 Yep, got it, go for it. Excellent, oh I thank you Bruce. As Bruce said we're you know I'm here to sort of share what we did last year and also what we're planning this year but the circumstances were that we had to throw this together very quickly and we're still very new to giving those so very happy for this big conversation and to hear feedback and input from other people about where we can potentially take this in the future as well. Bruce gave me a bit of a framework to work through and the first question was why did we do a giving day? Hopefully you can figure out what's about to happen in this image for yourself. It kind of sums up why we why we had to do a giving day so about 12 months ago as you all know Covid-19 very quickly. Here and say at that stage we're quite heavily focused on fundraising events and we have three plans between I think the end of March and May. We have to cancel all three very quickly. The net the anticipated net result from the three events was about quarter of a million dollars which for here and say is a significant amount of money. At the same time and as a clinical service where we receive a large amount of funding from NDIS we didn't know what the future of our clinical services looked like. How effectively we could transfer face-to-face sessions to online telehealth I guess. While it worked for a lot of organization it's very difficult to do an hour session with a three-year-old by a zoom so we had a lot of uncertainty. We also had some fairly low reserves at that time so in a couple of years before that the transition to NDIS meant that we moved from a model of block funding up front to individual funding from families and arrears. So to cause quite a few cash flow issues so with that uncertainty we pretty much reduced all staff to 80% and as I say with a cancellation of three events things weren't looking great financially. So we had to come up with a solution very quickly and this for me was the most important thing we did so we could have gone you know very quickly let's launch an emergency appeal but we actually we got permission in a challenging time from our board and CEO to actually take our time so we entered into a design thinking exercise. This really if you look at the first two stages that empathize and define what that enabled us to do was take a moment to step back and identify who our people actually are so we identified three key audiences really senior Australians so we have a core group of I guess older Australians who've supported here and say the best part is 30 years and have a strong connection with our founder Dr Dimity Gordon. The families are here and say so during that 30 years we've benefited over a thousand families statewide who feel a strong connection to the organization because of the impact it's achieved for their children and also our corporate partners we have again a small but corporate partners who are very connected to what we do so by researching who those audiences actually were and then I guess reframing the problem from their perspective so we didn't head into this they now have problems that were you know by facing the shortfall of quarter million dollars we headed into the same the problem is that people who supported us for 30 years who deeply care about the organization are concerned about what they might lose the families who benefit from their clinical services are concerned that those clinical services might not be here in the future so by doing that we could identify I guess why people care what's important to them but then also things like how do they like to be communicated with and who do they connect with so who's the right person for the organization to speak to them from that stage we could then head into the brainstorming so what we did and I think we had a group of six people in this think it was a hard day planning session I've done some initial research and come up with 10 case studies of digital fundraising programs that have worked elsewhere globally so we split the six into two groups we gave them the 10 case studies just a paragraph on each and we asked them to delve into those case studies in a bit more detail and really have a look at what had worked elsewhere but to take care of that what could work for here and say in a current situation and the idea being that no idea was off limits so we set a thing for the day actually which was I think optimism and creativity so what we wanted to remove from this session was those statements like but I don't think that will work or we've done that before and it didn't work so the rule we kind of set is if anybody does then that you know line of thinking but you're to come back with but what is so it's absolutely a positive session and it explores every opportunity and you know absolute depth I guess from there we moved into the sort of prototype so the two groups did their research they came back and as it happened they presented pretty much identical solutions to our problem which were around the opportunity to do a match giving day so then we pitched that to our CEO we put some costings around it and an income forecast and then we engage my cause as our platform and the agency to guide us through the whole giving day with the help of my cause some of our key donors and some of our families and also we kind of shared the prototype with people in the industry so I think I think Bruce we shared that with you for a bit of feedback as well and that really helped us refine what our best proposal actually was so what came out of that was the here and say here to stay giving day so the whole idea of the here to stay was that it's a positive aspirational statement we wanted to be here to stay for the next 30 years but it also just planted I guess a seed of doubt in people's mind that that was even a question that there was an element of risk attached to the future of the organization we planned and executed this in about seven weeks so from that first design session to the actual giving day was was no more than seven weeks and it was our first match giving campaign so we went out initially to some of our you know connected major supporters and we were able to build a match giving pool of about $130,000 and that gave us a fantastic start when the day came. A couple of the reasons we went for the giving day so I think research shows that 84% of people are more likely to donate to a charity to a match giving is offered and I think the average gift for the person donate is actually increased by