Application for the Best Regional Fundraising Event for the Fundraising Ireland Awards 2013. The application shows the success of the Big Heart Fight Night Galway 2013.
Nominations should be in respect of activity completed during the organisation’s last financial year. This award will recognise the regional event that demonstrates the best use of resources, partners, volunteers and team effort to ensure optimum fundraising return. Fundraising events involve the sale of tickets, payment of an entry fee or the need for people to register to participate/attend e.g. sports or challenge based social functions. Only organisations with a remit that is local or regional rather than national can enter this award. Organisations who can show that their activities and events are restricted to specific geographical areas within the Republic of Ireland (e.g. province, county, city, town) are entitled to submit a nomination in this category. Criteria: The judges will award marks for: Innovation and creativity. Effectiveness in terms of financial and non-financial results. Overall execution and outcome of the event. Best Regional Fundraising Event All nominees and nominators should be aware that because a key objective is to promote best practice in fundraising, all eligible forms will be displayed on the Fundraising Ireland website from May 20 th 2013. Therefore the information should be written in a way so as to make it possible to communicate to the wider world as well as to the judges. By submitting a form both nominator and nominee are agreeing to have the information posted on the www.fundraisingireland.ie website. Sponsored by: Who can be nominated? Any organisation, which has a CHY number in Ireland, and which is independently governed, or any individual who works with such an organisation may win an award. The judges reserve the right to request a copy of the organisation’s governing document to clarify in cases of doubt. Nominations are open to all fundraisers, fundraising organisations in Ireland, their support agencies and supplier partners. Nominations are to be made in respect of work, whether voluntary or paid, carried out by individuals or teams, for these organisations during your organisation’s last financial year. Applicants can make as many nominations as they wish and may enter the same campaign for more than one category where applicable. You must be a member of Fundraising Ireland to submit a nomination. Please note: winning campaigns from previous years cannot be entered again in the same category.
Transcript
Nominations should be in respect of activity completed during the organisation’s last financial year.
This award will recognise the regional event that demonstrates the best use of resources, partners, volunteers and team effort to ensure optimum fundraising return. Fundraising events involve the sale of tickets, payment of an entry fee or the need for people to register to participate/attend e.g. sports or challenge based social functions. Only organisations with a remit that is local or regional rather than national can enter this award. Organisations who can show that their activities and events are restricted to specific geographical areas within the Republic of Ireland (e.g. province, county, city, town) are entitled to submit a nomination in this category.
Criteria: The judges will award marks for:
Innovation and creativity.
Effectiveness in terms of financial and non-financial results.
Overall execution and outcome of the event.
Best Regional Fundraising Event
All nominees and nominators should be aware that because a key objective is to promote best practice in fundraising, all eligible forms will be displayed on the Fundraising Ireland website from May 20th 2013. Therefore the information should be written in a way so as to make it possible to communicate to the wider world as well as to the judges. By submitting a form both nominator and nominee are agreeing to have the information posted on the www.fundraisingireland.ie website.
Sponsored by:
Who can be nominated? Any organisation, which has a CHY number in Ireland, and which is independently governed, or any individual who works with such an organisation may win an award. The judges reserve the right to request a copy of the organisation’s governing document to clarify in cases of doubt.
Nominations are open to all fundraisers, fundraising organisations in Ireland, their support agencies and supplier partners.
Nominations are to be made in respect of work, whether voluntary or paid, carried out by individuals or teams, for these organisations during your organisation’s last financial year.
Applicants can make as many nominations as they wish and may enter the same campaign for more than one category where applicable. You must be a member of Fundraising Ireland to submit a nomination.
Please note: winning campaigns from previous years cannot be entered again in the same category.
MANDATORY INFORMATION
Entries are judged strictly against the following criteria.
Nominator’s Details (every line in this section is compulsory):
Name: David Muldoon
Job Title: Regional Fundraiser
Organisation: Irish Heart Foundation
Address: Ballybane Enterprise Centre, Ballybane, Galway
Please specify the geographical area in which event activities took place:
Galway
Objectives: List the objectives of your event and how it was carried out? Who were your target audience and how were they reached? (Max 250 words)
The objective were as follows:
- Recruit 40 participants (both men and women) to sign up for an 8 week boxing training course. The participants make up the event and fundraise and sell tickets to the Big Heart Fight Night.
- Working with the Black Dragon Boxing Gym in Galway we ran training sessions three times a week over the 8 weeks to equip participants with the skills and fitness needed to take part in a three round bout.
