Engineers Without Borders Australia Fundraising Guide

Transcription

1 Engineers Without Borders Australia Fundraising Guide Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) is a not-for-profit organisation that works with disadvantaged communities to improve the quality of life through education and the implementation of sustainable engineering projects. Fundraising for EWB helps us to work with communities facing issues such as access to clean drinking water, sanitation, energy, basic infrastructure and waste systems. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

2 Thank you for fundraising for EWB. Your contribution helps us create meaningful and lasting change in developing communities in Australia and overseas. This fundraising kit aims to help you make your fundraising activity successful. Meet Katie EWB s Fundraising Coordinator Hi fellow fundraisers, Welcome to the world of fundraising! Whether you are a fundraising pro, or your completely new to it fundraising can be a lot of fun. It s a great opportunity to get friends together, organise an inspiring event or even get fit. I ve got lots of experience in fundraising; I ve organised African dinner parties, sold my old clothes at markets, asked people to donate prizes for raffles and even auctioned off some of my own paintings. I love fundraising because I know it makes a real difference to people in developing communities and it gives me the opportunity to engage people I know in something I m passionate about. I know what it s like to fundraise and I m happy to support you in any way I can. Please contact me if you have any questions or if you would like to bounce around some fundraising ideas. Good luck, P: E: k.blundy@ewb.org.au Who can fundraise for EWB? Anyone can fundraise for EWB. You don t have to be part of an EWB Chapter or one of our corporate partners. You definitely don t have to be an engineer. Money raised from fundraising supports projects such as water provision, sanitation solutions and renewable energy for developing communities these issues affect everyone. How to Fundraise for EWB: 1. Decide what type of fundraising you would like to organise and recruit a team of people to assist you. 2. Register your fundraising activity with EWB, at least four weeks before the event, by completing the Registration Form at ewb.org.au/fundraise. 3. EWB will send you a confirmation and let you know that we are happy for you to go ahead. 4. Organise and host your event / fundraising activity 5. Collect the details of any donors who would like to receive a tax receipt, using the Donor receipt form in this pack. 6. Let us know how the fundraising went by completing the Fundraising Results Form and filling in the details of donors who need receipts at ewb.org.au/fundraise 7. Within two weeks of finishing your event, send funds raised to EWB by depositing it into the EWB bank account or processing it as a credit card donation. Bank details: Engineers Without Borders Australia Foundation BSB: Acct: Note: Please use your surname and fundraising as the payment description Credit Card payment visit: ewb.org.au/donate/ 8. everyone who got involved or attended the event to say thank you. Tell them how much you raised and that the money has been sent to EWB. In your thank you letter you should offer people the opportunity to stay up to date with EWB s work in developing communities by subscribing to our free newsletter at ewb.org.au/newsletter.

3 Fundraising Ideas There are so many fundraising opportunities, big and small; here are a few ideas to get you started: Fast and Furious Quick Money Spinners: Special food days Easter Cook pancakes for everyone on Pancake Tuesday or sell Hot Cross Buns before the Easter break. An Easter egg hunt can also be lots of fun. Multi-cultural food day This is a great way to celebrate diversity in your workplace / uni or friendship group. Ask people bring a dish of food from their home country to share. Set a price and invite people to the banquette. Company bake-off Nominate three judges and ask staff to enter. Entrants pay a fee to enter and there is a prize for the winning dish (tip: ask your company to donate a prize). After the winner has been announced the remaining food can be sold by slice or serving (make sure you charge more for the winning dish!) Casual Clothes Day Every person brings a donation for wearing casual clothes. Friday Drinks If your company provides Friday drinks ask everyone to bring a gold coin each week. Footy Tipping Each person pays to enter. Ask the company to donate prices for the winners so the full amount raised can go to EWB. Raffle Raffles are great for special events including Christmas, Easter, Mother s Day, Father s Day and Corporate Balls. The Big Bucks: Fitness Fundraising Challenges There are many great fitness fundraising events happening across Australia including: Run Melbourne * Noosa Triathlon * Australian Running Festival in Canberra * City2Surf run in Sydney * Cycle Queensland * Triathlon WA * Resolution Run in South Australia To find events happening in your state visit or do a google search. You can also create your own by setting yourself a challenge. Think big or small for example you could climb Mount Kilimanjaro or ride to work every day for month. You can enter fitness fundraising events as an individual or a team. It works on a peer-to-peer fundraising model where you ask friends and family to sponsor you to do a challenging run, bike ride or other sporting event. To set up your own personal fundraising page visit: charity/view?charity=417 and click Build Fundraising Page for this charity. Once your fundraising page is set up the link to your family, friends and workmates explaining what you are doing and why and asking them to make a donation.