about 22% because of that match element as well. I'll just talk about the warm-up campaign so this was a really crucial tactic I think so with a giving day the advice was keep it under wraps don't tell anybody until two weeks before the giving day so that gives you a really kind of intense giving day period and a sense of urgency where people are more likely to donate but what we did before that we had a four-week campaign on our social media and we went into the history of the organization so we aim to build a sense of connection and nostalgia for the brand so the first post was basically going back 30 years as to why Dr Dillard was the first founder here let's say what the problem was that she identified and how she saw such an organization at this location and then over four weeks we kind of chronologically just told the story so all the key milestones the key achievements and what we found as we got towards the end of that warm-up campaign is that the language on our social media had changed to I guess from how amazing the stories were to how can we support and how can we donate so by the time we launched giving day people were already in that headspace that you know they felt this strong connection to that history of nostalgia and they really wanted to help us be around for the future so when we executed the giving day itself you know some of the key tactics um it was really the whole range so it essentially became our tactic here as well so the dm was such an important part of that and if you go back to our audiences that really connected group of senior Australians like to receive the dm they like to sit at home with their cup of tea open the mail read through the stories um and many prefer to donate by check still so we kept the dm and if a donation came in by check we could simply load that onto the donation page ourselves um social was obviously a huge part um and one of the things there we did we worked with a PR company called Ruby Communications so we launched a I think it was a hashtag gift sound share sound campaign where we asked people to share their favorite sound on social media and and tag other people to do the same we got some really good celebrity updates from people like Alex Diminore Charlie Robinson was another one what we found in the end was a fantastic awareness piece and an engagement piece possibly didn't convert to fundraising income so that's something we're looking at this year to how we can refine that to something that actually converts um other tactics website pop-up is something we haven't done before here and saying that really converted we had a lot of donations come directly through the pop-up on the home page um phone was crucial so so again here and say traditionally have been very protective of our dogs um we hadn't engaged in selling fundraising before and the organization was always adamant that's not something we do um it's amazing how a bit of a crisis in a sense of urgency can change people's thinking um so we introduced that to this campaign but to a very select group of dogs again our most connected people but the other thumb tactic was we've also always kept our family and our fundraisers so again here and say very protective of our families who come here for clinical services and we haven't directly talked to them before the fundraisers team um what we did we have a we have a school screening team here I'd say the guy at the schools and they checked the hearing of children in present grade one classes obviously during COVID they couldn't do that they had a bit of time on them so we got our school screening team to call a clinical family for that two days before giving day um but not to ask for donations but to say hey two days time we're having a giving day um the success of it really depends on reading large numbers would you share this by a social media and would you add your personal story and tell people why you care um we had an overwhelmingly positive response for those phone calls and even though we weren't asking for donations you know one month kind of answered the phone I think she was at the supermarket she said look sorry I don't have time to chat but can you send me an email the next day she made a full figure donation so while we weren't asking for donations they were inspired to donate and they shared that campaign widely as well um other tactics SMS again we haven't done that before to be honest it didn't return an awful lot and I'm not sure we'll go go down that route this year um and also some champions so we had some ambassadors for the campaign and what we could do is we could set them up with a peer-to-peer fundraising page so that they could tell their story they could direct to go to their contact and again when their contact donated their gifts were automatically doubled as well so so that worked quite well for us um the results I guess to get on my salt rock for a little bit I guess probably get a bit frustrated when we meet as fundraisers talk about results in terms of money so you know somebody said what did you do last year and you say I lost half a million dollars it's simply an output it's an output that leads to some more important impact so the result was as you can see in the picture um the children with a hearing loss um even children born with family death are still learning to listen to the screen thanks to what we achieved on giving day um how did that happen basically 709 generous donors came forward they gifted just over three hundred thousand dollars and a net result of two hundred and ninety thousand dollars um we achieved a media reach in excess of I think 43 million people um and that included national tv coverage on channel 79 and 10 um 318 donors were new acquisitions and I think 160 were lapped as well so if you think back to that initial issue that caused us to go down this track three highly intensive fundraising events we're going to be worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars an online digital campaign rate the net result of two hundred and ninety thousand dollars um and it did sell at a return on investment for about 50 to one um one of the events we were planning was going to return about a double fifty for every dollar invested so it's kind of shown as you know the future as well with his you know really promising I guess um so what does that look like this year this year's a you know a bit of a challenge in a way um they're here to stay messaging really worth it but we don't feel we can go there again we