- We tracked their progress through the local media and facebook (www.facebook.com/bigheartfight) and twitter (www.twitter.com/bigheartfight).
- Each of the participants was set a target of €700 each to raise over the 8 weeks through sponsorship and ticket sales. The gross target for the event was €40,000
- At the end of the 8 weeks we put on a Big Heart Fight Night event in the Radisson Blu Hotel Galway where we paired each of the participants up based on their ability and they each took part in a three round bout within a specially constructed boxing ring in the main ballroom of the Radisson.
- Recruitment was through a number of mediums:
Media partnership with the Galway Independent who carried editorials and advertising
Facebook posts and advertising through the Big Heart Fight facebook
Radio interviews on Galway Bay FM - Here is a photo of the participants in the Black Dragon Boxing Gym:
- And a collection of them in training:
- And of the night itself:
Forecasting: How was success intended to be measured? Please list the key performance indicators for this event. (Max 300 words)
The event was to be measured on the following key performance indicators:
1. Initial sign ups a. We aimed to sign up 34 people and taking into account injury’s
and drop outs hoped to have 30 people on the fight night with 15 fights. We received over 100 applications and decided to extend the number of participants to 40 – which was made up of 10 women and 30 men. Amazingly 38 made it through the 8 weeks and we drafted in 2 extra participants on the night to make it 20 bouts.
2. Return on investment and NET Income (see financial results) 3. Media coverage value (see financial results) 4. Attendance on the night (see financial results) 5. Overall experience for the participants over the 8 weeks and the
audience on the night a. The feedback we received during the training, on the night and
after the event was extremely positive and encouraging.
Creativity & Innovation: How did you come up with the idea? How was it innovative or ground breaking? (Max 300 words)
A friend of mine took part in a white collar boxing event a number of years ago which I attended. I thought that the same concept would work really well as a fundraising concept where you target regular, non-boxing men and women looking for a challenge. A lot of people have done the marathons and the treks and were looking for a new challenge and I had a vision of training them in a safe, controlled environment for a number of weeks to prepare them for a 3 round bout. The White Collar Boxing format has been used by charities and primarily GAA clubs over the years as a fundraising tool but the Big Heart Fight Night is different on a number of fronts:
- We targeted your regular, professional, working man or woman – you didn’t have to be a celebrity, politician or GAA player.
- We looked specifically with people with an interest in the work of the IHF - We provided quality, consistent training in a top class boxing gym in
Galway - We booked a quality venue in the Radisson Blu Hotel Galway and put on
a high quality event complete with full light and sound show. We wanted to make it a ‘Vegas Style’ night that would be memorable for both the participants and the audience
- We set a target for each participant and encouraged them to obtain
corporate sponsorship with the sponsor receiving coverage through our media partnership and the night itself
- The media partnership agreed before training started ensured a steady stream of publicity leading up the event and not just relying on press releases
Support: What support was given to the event by those outside the Fundraising department? CEO, Board, non fundraising staff etc. (Max 300 words)
The CEO and a number of staff members attended and helped out on the night.
Sponsorship: Did you secure the support of any sponsor(s) (cash or in kind) and if so how did you identify your sponsor(s)? (Max 300 words)
Each of the 40 participants was sponsored by a business/company. The overall amount raised through corporate sponsorship was €12,300. The image below shows a number of the sponsors:
We had a media partnership with the Galway Independent which consisted of them running a half page profile on a participant each week for 6 weeks in the lead up to the event. They exclusively revealed the bouts in a 4 page special feature the week of the event. The following are some examples of the media coverage including the profiles and the special feature to exclusively announce the bouts:
Here are the profiles which ran one a week over 6 weeks:
We teamed up with www.sponsor.ie where a special event page was set up for the participants to fundraise through and keep a track on their progress and to raise funds from people outside of their locality/Ireland. Overall €6,745 was raised through sponsor.ie. The following is an example of one of the sponsor.ie pages:
Volunteers: How many volunteers were involved in the event and if so how were they recruited? (Max 300 words)
The night consisted on five volunteers helping with set up of the room, registration and managing the door. These were existing volunteers from the IHF Galway office. We also had an additional 12 volunteers for the running of the boxing event as the corner men/women, runners and warming up the participants. These were sourced through the Black Dragon Boxing Gym in Galway (see photo below).
