How to fundraise in COVID lockdowns
HOW TO FUNDRAISE IN COVID LOCKDOWNS
Nichols Point raised $38K while the kids were remote learning.
So, we recorded a chat with their coordinator Annie so you can hear her advice. In the chat, Annie explains what she did and how the experience was for her school.
You can find the secrets of her success in the below video.
This video addresses the big issues like:
Is a Fun Run going to add a heap of work for you while the kids are remote learning?
How can you possibly ask people for donations during lockdown?
What’s the best way to launch digitally and keep the kids engaged?
COVID FUNDRAISING RESULTS
We've all had a rough run of it lately. COVID seems to just keep rolling on... and on... taking away our liberties, ability to see friends & family, playing community sport and just staying generally connected.
So, this is a shout to the schools who've been determined to not have their kids miss out on a School Fun Run. They have been well rewarded!
AVERAGE UP 61%
Since COVID struck, our average amount raised per School Fun Run has jumped by 61%... how amazing is that! Our average event is now raising just under $20k. Before Covid, they were averaging just a bit over $11k.
By the time Christmas arrives we will have partnered with over 1,000 schools in the last 24 months. All were committed to making a 'Rainbow Moment' for their kids after the Covid-19 storm. The feedback has been as EPIC as the funding raised!
During COVID, community support for schools has also produced new highest fundraising records in:
Australia with Milton Public raising $114,058
NSW (twice)
NT (twice)
SA (twice)
ACT
Qld
Vic (twice)
WHY ARE PEOPLE GIVING SO MUCH?
Because we have not seen each other in so long, extended family and friends are expressing their care for the kids they love by supporting their participation in School Fun Run. Its good for their education and its good for their mental health and wellbeing.
As Annie says in the video… “With all of our families sharing the link it actually became more about ‘here's an opportunity for these kids’ that is absolutely something that people wanted to donate towards. We found that across the board. We had donations Australia-wide and we had international donations because here was this school and this community that had done it really tough, but we're looking to provide something really positive. So, why not jump behind that.”
FLEXIBLE
At the start of 2020, Annabelle at Lindfield Public School wanted to host an epic School Fun Run event for the school community to share. COVID hit halfway through fundraising and the plans had to change due to social distancing. We worked with the school to hold a student only event that was run in class groups. They raised $91,858 and Annabelle was ‘over the moon’ that the kids had an escape from the stressful nature of those early days in the pandemic.
We also developed Virtual Fun Runs for schools in remote learning.
So, if you want your kids to end the year covered in colour powder --- looking like LITTLE RUNNING RAINBOWS --- or if you want to connect your community during remote learning to get them moving at home... get in touch with us.
We'll be happy to help. It's what we do! You can check out our COVID Safe models here.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
MITCH: Here today with Annie from Nichols Point Primary. Last year in the thick of lockdown you guys had an amazing result and raised over $38,000 for your school. So, I’d just love to hear from you about what you guys did to have such an awesome result. So, would you like to tell us a little about yourself and the school?
ANNIE: Last year was tough on regional Vic, or whole of Victoria, but up here in regional as well. We just really wanted to provide an opportunity for our kids and our community (to have some fun). That in all honesty was what kick-started us going. We thought we need to do this for the kids after everything they've been through.
From there we contacted you guys and got stepped through the program. Obviously got set up and then it was that the headache of, how we're going to do this, knowing that we weren't going to see the kids.
MITCH: Were you nervous at all when booking a fundraiser like this?
ANNIE: Yeah, we were, we just didn't know how to go trying to launch online and not having that access to just chat to the kids about it. So, we were very nervy. So, we just went you know what, whatever happens, it's just a bonus… and then, once those figures rolled back in you can imagine we pretty much fell off our chairs. We were just so proud of our community and what we're able to do.
MITCH: There's probably a lot of coordinators out there, especially in Victoria and New South Wales at the moment thinking this is just all too difficult at the moment with everything going on. What would you say to them if they were considering holding a School Fun Run?
ANNIE: In all honesty, I don't think we've ever held an easier event. As far as the admin side of it, you guys really set the program up, stepped me through the website… I think it took for 15 minutes. I literally pushed out a link and said hey guys let's support each other and let's get signed up.
So, it actually couldn't be easier, it really couldn't. Everything's supplied, it's all at your fingertips and then there's so much helpful advice and tips and videos on your platform that you know it really allowed the day to just take care of itself.
MITCH: Obviously times are tough during COVID. Were you nervous at all about asking people for donations during these times?
ANNIE: Yeah, obviously it definitely was a consideration. Just knowing what families were going through and how tough things were and that's why we more poured our energy into just providing this awesome day for our school community. But the feedback that we got, and the biggest thing I found, was people were more than happy to donate. Actually, they wanted to donate because they found something positive. There was, you know, a positive message or a positive thing that they could contribute to on their Facebook feed.
With all of our families sharing the link it actually became more about ‘here's an opportunity for these kids’ that is absolutely something that people wanted to donate towards. We found that across the board. We had donations Australia-wide and we had international donations because here was this school and this community that had done it really tough, but we're looking to provide something really positive. So, why not jump behind that.