can't turn around to our audience every year and say hey guys we're in trouble again they need your help um so we have to reframe what that looked like so the consistency we kept the the look and feel very similar we kept our baby form that can't wait tagline because that really resonated with people but what we've done is we've gone back to our major gift partners we said hey it really worked it resonated with people um do you think this year we can build this match giving pool where we can actually triple people gift so this year we're going to go with a here and say triple intake day um in the hope that that triple intake gives us a real point of difference and something new and exciting for last year's match giving day um again we know the warm-up campaign really worked we probably can't repeat the same again and just go for the same chronological basically a here and say so what we've done this year we you know whenever we talk to people about here and say um the way to help them understand what we do is always to say you know have you seen the cochlear implants we tell videos on youtube like children here for the first time um you know most people haven't most people have been moved by there so what we're doing for the next four weeks is um simply sharing a whole series of our switch on historically sharing them on social media we're sharing it with the tagline um babies with hearing loss can hear them speak so a really positive statement letting people know what's actually possible the moment we launch giving day that switches over to babies born deaf can't wait um fingers crossed that's going to be a success for us again i think last year was unique and i think a lot of people came out of the woodwork to help them in a time of need i'm not expecting the same results again um but effectively this requires a their annual tax appeal the annual tax appeal used to raise about 80 thousand dollars um so a digital giving day that raises potentially 250 thousand dollars um again is a significant step forward from that um i think that's about it as i said i think Tim's going to go next but i'm really keen to hear uh feedback and ideas from other people on what work tells where um we are still learning in this space so definitely always think towards others um otherwise thanks for your time i appreciate you listening awesome thanks jim we yeah as you said we'll we'll um keep feedback till the end just so Tim can get through his uh section um so hold on to those questions uh till the end or the feedback i think Tim's just wrestling with his tech equipment here uh you're good to go sorry it's perfect timing that my kids have to get their school bags out of my office so hold on one just second oh this is life hey very cool we've got some good branding i'm back are you back all good sorry all right go for it well first of all bruce um thank you so much um for the opportunity to to share and present uh you belong and and they are bike to belong campaign and the opportunity i know i'm going to get to get some really good feedback so i really appreciate that mate all good and uh jim thanks for sharing man i feel like um you've done such a good job um and congratulations on last year's appeal and um and i've already been writing down notes learning from how how well you've done you're going to get a bit of a different different um approach from me uh we've still very much a startup and very much developing our whole fundraising campaign so let me just kind of share with you i guess the first the pitch of of our bike to belong campaign and and hopefully you'll learn a bit about what you belong is to what we do i'm going to share my screen here and let me know if that comes up you got that there yeah perfect fantastic well bike to belong um here it is there's 80 million displaced people and we're asking people to bike 80 kilometers in the world um and i'm trying to find out why it is not there we go so there are 80 million people in the world that are displaced and that's that's three times the population of Australia which is actually mind-boggling when you think about it um it's the greatest humanitarian crisis we've we've had since world war two in fact more people have been forcibly displaced from their homes than at any other time since world war two um and uh it all kind of began for me personally um when working with displaced people when i moved with my family there's three little kids there in that photo but we now have a fourth but when we were just three and the youngest was just eight weeks old we moved our family to Iraq and it was the same day that ISIS invaded Mosul um and suddenly everybody heard about who ISIS was and suddenly uh 1.5 million people overnight um were fled into the the region that we had just moved to and it kind of thrust us into a whole new area of work that we weren't um weren't planning on working with refugees we're planning on work we're working with um world orphans at the time working with at-risk children and widows from the various conflicts in the region but suddenly for the next four years we provided housing education we built and modelled a whole micro refugee village um concept trauma care and and various relief work over those four years and it was really quite a you know obviously life-changing experience for us um as a family but we did end up moving back after four years my wife was pregnant with our fourth child which was a bit of a surprise and um we ended up moving back to Australia but as we returned to Australia we realised there was suddenly all these refugee families that were now settling in the town of Tawumba and we'd moved back to the Sunshine Coast at the time um and suddenly there was these Iraqi and Syrian Yazidi speaking culturally they're different they have a different religion we're now almost 2000 had been settled in the town of Tawumba and they were struggling to integrate in the community the community has done a phenomenal job there but this this was um yeah um quite a challenge for them and so um within just a few couple of months of being back from Australia I teamed up with phenomenal local um professionals as well as as just volunteers wanting to help grandmas wanting to go visit families and we formed You Belong Australia that was back in 2017 and our whole aim and mission at the time was just simply to welcome refugees and it's um evolved over the years um into um really adding an empowerment component um providing not only just welcome and social um programs to