Fundraising Support Pack

A guide to maximising your team’s fundraising potential in 2014

In this pack you will find the following tools to help you kick off your team’s fundraising:

• About Starlight Children’s Foundation

• Tried & Tested Fundraising Ideas

• Where do funds raised go?

• How to collect and bank your funds

Some handy tips to keep in mind…

• Remember the Great Adventure Challenge is a corporate event so try and get as much support from organisation

as possible - Engage senior leadership teams, human resources or community partners. A primary purpose of this

event is to develop teamwork and drive employee engagement - this isn’t limited to the 8 people in the race!

• Set a fundraising target and a plan to achieve it - Set a team target (the minimum is $10,000), plan your fundraising

strategy and activities, assign project teams (try and involve others in the office), allocate roles, and set a timeline to

work towards.

• Promote your efforts - Communication is key! Share what you are doing (and why) regularly with friends, family,

colleagues & business contacts. Build a fundraising page and email your page link on social media including LinkedIn.

Add a blog and photos to your page and place flyers in your office - make sure people know what you are doing!

• Raise awareness about Starlight - Ensure your team members visit to a Starlight Express Room to see the impact of

your fundraising first hand - sharing your experience with supporters is far more compelling! Starlight will organise

visits with you direct.

• Thank your supporters - Make sure you thank ALL supporters who donate to your team. Consider a Starlight Express

Room visit of their own for any special thank yous to key supporters or sponsors!

• Don’t forget time credits are up for grabs! For an added incentive to your fundraising, remember time credits will be

awarded to teams that achieve certain pre-set fundraising targets, per team.

The more you raise, the more time credits you earn!!

$10,000 = 30mins, $15,000 = 45mins, >$20,000 = 60mins

(If an organisation has more than one team the time bonus will be split equally across the participating teams)

For more information or support with your fundraising please contact your GAC Committee members -

Starlight NSW - Rebecca on 02 8425 5927 or rebecca.oxenbould@starlight.org.au

Starlight VIC – Fiona on 03 9468 2030 or fiona.holmesby@starlight.org.au

Starlight QLD – Alyssa on 07 3456 0407 or alyssa.delaurence@starlight.org.au

Starlight WA – Laura on 08 9460 9012 or laura.currie@starlight.org.au

Starlight Children’s Foundation

Transforming the lives of seriously ill children and their families Starlight is a national children's charity dedicated to transforming the lives of seriously ill children and

young people, and their families, throughout Australia.

The sad reality is that every minute of every day a child is admitted to hospital in Australia.

Unfortunately thousands of these children are then faced with a diagnosis that can change their life,

and the lives of their family, forever.

This is where Starlight steps in, with a range of programs both in and out of hospital that deliver fun,

laughter and positive distraction to support the whole family throughout their journey.

These programs include:

• Hospital Programs – Captain Starlight, Starlight Express Rooms, Starlight TV, Starlight Fun Centres, Livewire

• Community Programs – Starlight Wishes

• Online – Livewire.org.au, a secure community for seriously ill adolescents

• Outreach – Starlight programs to remote locations including indigenous communities and hospitals in the Northern

Territory.

Starlight’s programs are integral to the total care of seriously ill children and young people. While the health professionals

focus on treating the illness, Starlight is there to help care for the child. We support them throughout their journey by

providing the opportunity to be distracted from the pain and stress of their treatments and to simply be a child again. We

help them experience special and often transformational moments that bring happiness, joy and hope to the whole

family.

Starlight programs deliver not only an immediate impact, but also support the longer term wellbeing and resilience of

children and their families by restoring the joy, happiness a sense of normality that serious illness takes away.

Starlight facts

• There are 600,000 children admitted to hospitals in Australia each year. This is where our Starlight Express Rooms

and Captain Starlights can make a difference. In 2013, 130,000 children visited our SERs in the seven major pediatric

hospitals around the country.

• Starlight aims to grant at least a Starlight Wish every day – in 2013 Starlight granted 462 wishes and is looking to

grant 500 wishes in 2014.

• 70% of the children and young people who receive a Starlight Wish will manage their illness and its treatment for

their entire lives.

• Starlight Fun Centres are available to children admitted to 85 hospitals around the country.

