In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand Issue 1 | Page 23

BEST FOOT FORWARD WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER No stranger to fundraising, Vicki was one of the key organisers in two fundraising projects for the Otago Community Hospice and a keen participant in the Malcam Trust annual ‘Toss the Boss’ event. “If we are to succeed in increasing humanitarian service, as Rotary International’s strategy intends, boosting our fundraising efforts must be integral to that. The more money we raise, the more good Rotary can do,” Vicki says. challenge is always to rise above the ‘white noise’ and capture the imagination,” Vicki says. The second plank to success, she says, was the organisers realising the only way they could achieve their then-lofty goal of $30,000 was by giving each participant the means to easily fundraise from within their own network. So Vicki set about creating a website where each participant had their own fundraising page, allowing friends and family to quickly and easily make online donations, via PayPal, an online payment and collection system. Part of her mandate is to help both the district and all clubs maximise their fundraising efforts through The more money we raise, the working strategically, and ensuring the best tools more good Rotary can do.” are in place to realise the greatest possible results. Vicki Moseley, While “extreme” has been the central theme to most of her fundraising endeavours to date, Vicki says Rotarians don’t have to live on the edge to dramatically increase fundraising tallies. The event also had an air of exclusivity – it was capped at 40 participants, a number organisers could comfortably Public image district chair manage, as such an event requires a support crew to provide safety checks, food, and, if necessary, medical care along the journey. Working smarter and using modern technology, she says, pay off big time. She cites the example of a 152km cycling challenge where participants cycled through the night along the Central Otago Rail Trail starting in Middlemarch at 5pm and arriving in Alexandra the next morning. The goal? To raise $30,000 for the Otago Community Hospice. That objective was smashed, with the final total at over twice that: $68,000. Vicki puts the achievement down to two key factors: there was a drawcard for participants, and it was interesting. Dunedin mayor Dave Cull answered Vicki’s call for support, They had to take on three challenges. Challenge one: both helping to promote the fundraiser and participating in it. get their fitness to the level they could cycle 152km. Challenge two: fundraise $1000 to earn eligibility to compete. Challenge three: mental stamina – could “As each participant signed up, I created an individual web page for them to begin collecting funds,” Vicki says. they not only complete the cycle, but complete it in the dark? “Each participant’s page had their photo, profile and a visual graph showing how much they had raised to date “There are so many worthy fundraising initiatives happening every day – the and what their individual goal was. Each participant Page 23