help them integrate relationally into the community but also to um to get them on that pathway towards integration independence um through educational the powerful tool of learning the English language which they were struggling with and so we've had we've developed some real kind of um unique approaches to our our our programs that are having a tremendous impact and we're seeing so many of these families engaged in the community and if you look at it like this if you come into a foreign land bringing with you incredible trauma and and pain and loss and grief and if you're able to connect socially within the community gain friends you will learn the language so much quicker you will get connected and jobs you will get in so many ways you will um you'll connect and you'll thrive in that community um and so it's not just enough for there to be professional services at your disposal it really um for us we found it hinges on that sense of belonging that sense of community that sense of um that enables people to integrate and essentially thrive and then there's also the the other side of it that we're very passionate about is that it's not just a benefit for them it's a benefit for us and our communities that they have so much to teach us and we've so much to learn and enriched our lives and that's what Australia is we are a multicultural society and so what we've just asked people to join us now and now our first kind of official um fundraising campaign um to to bike to belong during world refugee week world refugee week we really felt that we needed to not only um focus on on ways that we can raise support but importantly ways awareness and so that's why we went with an event like this because we felt like we really as a new startup charity we needed to get out our our work out there and be more visible in the community and so um yeah we're asking people to yeah ride during world refugee week 80 k's that's um we've gone from Sunday to Sunday so it's eight days for the 80 million displaced people in our world we've through my work overseas we've got some great partnerships in in Iraq and Uganda where we'll also be sending proceeds to help um with with families that are on the front um yeah in the in the front lines in refugee camps that are providing some great great work um in trauma care and and help to those there as well um this is a bit about uh you can learn more on our website but we really wanted to create an inclusive event as well um that it didn't just appeal to those that are really gun-cyclists but we wanted people that um you know uh could could really tailor it um and uh so whether you're a mountain bike rider or whether you're just a kid that rides around on your bike or like us we ride most weekends down to the farmer's market or to the beach as a family and and and enjoy something like that where you could still participate you didn't feel like you needed to to have to be you know a lycra loving uh gun cyclist um and uh and you know that as you can see this is kind of some snapshots from the site there's um there's ways you can choose your different way we've got we've set some specific goals that people could set if they're if they want to do the mini challenge of 8k's or if you wanted to join a team and ride longer you um you can do that as well um or you can just set your own custom goal and and obviously there's the the ideas and the messaging around getting fit and and uh learning more in the process about displaced people which um I think here in Australia we we can sometimes be so far removed from the understanding and concept of what it means to be displaced and the experiences that they're having um and um yeah we really felt like we really want to be on the forefront of educating and helping um people understand so that's that's it we're that's kind of our uh my my brief kind of pitch campaign you know we want wanting to really um help people to see that refugees are just like every single one of us displaced people like me and you their mothers their fathers their children's brother sisters and this quote here just really brings it home that um by Khalid Hassani um that refugees are mothers fathers sisters brothers children with the same hopes and ambitions as us except that a twist of fate has bound their lives to a global refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale and um we're hoping that people uh will will join with us and learn so that's kind of the uh the pitch there I'll stop sharing the screen my back with you all yeah awesome yeah how's things going um with it Tim can you sort of give us a bit of an idea of yeah tracking yeah so we just launched um a couple weeks ago oh we're just lots here can you hear me now yeah perfect sorry I bumped this is too fancy this little mic it's got all these buttons on it um we just launched a couple weeks ago opening registration fairly early to the actual campaign as you know it's in June um and a lot of people might not consider signing up right away for something so far away but we really felt like our first event we wanted we really needed to introduce the concept um and so we've broken out our kind of marketing or campaign into three phases one is the what is it you know introducing people to what it is specifically who we are so we're not we're not going on the gun ho hard push to sign up just yet um we've kind of uh that'll be signed uh phase two was it will be that really encouraging people to participate um to get involved um um we've got potentially a couple schools that might be engaging and and participating with us um and we're really kind of yeah doing the kind of ground work of of of spreading the word word of mouth as well encouraging people and and just getting that that out there and then the third phase of course is then the donate push right so we've got a group of people and then we'll really be encouraging them as we get closer as the as the week um of cycling is actually happening and people are seeing more more activity on it that's when we're really going to do that the the major push for people to donate and get behind people's campaigns that they've set up so um how's it going um it's a lot of hard work you know we like I said we're a startup charity we don't really have we don't have any full-time paid staff so it's a couple of incredible you know people that do a couple days a week for us that are they're pulling all this together as well as running out all the work they do to run the charity and work so um but it's a