4 Fundraising event Organising an event takes a little more time and effort but it well worth it. Some great event ideas include: EWB ball Themed dinner Trivia night Movie night Marketing is the key to running a successful event. Start early, design posters and invitations. Recruit a key group of promoters who commit to promoting the event to their networks and selling tickets. You can even offer a prize to the person who sells the most tickets. An EWB staff member or returned volunteer may be able to attend your event to speak about EWB. See the FAQs section for more information. Try to get the venue, food and auction items donated to reduce costs and increase the amount of money raised. Bike Count Super Tuesday is Australia s biggest annual bike count that provides figures about bicycle commuting. Participants volunteer for two hours to count bikes at an intersection. Each person who volunteers can nominate EWB to receive $50. If you mobilised a group of 50 people volunteer that means EWB will receive $2500! Super Tuesday March Victoria, NSW, WA and SA Super Tuesday September NT and QLD Fundraising tip An easy way to fundraise and collect money is to set up an online fundraising page and your friends and contacts to ask for a donation. People can donate directly to EWB without you needing to collect and deposit any money. Visit to set up a page. Shop Till You Drop Choosing to use the companies below for your shopping or gift giving is an easy way to contribute to EWB. Even better develop a fundraising project to sell these items year round or before Christmas. Coffee Causes Coffee Causes supplies workplaces and individuals with fresh, ethically sourced coffee and directs a significant portion of proceeds to a nominated organisation. Simply order your coffee from Coffee Causes and nominate EWB to benefit from your purchase. Aussie Farmers Direct (AFD) AFD are a home delivery service offering 100 % Australian produced and owned fresh produce including milk, bread, meat, fruit, vegetables, pasta and cheese. AFD has a fundraising program where customers nominate an organisation (EWB of course!) to receive 2% of their annual spend. Living Fundraisers: Living Fundraisers specialises in healthy, eco-friendly fundraising. Products available include flower, vegie and herb growing kits, living Christmas cards, healthy snacks and tea, coffee and drinking chocolate. This runs like the well-known chocolate drive, where each participant takes some items to sell and returns the money or takes an order form to collect orders and money.

5 Chocolate Boxes Order a chocolate box each week / month and place it in the lunch room at your workplace. It s one of the easiest ways to fundraise. Cadbury: Mars: Morish nuts: The Entertainment Book The Entertainment Book is a local restaurant and activity guide, which provides hundreds of 2-for-1 offers of up to 50% off and from the finest restaurants, cafes, attractions, theatres and accommodation. Karma Currency Gifts Through Karma Currency you can buy beautiful gift cards (ecards or physical cards) that buy a meaningful gift that helps EWB continue our work. Gift ideas include: Pancakes for an EWB fundraising event, a bike for a newly arrived refugee, a giant compost bin and a week of water. These make fantastic corporate or Christmas gifts. Fundraising Tip Speak to your workplace about Matched Giving. Some workplaces will match dollar for dollar amounts donated or fundraised by staff. It s a great way to double your impact! Karam Currency

