Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Helping People to Help Others ~ Guest blog by Graeme Burn

It’s not that easy to raise money. but it’s not that hard and it can be fun into the bargain. It’s partly about making it easy for people who want to give to dip into their pockets and part with a moderate sum. It’s also about giving them a good reason to do this. And at the University of Technology, Sydney we have been managing to do both for a number of years.

I work with English language examiners and support staff and every two weeks or so we get together at UTS to work. Its only for four hours but there’s enough time to pitch to them the latest reason why we need their help and give them an easy attractive way to part with their cash.

The latest reason was CEF’s water safety day - a fun day of games and activities for 80 children where they also learn how not to drown.




I have found that raffles are a good way to entice my colleagues to give and there are always a few people who have great prizes they like to donate. This last raffle was no exception. Nicky donated a getaway weekend by the ocean, Frank came up with a bottle of Mumm champagne and there were two other desirable prizes: some Spode pottery and an incense burner.

I spread the raffle out over at least two weeks to give everyone who wants to the chance to buy tickets and by the time we got to the draw not only had we raised over $600 but there was quite a degree of excitement as the winning tickets were drawn.

It was delightful to see the delight on the faces of the winners and also to feel the warm support of all those who had participated in some way to raise enough to cover over half the cost of the water safety day.

A big thank you to everyone who gave so that children in our programs now know what to do if they get into trouble in the water.

Selling biscuits keeps two CEF girls in school each year



No comments:

Post a Comment