wonderful experience for us all um in in and to say that as well um and so we're really uh we we got um we've got a really exciting um boost to our campaign we have a couple of Olympians that are joining us for the campaign they're going to Tokyo and they're Jordan Elise Wood they're actual kayakers um but what they're going to be doing is they're going to be training they're parent making a team with a couple of former refugees um that have just they came here only a year and a half ago um and they're going to be coaching them um through through the process to to actually ride the 80ks and these former refugees one of them has never even been on a bike before um and so it's going to be I think a beautiful story of how um you know you've got um you know some incredible it's it's a picture of what our organization really wants to be about it's Australians that have been that are here established Australians that are coming alongside our newest neighbors and helping them um to achieve their goals as they go as they also um are setting out to to live their dream and and achieve their you know goal of competing and in the Olympics so we're really excited about that which has been a new development we just shot a film a bit of a video piece with them that will be releasing closer up and I've got I've had some really good connections with SPS and the Guardian newspaper to help with some PR releases again closer on to the to the the the event actually taking place again it's our first time event um I've never done anything like this I remember getting on the phone with you uh must have been maybe a couple months ago or maybe not even that long ago maybe like six weeks ago I was hey man how do I even do this thing like what do you reckon and you gave me some great tips uh Ruth Knight who I don't know if she's still on with us but uh Dr Ruth Knight um with the ACPNS school and um she hooked me up with a consultation with one of the FIA fundraisers of the year who who sat down and really consulted with me and helped us kind of shift some of the the idea around how we would market the event as a as a virtual event obviously we didn't want to take the risk of doing an actual live event that would then need to be cancelled excuse me and and she got us connected with Razely as a good platform that we decided to go with so look it's been a learning experience um to say the least and uh and yeah we're early days so um it's hard for me to gauge I've got nothing to compare it to as to to really what to expect but um yeah we're really grateful that's awesome and I I just want to encourage you like what you've what you've thrown together with you know I guess little resource little time and and as you said not not doing something like this before it's just phenomenal it looks beautiful um but I think what what will set you apart and what does set you apart as as an event because there's so many bike rides out there but the stories that you tell and that that experience that you'll give your participants whoever they are like you're going to take them on a journey that's that's going to be different to anything that they've ever done and I think you know even bringing it back to yourself with your family you take your kids on bike rides like just to be able to give people that opportunity to open their hearts and open their minds to people they might not have thought of before I think that's what you can really offer people and that um I think that's what you should really major on is that um that experience that you're giving people it's not just a bike ride it's what worry are you telling along along the way from now up until uh refugee week like I think that's we can really not capitalise on the right word but well I think you make a good point Bruce because like there's so many bike riding events these days and there's so many peer to peer kind of uh coming out and so we had to really think well what's our point of difference what makes us different to everyone else that's asking you to ride in May or in June or July every other month like what's why we really felt like for us it was yes we would love we you know we really need to raise money we uh to go you know to to develop and grow but because it's our first year we really wanted to make sure we were um we were tying it to something that um that that was already that really brought that awareness that idea of tying it to world refugee week and a time of the year that you know hopefully there'll be a lot of other conversations around refugees happening during that week and on world refugee day June 20th as well um so so yeah that point of difference of what makes what makes us different to everybody else was like you said a part of telling the stories and bringing people on a journey um with with learning about refugees and we've got a lot a lot of um a lot of stories that will be coming out um as well um with our rather like I think Jim really mentioned that people don't people we want to add value to people we don't just want to be there making the ask all the time we really want them to learn about the stories and learn about these people and that's part of our even whole mission as an organization is to is to help people understand and have a much different um perspective and and understanding of of of new Australians here um that aren't always the negative news media stories in the of the gangs and of this and of that you know we really felt like people need to know that there's so much positive news out there that often just doesn't get told so um they are the real heroes yeah yeah that's right I'm gonna I'm gonna ask a bold question um and it's a bold question of you Tim and of uh the people here but if if there was one problem or uh yeah if you're trying to figure something out for this campaign what could be that one problem that someone could solve here today what answer you're looking for oh look we all want I think we all want that secret source don't we that secret ingredient that's just gonna without any energy or if it make a change but I would I would love input and help on um because we're right now we're in the sign up phase um marketing is just such a a challenging thing for me it's not something I'm always that great at um but yeah how do we how do we engage participation right now how do we get more people signing up in this startup phase would be the the main thing because from that everything else comes right once you've got people engaged in participating that's where the