A PROJECT is being launched by the Bucks Free Press which will allow firms to gain more publicity for the work they do for charity.

The newspaper's popular website will soon include a new button on its home page which asks visitors to "donate money to charity for free".

When the button is clicked a page appears thanking the visitor and explaining that the sponsoring company has made a 20p donation on their behalf to a local charity, nominated by the firm. The visitor pays nothing.

The scheme remains on the site until the number of 20p donations reaches the target figure set by the company, to be not less than £500. The firm is then asked to pay up.

The 'thank you' page will also contain image links to the company and charity's own websites. If they do not have websites, the Bucks Free Press will build a special web page for them for free.

Editor Steve Cohen said: "Every year local businesses donate a tremendous amount of money to charity and never really get the credit they deserve for it.

"This way, their name is promoted on our website every time someone clicks the button and users are directed to their website too. They actually get a measurable level of publicity for their benevolence."

The Bucks Free Press is now seeking its first business sponsor, who will receive further publicity in print when the scheme is launched.

There is a database running behind the scenes to prevent users clicking more than once a day and from which statistics can be sought to show how many people clicked per day and what percentage visited the firm's website.

Steve added: "I think companies which make donations to charity deserve this level of recognition. Before, all we could offer them was a few lines in the paper or maybe a picture story but this way they can also have a tangible amount of promotion too.

"Everyone's a winner. The businesses get publicity, the users get to donate money without spending any, the charity gets free cash and publicity and we get more people to visit our website."

If you would like to be our first business sponsor, please contact Audrey Wixon on (01494) 755094.

You can test the button at www.

bucksfreepress.co.uk/charityindex.asp

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