 HINTS FOR WISHERSHINTS FOR WISHERSFirst of all, thank you for taking the brave step to join us and place your wish. Thank you for stepping outside of the 'box' with us. Our way of doing things is a change from the norm. We hope this change gives you a second chance at living the life you want with less debt and worry. BE HONESTIn our hints for Angels page, we suggest that Angel's search for wishes that they identify with. We would therefore suggest that you are thorough and honest in your description of your wish as Angels will, through their own experience, identify with your situation. Whilst we realise that privacy and anonymity are important to you, the more information provided the greater the chance of your wish being granted in a shorter time. It will also help if you can create a small story around your circumstance, as this will build up a picture of you as a person and again help some Angels to identify with you. Person to Person. You may of course wish to only give the minimum of detail but please bear in mind this is likely to lessen your chances of having your wish granted in a short time. PHOTOGRAPHSWhilst you do not need to put a photograph of yourself up, it will help authenticate your wish much more. We expect that those with photographs will have more 'Angel' gifts than those without. If you feel you do not want to put one of yourself or family up then maybe a picture of your dog or pet or favourite place? This is person to person help and no picture may affect your time it takes to have a wish granted. ANSWERING IN-HOUSE EMAILSOur 'Angels' are allowed to ask you questions to satisfy themselves on any aspect of your wish before giving to you. We have, in our 'Hints For Angels' section asked that they do this in a courteous manner. You will soon have the facility to block anyone who you feel is being abusive in any way. In the meantime please email any complaints to wishes@wishesandangels.com It may be enough in the first instance to inform them that you do not feel happy with their email/tone/questioning and ask that they refrain from emailing you or you will have to block them. DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS TO ANYONE YOU DO NOT KNOW. There is no reason why anyone should know these details. Any such divulgence of this type of information is at your own risk. On the occasion where someone is asking to give you an item that they have, it is between them and you how you do this. We suggest you use the in-house email system so that if there are any disputes, we at Wishes and Angels can look into it directly. Look after yourself :) CATEGORY OF WISHWe have included many categories within the site. Please use all categories that you feel fit your wish. For instance, school uniforms would go under education and clothing. There is no fee for anything other than your initial wish fee. You will have more chance of people seeing your wish if it is in a couple of categories. WISH HEADINGYou will notice when typing in your wish that a purple box will come up and show you what your wish heading will look like. Please pay attention to this as it is important that people have some idea of what your wish is about from the outset. Use it like a newspaper heading for example. There is no need at this point to write your whole story, just enough to get people interested and know what your main wish is. FAMILY AND FRIENDSYou may not want family and friends to know of your situation and this is OK. We suggest you tell us on the site why you may not want to do this and then be as candid as you can when describing your wish. If however, you are fine with letting family and friends know then this is an excellent way of asking for help without them having to buy the whole item or pay for the whole service personally for you. Minimum donation is a pound/dollar/euro so they can be down as helping you for very little cost to them. You can explain to them that ALL their money goes to you (with exception of small bank fee) and none to admin or salaries. In many ways this also validates your wish a little more as these are people who know you. They in turn will probably make their own wish and you can return the favour when you have your own wish granted and need to pay your 50% of the wish fee back in to the site. SOLICITATIONWhilst we appreciate you will be looking forward to having your wish granted, we would respectfully ask you do not ask the Angels or solicit on our site to give more money to your cause. We will advertise our site on your behalf and please remember that company own Angel's will be aware if you have not had any gifts and will contribute during the time your wish is on the site. One of the things we suggest is that you inform friends and family of your wish and they can contribute to your wish and in turn tell their friends which is the whole ethos of the site. This also shows that you yourself are actively working towards helping having your wish granted. BE REALISTICWishes and Angels has been set up because of genuine experience on the CEO's part of hard times financially and emotionally in life. She is aware of the difficulties involved in having debts, clearing debts and the knock on effect of debt in our everyday life. These are in the main not being able to eat as well as we would like, not having internet or telephone or mobile because of the bills. The emotional strain of a looming repossession or bankruptcy. The constant threatening letters from debt companies. But, on top of all this, the days when we wish that we could have those luxury items, a nice new sofa, a new carpet, a holiday. Any and all items for our children. We do not believe at Wishes and Angels that these items are frivolous. We do however ask that you try and sort out the financially draining and worrying items first. You can have as many wishes as you want and maybe alongside your financial wish you can put your luxury wish. This would go in our Just Because category alongside any other category your wish fits into. It can be any item at all within our terms and conditions. We are about bringing back hope and also restoring smiles. If a playstation or gold plated chest of drawers does this for you then so be it, there will be someone out there knows just how you feel. TIMESCALESome wishes may be granted within hours of being written. Others could take up to a year. We would ask you to bear this in mind this when wishing. If your wish is taking a while to be granted, it may be that you have not given enough information about yourself or not maintained your 'blog' section which allows you to diary your life and can make you seem more 'real' to people. It may be that you need to put up a photograph. Between us at Wishes and Angels and our onsite 'angels', we will do our utmost to try to get your wish granted but there are no guarantees. Maybe rather than wish for the full outstanding arrears or bill amount you can arrange with your lender to pay on a monthly basis and wish for that amount each month. If you have been waiting a year for a new washing machine and see no way of affording one then we do feel that the pound 4, dollar 6 or euro 5 wish fee is a small one in return for a brand new washing machine, albeit you may have to wait a few months. Not immediately, but in time, we hope to repair lives. GRATITUDEWhen people give you a gift, they are sent a thank you email from us at Wishes and Angels. Many will hardly be able to afford the money for the gift but will identify with and empathise with you so much that they want to help. (We will have to stop our CEO from sitting with her finger stuck on the 'give' button). We would advise that you also thank the angel who has given to you. It makes it more real for them. When giving to charity, you don't get that individual letter thanking you from the actual recipient. We want to change that. A small thank you will go a long way. From individual to individual with visual proof, lives rebuilt and hope restored. That's worth a small thank you. HOPEHope is what this site is all about. As long as you know there is some hope you can keep going and keep working towards your goals. Where there is no hope there is indeed no life. We will try our hardest among everyone on this site to keep an eye out for all. We give ourselves, from our profit monthly and we will give to people who have not yet received any gifts. We at Wishes and Angels have all been there. Spread the word and keep hoping and keep in touch. There's a change in the air. Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. |