fundraising dollars can come in that's where the the sharing and the and the and the um awareness can grow so yeah that's our number one challenge right now um yeah so anyone's got any great tips I'd love one yeah I'm just gonna leave a little pause if anyone wants to change Tim's life um I don't think I'll change your life but um one of the things that um you know in a startup phase is you generally because and I've only just heard of your organization today but generally speaking you exist because there is actually a really strong foundation of people who support your cause um and so what I would say is lead with those people um and ask them to do like sort of Jim said they called up their patients and stuff like that and ask sorry um families and asked I mean we're all fly doctors I just naturally say patients um call up the families and sort of ask them if you not with maybe a participation but can you share this you know that sort of thing um and and really lead from the front in terms of like don't be afraid I know it can sometimes feel like as the founder a bit self-serving to set up your own fundraising page and um I don't know you've mentioned that you and your family do a lot of biking so maybe you set up a family page you know start leading with that because um people will want to see participation from the core people because then that shows that it's a really um supported um event uh virtually and um I would encourage uh yeah and then say okay after you've signed up to those core people um share it and share it in all your networks and and say why it's important to them because generally speaking with grassroots peer-to-peer fundraising it's not actually and I I know as a founder you're going to hate to hear this it's not about the cause it's about the people that are doing it people want to be a part of a tribe and they want to feel like they belong and so if they see their friends participating they will also want to participate and then it's your job to take them along the journey and create that cause connection if they don't already have it they probably do but um you know if you're leaning on that strategy that can be um sort of the way a way to um encourage those sign-ups is like start with your core group and then ask them to share um that way and maybe even add incentives for sharing and it doesn't have to be anything crazy just think about what might add value to people um you know but uh nothing's free to mind but because it's 746 no that's good coffees that's good I actually where I go do an ice bath most mornings and I walked I walked in uh it's a like sports recovery place and it's just my morning routine but I walked in the guys said hey can I put some flies down you know for people coming in and he go and I said and there's do you think there's any ways you can help us and he just gave me 25 free passes to the ice bath so we're going to leverage that to encourage people to sign up in the first before the end of April if you sign up you'll get a you know the first 25 will get a free you know ice bath so I know that you know you're going to jump on a plane right now and and and on the gold coast yeah so yeah drive that far for some torture um anyway so that yeah you're right that that that's really good advice I can I hope to chance yeah sorry I think too as much as it is a cause and it's all about doing a good thing for a charity you do need to be gimmicky you do need to sort of offer those incentives or sort of pressure points which you probably can't really do with a um a free event um yeah I think a lot like what Jim and Erin were saying like it might not be that they are a biker and get excited about it but it's like hey we're just telling everyone can you get it out there because they're going to be your advocates um they're your biggest advocates and you might get some random bikers along the way yeah um Tim do you have any sponsors that like a bike company or a brand of bike or anything on board that might be able to help you with some prizes and things like that or sponsorship well we don't and I've been knocking on doors and sending emails and it's yeah just been one of those things where we haven't haven't been able to secure that yet um a lot of the larger corporate companies they they're very the indicated that they already have you know they don't just take on new things they have their corporate plan and yada yada and so but we've gone with some more local ones as well yeah um but yeah no we've been trying and and again um yeah yeah I just haven't haven't managed to get that so any tips on how to how to secure a sponsor that would be great as well even also reaching up to your local councils and seeing if they can share it because at the moment obviously um you know multiculturalism and so forth is very high um on the radar so they could share it through their social medias um platforms as well because I know that they're always looking for content um right well we do have one we we actually um so the councillor here on the Gold Coast um one one of the district's district nine Majrubar which is near where we are um which has a very big cycling community down here which is which is great we're actually going to be at their street fair in May the middle of May the 16th I think it is and we've got an exercise bike that's going to be in the middle of that the big family street fair and we're going to encourage people to jump on and have a try and and so they've got behind us which is really great um even gyms with the you know the cycling spin bikes spin bikes because that's huge at my gym so yeah so again it's just knocking on doors and going in and presenting a lot of them though you know the larger more you know they're like well we get this all the time and so they'll be like I can't really do it I have to ask head office or can you send an email to head office but but if you're you're right you just got to keep pushing and and good one though congratulations um I was just going to say I mean it looks amazing the concept is really really good I think there's a few people on here that wished they got that many things right in their first campaign um so really well done from our point of view the best investment we ever made in giving down my shirt they is the PR company that we work with um so they you know it is a bit of an investment but they work strong respectfully with the beneficiaries and they have the direct context to radio and age play for television um and then amazing at