• The Starlight brand has a prompted awareness of 89% and is in the top 10 most trusted charity brands in Australia.

However, this brand strength can be misinterpreted as “already well supported”. As a charity that delivers programs

seven days a week, our costs are ongoing, and Starlight receives no government assistance. Continuing our delivery is

dependent on donations and the support of individuals, organisations and events like Great Adventure Challenge.

For more information on Starlight Children’s Foundation,

visit www.starlight.org.au or call 1300 727 827

Tried & Tested Fundraising Ideas

Reaching your $ target is easy!

To start fundraising, you must first build your team’s online fundraising page.

Go to http://greatadventurechallenge.gofundraise.com.au and click ‘Start Fundraising”. Teams must

set up a page to enable permission to fundraise for Starlight.

It takes only a few moments and will prove a very useful tool in achieving your goal!

Then set a fundraisng plan! Each team’s fundraising plan will be slightly different, however there

are 4 fundamentals to reaching your goal

1. Engage your personal network

• Set each team member an personal target e.g. If everyone committs to raise $500 each, then 8 x $500 = $4000

and you’re nearly half way there!

• Send regular updates to friends and family – share training progress, thank those who have supported and

remind those who haven’t - a guilty consciencious go a long way!

• Post regular updates on Facebook – it’s easy to link through to your team fundraising page.

2. Engage your company

The Great Adventure Challenge is a corporate event - could you host an event which engages your collegaues,

broader business, department, division etc.?

• Share the load and develop fundraising teams and invite colleagues to help, this will allow you to concentrate on

your training!

• A great way to raise money is auctioning/selling prizes – reach out to contacts to see if they will donate prizes

e.g. vouchers, holidays – you’ll be surprised what you can get from simply making an ask.

3. Engage your business suppliers and partners

You may need to go through offical channels, but approaching your business suppliers and partners can be potenially

very lucrative.

• Ask them to sponsor your team for logo placement on team kit

• Sell them raffle tickets or invite them to take part in a silent auction.

• Post a regular update on your LinkedIn page – it’s easy to link through to your team fundraising page.

4. Engage the General Public

Naturally there is only so much that even your beloved friends, family and colleagues are prepared to give but that

doesn’t stop you targeting the wider public!

• Is there a local fundraising activity you could explore?

• Is there a way to target other companies who reside within your building?

Below is a list of fundraising ideas GAC teams have used to achieve their targets:

• Auction – host a charity auction, stand alone or as a part of an existing work event. Source donated items as prizes

from your suppliers and supporters and local businesses in your area.

• BBQ/Sausage sizzle – hold a BBQ at your local Bunnings Store, or at your workplace.

• Sponsorship of Team Kit – Seek sponsorship from business networks by offering logo placement on our team shirt in

exchange for a donation. In 2011, one team raised more than $30,000 using a sponsorship package to sell logo space

on their Team Kit! Contact Starlight for support with building a sponsorship package.

• Share your Online Fundraising page – Share your online fundraising page link with friends, family and business

contacts. Make sure your page has photos and a blog about why you are involved. Not everyone will donate the first

time you ask – so don’t be afraid to send a reminder!

• Promotion with Business Partners – run a promotion in conjunction with key business partners or supporters

whereby percentage of profits is donated. Contact Starlight for support in this area. E.g. survey - gain customer

feedback on your product or service and make a small donation per respondent

• Public Fundraising - The average community BBQ at Bunnings raises over $1,000! As there is strong demand for

these events however there is often a 8-10 week waiting list so get an application is quick! To apply to host a

Bunnings BBQ, contact the Activities Organiser at your local Bunnings. Korn/ferry last organised a trivia night

exclusively for their buidling neighbours at a nearby restaurant and raised over $7,000!

• Raffle – Run a giant raffle as a stand-alone activity or as part of another event. Source prizes from your suppliers and

local businesses and raffle items off to your colleagues.

• Share via Social Media – make the most of your social media networks by sharing your Online Fundraising Page link

with all of your team members’ connections on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn etc.

• Trivia/Quiz night - organise a trivia night for staff and business partners to attend. Include a raffle or auction and

seek donated goods as prizes from suppliers. On average in 2011, teams who ran a company trivia night raised

between $4000-7500 on the night!

