get the Master voucher back once they have used the voucher. This is aimed at preventing people from splitting the book up and reselling the vouchers (Sorry Iwork2shop). It is awesome Iwant2shop that you want to help raise money for Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, the best way to do that is to contact them directly as they run a large number of fund raising events that you could help or take part in. Of course you can also encourage your friends to buy the book! If you have any other queries please don't hesitate to ask us. Thanks, The Unleashed Team

Hi go4it, You had us worried there, we had to check our counting to make sure, but we do have 24 businesses not 23 with offers. We are not one of the businesses with an offer, we actually set up to deliver this project (and so are taking a salary out of this) and look forward to doing it next year as well, though on a bigger scale. Thanks, the Unleashed team.

Hi Julado, All the companies who have donated their products (to a total of £7.5Million) hope that the people who visit will spend money with them (though there is NO obligation) and return to them another time, having had a great time the first time. As for the split from the £50, at least £15 goes to Weston Park HCC, this is a minimum of 30% of revenue (unlike most voucher books and company donations that donate a % of profits NOT revenue.) The remainder is used to cover costs and returned to the businesses involved to help cover some of the lost revenue involved, this in no way comes close to covering the lost revenue of their donation. To give you an example: Losehill house has donated a maximum of 7,500 nights + Spa treatment @ a value of £125 each. This equals £937,500 of revenue for them alone. The total book sales only come to £375,000 of which £112,500 will be donated to Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity. The remainder is used to cover costs and split between the 24 businesses involved. What we have tried to do is create something, where a Sheffield Charity, Sheffield Businesses and Sheffield People all gain something from the same thing. In this way we believe that for once the expression 'win, win' really does mean something. We hope that this answers your question and will persuade you to buy a book and help a fantastic cause, support 24 local businesses and have a lovely time over the next year, spending £1,000 having invested £50 (a return of 20x)

We have recently been inundated with emails and phone calls to confirm that the Weston Park Gift Book (created by Charity Unleashed) is for real and a genuine product. We appreciate the "to good to be true factor" but there is genuinely no hidden costs. You purchase the book for £50 and get £1,000 worth of vouchers, then you do not have to spend any more money to use them. Obviously it would be good to spend some money with the businesses who have given you the voucher but you do not have to. We have been endorsed by the leader of the Sheffield City Council (Cllr Scriven), the Lord Mayor (Cllr Graham Oxley) and have the full support of Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity who we are working very closely with. We are urging you to have a look at the information on both the http://www.wphcancercharity.org.uk/g...NodeAlias.aspx http://www.charityunleashed.co.uk

We have recently been inundated with emails and phone calls to confirm that the Weston Park Gift Book (created by Charity Unleashed) is for real and a genuine product. We appreciate the "to good to be true factor" but there is genuinely no hidden costs. You purchase the book for £50 and get £1,000 worth of vouchers, then you do not have to spend any more money to use them. Obviously it would be good to spend some money with the businesses who have given you the voucher but you do not have to. We have been endorsed by the leader of the Sheffield City Council (Cllr Scriven), the Lord Mayor (Cllr Graham Oxley) and have the full support of Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity who we are working very closely with. We are urging you to have a look at the information on both the http://www.wphcancercharity.org.uk/getdoc/4fd5ad75-f45d-406a-bb32-be3936ff7c93/NodeAlias.aspx www.charityunleashed.co.uk

Update - You may or may not have heard, Serenity Spa is unfortunately no longer Trading but fear not, Charity Unleashed is providing you with a more than suitable replacement. We are proud to announce that Aston Hotel has stepped in to support the project and is offering a voucher for 1 3 course meal, in place of Serenity Spa’s offer!

Hi, Dicky_doodle - We have got them to put it on their intranet and also into their local newsletter, so that will help get the story out there and what we are relying on is more and more people seeing it and realising that you can have some cracking times in Sheffield and help a charity. Ccbben, Thanks for the suggestion, will follow that up today and post in there as well. Overall things are starting to move, people are calling the charity to confirm that the book exists and our website is being viewed a lot. More importantly a range of people are buying, so hopefully as more people buy and then talk about it, the trust factor will increase. Thanks both of you for your comments, Unleashed

Hi Cbben, Thanks for the thoughts, we are hopefully appearing in a range of media across Sheffield. Unleashed

When you buy a voucher book from us for £50, you are recieving £950 worth of free product/service that doesn't require you spend a penny further to use them. This is distict from the majority of other voucher that you recieve free of charge from organisations and companies, most of those vouchers require a further spend to take advantage of them. Such as when you recieve a supermarket voucher, they tend to be percentage off a product, as an example. Those vouchers also tend to advertise themselves with a maximum saving where the minimum spend is very high. To put it simply, most free vouchers would require you to spend £1000, to save £50 whereas we require you to spend £50 to get £1000. If you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact us directly. - Charity Unleashed

Hello, We face a really simple and at the same time, tricky problem and all comments, thoughts or ideas would be gladly received. You will have seen our little button on the left of the screen and possibly been to our site, thread on this forum. We came up with a very simple business idea, persuade a wide variety of businesses (we did not want to be a Bar/Restaurant guide) inside Sheffield to give away free product to a value of £1,000 per book. The critical thing here is that there is no hidden costs. To use the vouchers you do not have to buy anything else, this is not your standard voucher book with 10% of this or BOGOF vouchers. We limited the total number of books printed to 7,500, so that their risk was limited and the marginal cost of doing this was manageable. The book would be sold on behalf of Weston Park for £50.00, so for £50 you got £1,000. We figured that it would be interesting both to all of us but also businesses wanting to give bonuses or christmas presents to their staff. With that in mind, we contacted and have worked with: a. The charity - all books are bought through them, this gives us credibility & ensures that the audit trail can be nice and tight b. The council - It is backed by the council & the Lord Mayor & possibly the Master Cutler c. Different business associations such as Made in Sheffield, The Chamber (Sheffield & Rotherham), Creative Sheffield and a variety of networking groups d. We have distributed fliers everywhere as well as had emails sent to a variety of databases and employee organisations. On top of that, everyone we have talked to has said they would and mostly have bought a book. Why? Because there is a good variety of options in there and it is supporting local businesses and a local charity. So what is our problem? Getting people to hear about it and then to believe that it is true. The offers are all very good, they are all local and the total value is £1,000. And it seems to be that this is unfortunately too good to be true and so we all look for the catch. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Just an update: New offers from the Ivory, a Sharing Platter for 2 worth £10 and a Cocktail worth £5

There will be collection points throughout August (in Sheffield) if you want to collect your book, or you can pay £2.50 for recorded delivery and have it delivered straight to your front door. You choose which option you prefer, when you buy the book, through the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Appeal's website. Click here to be taken straight to the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Appeal's website. Thanks for your interest, all info can be found at http://www.charityunleashed.co.uk

Ok, now I have to admit one thing, while that evening was the first and only time I have met the owner, he is appearing in a project I am working on. Still no bias as the food was delicious and interesting, if you ignored the standard 'English' fare section. This whole forum thing is addictive, need to focus on work and less on keeping an eye on my posts.