6 Spotlight On Successful Fundraisers: Corporate Ball Raffle A ball raffle is a fundraising raffle, held at a company ball or large party. Large companies typically have annual balls and/or Christmas parties. Ball raffles have been successful at a number of engineering company balls including WorleyParsons, Transfield Worley, Society of Petroleum Engineers and Rio Tinto. These balls had approximately 600 attendees and raised between $2,500 and $8,500 each! You will need to organise a prize for the raffle. Try to get at least one great prize donated. Your company may donate a prize, if not send letters to businesses such as a five star hotel or a boat cruise. Ask your personal networks if they can donate a prize. If you must pay for the prize, you can reimburse yourself the prize cost before banking the rest of the cash. Touch Rugby Competition In engineers and family and friends came together for the second annual Touch Rugby games and raised over $3000 for EWB. The event involved organising eight teams for different workplaces and charging each team an entry fee. Funds were also raised from the BBQ on the day. The Touch Rugby games is a fun event that anyone can get involved in; team member don t need to be touch rugby stars or to have ever played before. A sports competition is a great way to raise money for EWB, it s also a lot of family fun and promotes a healthy lifestyle. Tips for marketing your fundraising event: Contact everyone you know you might be surprised who supports you! Contact friends, family, colleagues, employer, neighbours, church, school community or any sporting groups you are part of. Social media create a facebook event and invite all your friends. Ask people to share the event and post regular updates to create a buzz. Personal Send an invitation to your family, friends and colleagues at least a month before the activity. Send reminders and updates before the big day. Posters Put up posters at your university, workplace or school Newsletter If the event is at your university or workplace ask if they can put an article about it in the newsletter. Recruit ambassadors Ambassadors are people who commit to promoting the event, volunteering or donating items for the raffle To get ambassadors excited you could offer a mystery prize to whoever sells the most tickets. Local newspapers Local papers love stories about things happening in the community. Contact them at least three weeks before the event and ask if they will write a story about it. EWB website If you are an EWB member you can create an event on the EWB website and share it with your friends. Events should be added to your regional page

7 Frequently Asked Questions How can you give donors a tax receipt? Donations over $2 are tax deductible. It is important to note that this refers to donations only. Payment for an event, purchase of raffle tickets or any other goods are not classified as donations. Record any donations (person s full name, address and donation amount) on the donor receipt form at the end of the document and send EWB by filling in the online Donor Receipt Form at ewb.org.au/fundraise. EWB will send individual receipts to each donor. Can I use EWB s logo and name? If you are an EWB member and organising a fundraiser on behalf of your Region or local Chapter then you will have access to EWB s logo and can use this on promotional material. Just get in touch with the Communications Coordinator or President in the Region. You don t have to be a member or part of a Chapter to fundraise for EWB. We welcome anyone to raise funds including engineers and non-gineers. However, if you are not a member and part of a Chapter you won t be able to use our logo on your event material or call it an EWB event. Instead, please include: This event proudly supports Engineers Without Borders Australia on your event material. Can the money I fundraise go towards a specific EWB program? We know you are fundraising for EWB because you believe in what we do and trust we will use the money to facilitate meaningful and lasting change in developing communities. EWB s funding needs change throughout the year as some programs become fully funded and some fall behind on their funding requirements. Our preference is that fundraising money is not tied to a specific program. This means that EWB can allocate money where it is most needed. However, if you feel strongly about contributing to a certain program (such as EWB s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program or EWB s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programs) please speak to us. Please be aware that if you are a Chapter fundraising for a specific program or initiative this will not show up in your budget, this will be directly allocated to the program / initiative budget. Can an EWB staff member or volunteer come and speak at my event? EWB cannot guarantee that a speaker will be available for your event. You can submit a speaker request form by visiting Please make sure you request a speaker at least four weeks before your event. How much money can I spend on expenses for the event? Minimising the cost of your fundraising activity helps ensure more of the money you raise goes to EWB. Please take all reasonable steps to ensure that the expenses do not exceed a fair and reasonable proportion of the gross proceeds obtained from the event. The Charitable Fundraising Acts state that expenses must not exceed 40% of the gross proceeds.

8 Donor Receipt Form This form is for your convience, to print and take a long to a fundraising event. You will need to send this information back to EWB but filling in the Donor details section of the Fundraising Results form. Receipts can only be issued for donations to EWB, not tickets or products purchased. Donations over $2 are tax deductible. First Name Surname Phone Donation Amount