• Office fundraiser – run an activity at the office to raise awareness of your teams entry in GAC and raise funds whislt

involving collegaues – e.g. run a”Master Chef” competition, each week in the run up to the event, inviting budding

culinary colleagyes to bake something which can then be sold off at a morning tea. Last year one team raised over

$1000 doing just this!

“We completed a trivia night for the fourth year running which was attended by over 120 people and raised $9300. The key to this was soliciting prizes from clients/suppliers/cold calls to raffle which generated most of the cash”

“We put a bounty of $750 on 8 of our partners. If they didn't raise the money, they were punished in our Crime and

Punishment night at work”

Where do funds raised by your team go?

The difference your fundraising efforts make for seriously ill kids…

Every minute of every day a child is admitted to hospital in Australia and for thousands of these children this leads to a

diagnosis of illness that changes their lives forever.

This is where Starlight steps in… delivering a range of programs both in and out of hospital to support the well-being and

resilience of seriously ill children and their families through positive distraction and restore the fun and laughter serious

illness takes away.

TaylorTaylorTaylorTaylor’s Starlight Story ’s Starlight Story ’s Starlight Story ’s Starlight Story

Four-year-old Taylor has been in and out of hospital for most of her young life.

Diagnosed with a chronic bowel condition and severe gastric reflux at the age of two, Taylor has to undergo regular tests

that are often invasive and painful and require hospital admissions that can be months long.

Taylor’s mum Fiona says, “In the early days of driving to the hospital for

tests, Taylor would start crying and screaming, “No tubes up my nose,

no tubes” over and over again when she realised where we were going.

It was heartbreaking.”

Taylor’s treatments included bowel wash-outs, enemas, injections,

colonoscopies and endoscopies - until she finally had surgery to partially

remove her colon and insert a stomach button.

However such severe procedures took their toll on Taylor’s little body

and she became increasingly despondent to treatment... until she

discovered the Starlight Express Room.

In the Starlight Express Room sick children and their families can get

away from the trauma of being in hospital. Taylor forgets about her

treatment when she can sing and dance in the Starlight Express Room,

get her face painted, do craft and make balloon animals with Captain

Starlight.

Fiona says, “Captain Starlight has never disappointed her…they even

helped her recover”.

In the Starlight Express Room, Captain Starlight uses the latest in gaming technologies, movies, music, magic and craft to

help children escape from the pain, fear and loneliness associated with hospitalisation. Starlight Express Rooms are a

welcome retreat for brothers and sisters who otherwise spend long days in waiting rooms and hospital corridors.

How to collect and bank your funds

Make your online fundraising page a one stop shop for all of your fundraising!

Online

Once you have set up your online fundraising page, share your team’s page link with all team members’ friends, family

and business contacts for their support with an online donation.

An automatic recept will be issued for all online donations.

Offline

Donations to your team can be made by cash or cheque or direct transfer to Starlight’s account as well – simply forward

funds direct to Starlight for processing.

Then, log into your online fundraising page and add an ‘offline’ donation to your team page so the $$ appears in your

team’s fundraising total.

Receipts will be issued to these donors once funds are processed, please provide the donor’s full name and mailing

address so a receipt can be mailed.

Forwarding donations by cheque:

Written to: ‘Starlight Children’s Foundation of Australia’

NSW mail to: Rebecca Oxenbould, Starlight Children’s Foundation, PO Box 101, St Leonards, NSW 1590

VIC mail to: Fiona Holmesby, Starlight Children’s Foundation, PO Box 276, East Melbourne, VIC 8002

QLD mail: Alyssa de Laurence, Starlight Children’s Foundation, PO Box 8187, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102

WA mail: Laura Currie, Starlight Children’s Foundation, Como LPO, PO Box 385, Como WA 6952

Forwarding donations by direct transfer:

Bank: ANZ Bank

Account Name: Starlight Children’s Foundation Australia

BSB: 012 405

Account number: 7770 17768

Reference: [GAC Team Name]

NB: Tax deductions only apply to monetary donations. If a good is received for money donated e.g. purchasing an auction

or raffle item, a tax deduction cannot be issued.