telling the stories and we've been able to I guess tangibly measure that investment against the the income of the generation of it so even if it's not something you can invest in this year that's worth the compensation worth considering for the future um but you know it looks amazing quite often the first year is about awareness and people become used to the concept so if you look at it at the two three four five year plan on what it actually could be um I think it does something really strong that's the well done thanks Jim um maybe you could share with me uh I'd love to connect more a bit about you know some of the more details about taking on a PR um yeah company to help you with that um obviously budget constraints we have now but still um learning where that we could you know work towards that so that we get a good return on investment would be great and it's the real I think it's a real it's not just an event for you it's it is a PR activity it's a way to get your brand out there um I think you can have multiple wins there I'm just conscious of time and um feel free to reach out to Tim and offer more advice and ideas and and uh you know free marketing help um along the way but we might jump to Jim as well here um and if you've got any feedback or ideas or questions for Jim and that and his giving day um is there is there something that you're burning to know Jim that someone can help you with um I think sometimes it's a set of awareness of knowing what you don't know I guess um so I'm always looking for that idea of it the challenge we have is that we're quite a big cause so you know we can connect with those thousand families and particularly directly affected by hearing loss going beyond that audience is really hard and when we're looking to grow a campaign we need to have to make connections with a greater range of people I guess and that's that's always a challenge it's not a question and I definitely won't solve all your problems Jim um but I just wanted to say um you know giving days are very like the hot topic um of last year um and I've seen a lot of organizations do giving days but what I was really heartened by hearing your um presentation just then is how you didn't follow the prescription like to the letter and it worked for you because you listened to what your actual audience was and what your donors wanted what you're talking about in terms of you kept your DM because your donors you know what your donors do with your DM um and you did break you know you pushed the organization to break some of their rules but in a way that was respectful um in terms of calling the families and stuff like that and I just think that that is something that a lot of organizations should have the courage to do more is yes follow take an idea like the giving day but you don't need to completely follow the mould of giving days because I do think that that a lot of charities have been guilt maybe not guilted but like forced into following a prescription that doesn't work for their donors and I and I think that you know that then doesn't have a payoff for them and clearly you guys understood your donors which is so important and which meant you delivered a way for them to give that was joyful for them and um as well as delivering the results so it's not a question it's just a comment to say I think that's really awesome I think one thing you said that joyful was really important when I look back to giving day itself it was joy people just enjoyed the experience that was the staff here and the whole staff the clinical team were sat up at eight o'clock at night constantly refreshing the page until we hit the target um and the donors enjoyed it they enjoyed seeing that they did match um understanding and caring about their people was so important and every email and every phone call began with reaching out the last day they were in a really authentic way and I tell you from the way that's that absolute information that you know because some people will lose in their jobs a lot of people will call and will do it so so they had absolute permission but the answer to that indicated we shouldn't follow with an ass but to wish them all the best and move on I think that's so important in this climate as well um and uh because yeah there are a lot of people losing their job and doing it tough and that doesn't mean that they don't care about the cause um and it's something that as a fundraiser you need to grapple with like because you're getting pressure for to meet targets but then you're also a lot of the time you're also on the phone listening to that you know desperation from people so it's sort of something they have to say that I good on you guys for having that um in place as well with the telephone raisers um yeah I think you've tapped into something like important to focus on to Jim is that that experience and that joy like I think even if you can bring that into the campaign how that looks that you know it's it's exciting that you you're it's exciting and fun to see your donation grow but then also as as the team like what happens on that day what happens in the in the week lead up like because it's your people that's going to really drive it and if they're excited and they're having fun and enjoying it like I think that's the big thing and I know I know that's kind of a big deal with the giving days is is making that buzz on the giving day like can you give any sort of insight into how that looked on the day and it might help people hear it might help him launch his bike event or yeah all we might have ideas or tips along that line. It was May last year so very much during childhood time so you know we talked to other organizations like RSPCA about their giving days and we saw the images of these amazing vibrant phone rooms with lots of people and we couldn't do any of that so I think we have six people in here all very much social distance so the key thing in engaging the wider team was was celebrating their success and publicly sharing their successes so the school screening team who you know certainly never done phone calls to our families have that kind before you know we have to share the outcome of that when that donation came in the next day from one of the moments where our school screener had called her and felt she was too busy and she got off the phone fairly quick and said just send an email so that to result in a full figure donation you know that Matt one of our school screeners was walking around so fair the next day because