MITCH: What kind of support was available to you to be able to actually to raise that awesome amount?
ANNIE: We all learned a lot in 2020 about our world coming online. So, we just pushed it out to the kids and said we'd love to do this, here's your sign-up link all that sort of thing and the parents jumped on board. All the families and the kids were just so excited, we were making little Gifs of the principal exploding in colour because we wanted them to be able to go… right we've got to get our class signed up.
We use Microsoft Teams, so you can actually witness the conversations going on between the kids as they hype each other up and get each other onto mum and dad to sign up. So, the kids actually took the reins a bit as far as promotion went. In that way, a bit of healthy competition and a bit of fun, and they were just so supportive of one another.
You know, the kids would post things like, I made another $20 last night or something like that and share little heart emojis going… the kids were loving it! The kids were the ones who really ran it I suppose. That made it all the better.
MITCH: It was so successful and you're about to launch your second event this week. What's your motivation behind launching an event during a lockdown?
ANNIE: It’s about community for us. We're really hopeful that by November 1st, which is when we plan to do this, that there is maybe an opportunity that our families can be back on site. We do know that there's every chance that maybe they can't, but after a pretty rough ride again in 2021 just allowing kids to get out there and smile and have some fun and enjoy being with each other again seems so important.
MITCH: If for whatever reason you wouldn't be able to hold your event on the date you were after, what would you do?
ANNIE: That's the one thing we loved about School Fun Run… the flexibility is there. We would just make it work, we’d shift it, we’d move it to the next week, or the week after. You know, we'd find a workaround, because we certainly know after our experience last year, just how valuable it is and what it did for our kids.
MITCH: Obviously it might get to the point where you couldn't hold an actual School Fun Run event, did you have a backup in place with the virtual Fun Runs that were offered, or anything like that?
ANNIE: Yeah, we definitely had looked at those.
We had a lot of things coming in photos, videos of what the kids were doing, we had already done our cross country virtually so we knew it could be done. We would have definitely made it possible and the kids were prepared for that too. They understood that there was a chance they’d be going to be doing this really cool fun run but at home with their family. They were more than happy for that to be what was going to happen as well.
MITCH: With home learning going on, none of the kids are seeing each other like they would normally in the playground. How do you find an event like this brings the whole school together and really drives that sense of school community?
ANNIE: Yeah, and look it is tricky because it is every child in their family home as individuals.
We have a bit of a phrase that we live by here at Nichols Point and it's stronger together. That's both as a staff and all our families, so it really does give those kids that opportunity to just feel connected again. It gives them a sense of purpose and coming back together. Because we launch digitally in class groups, it gives them a feeling like I’m part of a team again and that they are working towards something as a collective as opposed to sitting in front of a screen.
We check in with our home groups, as a whole every morning, and that's where we found that real buzz in particular. We're trying to mark the role and all the kids want to talk about is how they're going with their fundraising. That opportunity for them to communicate again about something that it isn't about COVID and it's not about lockdown, or the government, or all these extra pressures these kids have on them at the moment. It's about this really positive connected thing that we're going to do as a community. So, it definitely brings the kids back together even if it is in a virtual way during the fundraising.
MITCH: I know you touched on it before, but how did you keep the students motivated and engaged throughout the fundraising period?
ANNIE: We just didn't take ourselves too seriously, we had a laugh through the whole process which I think was really important. So, I was doing daily tally boards of the top fundraisers which again was just going out to the kids on Microsoft Teams. They were getting so excited for each other and then probably taking on the challenge a little bit to try and push their own fundraising up.
We had kids using their I.T. skills during remote learning to make their own little campaign videos that then they were pushing out to their families and some of the kids at school. They were sending them to us staff as well and it was just phenomenal.
The motivation really took care of itself in that sense, because the kids were just so excited.
MITCH: You're going to be in lockdown for the start of the next launch this time around, what really helps to launch your fundraiser during this time?
ANNIE: Yeah, so we're in lockdown right now and we're launching tomorrow. As far as we know, right now we're in lockdown for two weeks, so I think a big part of it is just putting in some time and effort to make it engaging for the kids. Not just oh here's your link go sign up so I’ll spend a bit of this afternoon on Canva and making things look really pretty and colourful definitely a video. I’ll put together a short video and I’ll just make sure that the kids see how excited I am because I think that’s a real motivator.
MITCH: What was your overall experience with holding a School Fun Run?
ANNIE: All of us walked away and just were absolutely blown away by just how good that day made us feel, and it still does, it's been spoken about all year. The kids are at me all the time, every week they want the fun run to happen again this year. We'd sort of been just sitting on it for a bit unsure whether every year was the way to go or every second year. Then after this final setback and another lockdown we went nah, we just have to do it!
The kids do request we do one every single week. To be 12 months later and the kids are still buzzing from the event we held last year, I think that speaks for itself as far as impact.
MITCH: Thank you so much for your time today Annie and sharing your experience with the program and we look forward to achieving an even better result this year.
ANNIE: Yeah, no worries and thank you guys for bringing a bit of hope back to our little community down here in Victoria.