Longevity: How long did the event run for? Would you run a similar event again? Please explain why. (Max 300 words)
The training took place over 8 weeks three times a week. The night itself took place on Friday 15th March in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Galway with the bouts running from 7.30pm until 11.30pm. This was the second time we ran the Big Heart Fight Night Galway with the first taking place in 2012. Because of the success of the initial event there have since been Big Heart Fight events in Sligo, Roscommon, Waterford, Carlow and Cork with a number of new locations in the pipeline. The Big Heart Fight Night Galway 2014 is booked and in the IHF diary for next year.
Evaluation and Risk: What did you do to evaluate the potential for success of this event (taking into account ROI, staffing requirements etc) and how did you reduce any potential risk (e.g. financial, reputational, operational) (Max 300 words)
An event plan was drawn up initially which set out the timelines and actions to be completed. The potential for success was dependent on the quality and quantity of participants. Therefore, we met with a number of different stakeholders and ensured their buy-in and backing for the event including:
- Black Dragon Boxing Gym - Radisson Blu Hotel - Galway Independent
- Galway Bay FM - A number of local businesses to assess their level of interest in
sponsoring a boxer or part of the night With the backing of each of the above sought from the start this helped to reduce the risk. One of the main areas of risk was injury. Therefore, sport we reduced the risk of injury through a number of areas:
- Ensuring that each participant was accessed by their GP prior to taking part
- Each participants was required to pass a pre-fight medical on the fight night carried out by an experienced GP
- Each participant was required to wear headgear, gum shields and 16 ounce gloves
Financial Results: What were the actual financial results? Were they different from your projections and if so, why? (please include net and gross income and ROI % figures) (Max 300 words)
- Income – The target for the event was €40,000 gross with a net of
€25,000. Actual total income for the event was €51,317 with a NET income of €38,361. Therefore, the event was €13,361, or 53%, over target with a ROI of 2.96. The breakdown of the income was as follows:
Personal Sponsorship: €11,806
Corporate Sponsorship: €12,300
Ticket Sales: €20,400 (€20 per ticket – 1,020 tickets sold)
Online: €6,745
- Media coverage - The event generated the following news coverage value through editorials, profiles and photos as calculated through news access:
Galway Independent: €41,056
Galway City Tribune: €4,551
Midland Tribune: €1,296
TOTAL Media Value: €47,353
- Attendance on the night – We forecasted that each participant would sell 15 tickets meaning a target attendance of 600 people. We sold 1,020 tickets in total. The actual attendance on the night was just over 900 people so well ahead of expectations and as you can imagine made for a very atmospheric and successful night.
Therefore, taking the NET income and the value of the media coverage the event generated €85,714 value to the IHF
Additional Benefits: What non-financial results were generated from this event? Did it result in a greater understanding of your organisations work? Did more people offer to
volunteer for your organisation? Please also provide any other relevant information such as: the number of people directly helped by your initiative and the changes or outcomes they experienced. (Max 300 words)
Big Heart Fight Facebook Page (fb.com/bigheartfight) gained 1,416 Likes with the following results:
- A peak of 22,289 people reached virally just after the event - The highest number of Likes on an individual post was 94 - The highest number of Shares on an individual post was 18
The Big Heart Fight Twitter page (@bigheartfight) hit 110 followers. The following image shows a number of highlights from the facebook page:
The media partnership with the Galway Independent generated approximately 10 pages of editorial content over 9 weeks’ worth €41,056 in value (calculated from News Access press reports). Below is some samples of the media coverage:
The event gave us the perfect platform to highlight the work of the Irish Heart Foundation and to show the positive impact of exercise. We had 40 positive, enthusiastic and motivated ambassadors for the Heart Foundation over the course of the event. On the night we used the big screens to highlight our programmes. Through the profiles of the participants in the local paper we highlighted personal stories of how they had been affected by heart disease and stroke which helped to highlight symptoms and ways for the public to access information such as our Heart and Stroke helpline. And overall we got a magnificent amount of publicity over 10/12 weeks in Galway. Each of the press releases included our Heart and Stroke helpline number and our website for people to access more information about heart health. A number of the participants have since become involved in volunteering for Happy Heart Weekend and we are putting together a team of participants for the New York Marathon (3 confirmed so far) later in the year from the event.
Authenticity Guarantee:
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge, the nomination is legal, decent, honest and truthful.*
* Entries must be submitted by a charity and not an agency, consultant or other commercial supplier.