sharing those successes and when I said working as he's the right person to talk to our audiences when we emailed our families we did sell for the clinical thing because their relationship with the clinical staff with the business support staff is linked to the reception it's not necessarily with other fundraisers so again engaging them in that way but then making sure that we see like the impact of what they achieve I think was really important and at the end of the day they say that the money that was raised means that they can continue to do it you know when this gave football kind of better culture the importance of a culture of fundraising within an organisation and it's something we've worked really hard to find and better here do you miss your giving day? it's 9.27 great and I think I think sharing those behind the scenes things too like you know pictures encouraging the team wherever they are it's the you know take photos of them on the phone or them getting together to phone people and because people are only going to support I guess I guess that if they see the core team passionate about it and getting behind it then they'll go oh yeah we like those guys if they're passionate about it then we'll do it I also followed mummies wish they did a giving day I think it was last year or the year before and I couldn't get off that day they just kept updating their social media with these great photos and their target and where they're at and the enthusiasm was just contagious so I recommend having a look at their social media if you haven't and going back to them just to see what they did because you know I was literally every couple of hours going on just to see where they were at and you know knowing that my part of my donation was part of that as well that congrats on during the triple gift as well that's amazing so that's the work to do there it's public news and I have to do it yeah that's really good congrats guys I'm just another tip to them quickly if I can and it's something I've just done it's just our late shirt day campaign is a peer-to-peer campaign sign up for somebody else's campaign and watch the journey that they take you on so I'm currently registered for receipt of the day in June and they're doing a fantastic job to the point of when I signed up I had no intention of making an $80 donation but their communication somehow made me do it so sign up and you know learn what I wasn't doing as well it's really helpful thanks yeah I'd be happy to have a look at like if you've got a bit of a marketing plan on that I'd be happy to have a look over it yeah yeah yeah we I've actually been real grateful I have a cinematographer that has has put together a whole video timeline of when we're releasing in line with our phases but yeah I yeah I don't have have anything like fully developed but um I'll be happy to share what I do have and and get some more more input can I ask a quick question with the family or the couple that are learning to like learning to motorbike you're going to keep the journey through the campaign yeah so we're going to take them people on storytelling on a journey of their story and um and uh yeah just and on the actual day on on World Refugee Day the final day of our of the ride we're having a bit of a presentation we've got the Mayor of Toowoomba coming on and we'll have Jordan Elise on a bit of a live event and and as well as obviously releasing a few different videos of their meeting for the first time because they're in Toowoomba the refugees and the couple are training here on the Gold Coast we're going to have them meet and so yeah that's kind of one particular story that we're actually going to um take their their campaign and actually market it on a on another website called Little Phil um that that kind of a new kind of um fundraising platform so that'll be like almost a standalone thing that appears there as well as as people can donate it there just because that's such a compelling story I think and we'll probably build on the back of that for some of our PR as well leading up to to World Refugee Day which is only like the month before the Olympics as well and so um yeah so yeah that's our hope but we've just got to pull it off you know and do it well do it well not we realize it's we don't want to we really want to add value we don't want it to be like an annoying oh you're just running another one of these and asking for money kind of thing so that's the that's the challenge I guess we're just trying to feel out like how often do you post to encourage people to get involved and how often do you post to to like you say share the joy of the experience and add value that's can be really kind of we just kind of we have no marketing PR or company that has all the research and experience we're just trying to feel it ourselves a bit it's a rule of four four posts one should be an ask okay that's the that's the general agreed upon thing but I think it's important to note that like when you share a story you know if it is it's for example that that um couple you can if they've got more content on their donation page you can say to read more about their story head here it's not an explicit ask you're sharing content but if it's hosted on their fundraising page then the ask is done for you there yeah and I think the key is also engaging content so if you don't have anything good to say don't say anything yeah and Jim are you using my cause again this year for yours yeah absolutely um I know there's a couple out there um but we're sending really good very positive right well I I want to just thank everyone um especially Jim and Jim for sharing this morning but also just for this little community that we had this morning because we were encouraging each other and giving each other ideas um but yeah lots of warm fuzzies as well to hear about your stories and um I think you know I might not sign up to to uh ride a bike but I want to hear about um this family that are learning the bike ride so you've tapped into something really good there but yeah thanks everyone for coming along this morning and hopefully we will see you again shortly for our next one and thank you everyone for attending um as soon as we get the recording I'll have it out to share um but others might not have been able to make it this morning but thank you everyone and I hope you have a great day and feel free to reach out and connect to everyone here offer advice or ask for help that's what we're all here for and have a great day