Below is a list of questions we are often asked about the campaign; here are the answers to give you more information.
1) Is the campaign open to everyone?
The JUST A CARD campaign welcomes everyone! Whatever you do, wherever you are in the world, whether you’re an artist, designer, crafter, maker, independent shop or an online business, you are warmly invited to be part of our campaign. Equally if you are none of these but simply value supporting the independent community then, of course, you are most welcome too. The more people who get behind this message the merrier.
2) How do I join and get involved?
You can find a whole host of ways you can get involved on our How To Get Involved page and a range of free images to share on our Free Images page.
3) Does it cost anything to be part of the campaign?
A fundamental principle of JUST A CARD is that it is open to EVERYONE whatever their circumstances, financial or otherwise. For this reason there never has been, nor ever will there be, a joining fee or subscription charge to be part of the campaign.
That said, to pay those pesky bills, we do rely on donations and sales. If you are in a position to be able to make a donation or purchase from our shop, you’ll make a huge difference and help us continue our work for the benefit of independent businesses everywhere. We may also charge a small fee from time to time to those who choose to take part in events such as Visibility Fair.
Please remember your contribution is EQUALLY VALUABLE whether or not you can donate or make a purchase. Likes, shares and retweets are vital to help the campaign continue to move forward and we are grateful for any support you can give us. Make sure you are following us on Instagram.
4) Is the campaign just about cards?
Not at all! We simply use cards as an example of a small purchase which makes a huge difference to independents - find out more about why the campaign is called JUST A CARD by reading our story. Think just a card, just a book, just a gift and so on.
5) Can I re-post and share the images from the JUST A CARD Instagram account?
Yes, please do! There is also a bank of free images always available on our Free Images page plus a useful guide to help you credit the images you are using.
We find many more people get exposure to the importance of the JUST A CARD campaign if you accompany your image with a brief description about the campaign message, along the lines of ‘I support the @justacard campaign which encourages people to value and buy from artists, makers, independent shops and small businesses’.
6) Can you promote my work, event or fundraising campaign on the JUST A CARD social media channels or website?
As you can imagine we are inundated with requests for shout outs for kickstarters, new hashtags, community projects, charity ideas, exhibitions etc and, as much as we’d LOVE to, sadly we simply can’t feature them all. This is a shame because they’re great.
So we came up with the idea of a community noticeboard so YOU can tell everyone about what you’re up to; then others can scroll through, get involved, sign up and make pledges. To take part, make sure you are following JUST A CARD on Instagram and keep an eye out for our regular community noticeboard posts.
7) I’d like to support the campaign by designing an image for your social media channels or Images gallery. Can I do this?
You’re a very talented bunch and it’s great to see the images you create to support the JUST A CARD campaign. We actively encourage you to create posts on your own social media channels to encourage support for this message - please do add @justacard to make sure we see your work and your community find out about the campaign. When we can, we’ll feature some of these on our social media channels, and we’ll get in touch with you if we’re able to upload them to our Images gallery.
Please do bear in mind that MANY of you create these images, so we can’t feature everyone; but as you know, ultimately, they are all doing tremendous good by raising awareness for the ‘support independents’ message.
8) I would like to create a product or service where a proportion of my profits will be given to the JUST A CARD campaign. Can I do this?
Absolutely! We are so delighted that you want to champion the ‘support independents’ message and if you’d like to contribute to the campaign via a portion of your profits you can do so via our donate page. If you’d like to make the wider JUST A CARD community aware of this, please keep an eye out for the community noticeboard feature on our Instagram feed and add details via this forum. Thanks so much for your kindness - your support makes a big difference and is hugely appreciated!
9) Have you ever considered making a directory of independent shops, running a design fair or other events?
With the help of our lovely friends at HandmadeHour, we hold online Fairs twice a year to showcase the amazingly talented artists, makers, independent shops and small businesses who make up the JUST A CARD community. Be sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram to find out when these events take place.
10) Who runs the JUST A CARD campaign?
The campaign is run by a small team of (mainly*) volunteers, all artists, makers or independent business owners themselves. We each have first hand knowledge of the issues facing independents.
*We always have and always will run JUST A CARD for love not money. However when funds allow we do try to pay team members or freelancers at times of excess workload.
11) Can we use the JUST A CARD logo on our publicity material?
Of course! It’s available on our Free Images page. Use it to spread the JUST A CARD message.
12) Which social media platforms do you use?
Instagram is our main platform, so please follow us there for updates, news, events and inspiration. We are also on Twitter and Facebook, and your likes, comments, shares and retweets on social media are so appreciated. We’d love to respond to each one personally, but we’re sure you’ll appreciate that given the huge number of notifications we get, try as we might, this isn’t always physically possible. We’d love to be able to follow back everyone who follows us on Instagram, but unfortunately as there is a follow limit of 7,500, this just isn’t possible. We so appreciate your kindness and understanding.