We just sold our house and it went for a bit more than we expected, so we decided to pass on some money to an IGAB appeal for a family that needs the money much more than we do. I’d encourage anyone out there to give something if possible. I can guarantee it will make you feel good.
Author: barb
Become A Collection Box Host
Our beautiful new collection boxes are ready! We’d love to get them into the community asap. If you have a business you think would make a good host to one read more
A Great Idea to Help Harry!
Torquay’s Harry still needs some support – will you join Harry’s Team?
PharmaSave Pharmacies raise support for Zac
The lovely folk at Monbulk PharmaSave Pharmacy and Kilsyth PharmaSave Pharmacy, both in VIC, will soon have coin collection boxes on their counters in support of local boy Zac and his current appeal – and we can’t thank them enough for such wonderful support!
If you live in the area please support these terrific pharmacies. You can find them at:
- Monbulk PharmaSave Pharmacy – 98 Main Rd, Monbulk.
- Kilsyth PharmaSave Pharmacy – Shops 19 & 20, Kilsyth Shopping Centre, 520 Mount Dandenong Rd, Kilsyth.
Our Miss Muffet’s Tuffet
This is the specialised chair that will change Belinda’s little life…
Family Challenge!
Last week we ran a Family Challenge on our Facebook Page. Families were given a week to donate a few bucks in their family name and the family that donated the most at the end of the challenge would win a little prize.
The competitive nature of we humans got to work and the results were outstanding! The Vanags family and the Oberin/Buchanan families vied to keep themselves at the top of the table all week (which was great fun to watch) and in the end the gong went to the Oberin/Buchanan family with a whopping total of $205 in donations and the purchase of an IGAB t-shirt too!
We wanted to pay tribute to every family that participated in making last week a great week for the kids – and particularly wanted to recognise the ongoing support of the Vanags Family and the Oberin/Buchanan family. The Vanags family have been avid supporters of our work for over a year now and last year David & Tanya Vanags held a fundraising dinner for us that raised $48,900 in just one night.
Despite this amazing contribution they continue to support just about every appeal we launch and repeatedly spread the word about our work to their friends and family – we love you guys!
The Oberin/Buchanan family are just as special to us. Anne was the very first person (outside my immediate family!) to join our BIG Buckers Club with a fabulous donation of $500 to our very first appeal back in January 2010. Her donation was prompted by her daughter Ricky’s $50 donation. Ricky donated that $50 despite having challenges of her own and living on a disability pension. Both Ricky and Anne continue to support almost every appeal and they provide us with continued inspiration – I really hope to meet them one day when I’m down Melbourne way to thank them personally for all that they have done to support us. There are some cute IGAB caps on the way for our winners…
Vehicle Funding Tip
One of our lovely members, Linda, has this tip for families looking to fund a wheelchair accessible vehicle.
“Perhaps you can share with families that Variety will grant up to $10,000 towards the cost of modifications to a vehicle, or towards the cost of an already modified vehicle.
I am in NSW and our family has been very fortunate to benefit from a grant.
Linda”
Thank you Linda – we’re always happy to pass on helpful tips like this one for our families 🙂
Carers QLD
Carers Queensland has recently contacted us with a request that we remind our Queensland families about their services – and we’re only too happy to do so.
Carers Queensland’s mission is simple – to enhance the quality of life for those in a caring role, promote their rights and needs and provide information and support services.
To find out more about their services visit their web site.
Wheelchair Vehicle Funding Decision
In the short two and a bit years since we launched publicly we’ve helped to fund three wheelchair vehicles or vehicle modifications – and we are currently running Harry’s Appeal to get Harry back on the road too.
It’s a hard slog. On average, $40,000 is needed each time. In the first three occasions each of the families had some major support behind them and that, combined with the efforts of our wonderful IGAB community, made sure that the appeal targets were raised in less than 2 months for each.
We know that funding for wheelchair accessible vehicles, or modifications to the existing family car to enable wheelchair access is a major issue for families across the country. There is no government funding at all for the purchase of the vehicle and only VIC offers any funding support for a vehicle modification – and that’s just $10,000, well short of what’s needed.
No charities or welfare organisation in Australia fund vehicles either.
There are so many families so desperate for help and we’d love to find a way of doing that but it would seem that our membership is just too small at present.
When we received Harry’s application late last year we knew that the family had a little support from their local community, but nowhere near the level enjoyed by the previous three families, and so we thought it was time to test how we might go with trying to fund the full cost of the vehicle ourselves through our normal appeal process.
Seven weeks after launching Harry’s Appeal to raise $55,000 we’ve raised just $12,500. That’s a pretty clear indication to us that, for whatever reason, we are not in a position to successfully run appeals for such large amounts yet.
We are going to continue with Harry’s Appeal until it’s finished, and today sees the launch of Zac’s Appeal (for the last $5,000 needed for a vehicle modification) but we have regrettably decided that we can no longer accept applications for funding for wheelchair accessible vehicles or vehicle modifications.
We’ll be keeping the issue on our radar though. Once we think that our membership has grown to a level that might better support such appeals we’ll give it another shot but I’d imagine that to be at least 2 years away.
Harry’s Appeal enters Phase 2
- Harry and his mum
Harry’s Appeal is the first appeal we’ve ever had that hasn’t been completed within 6 weeks.
We’ve always had a policy for what would happen if we had a large, long-running appeal but we’ve never had to put it to work until now.
So here’s how it works:
In the first 6 weeks of any appeal (what we call Phase 1) we really get to work. We feature the appeal as far and wide as possible. It’s in our newsletter every week, it’s talked about on our Facebook Page all the time and we issue press releases about the story to all the local papers and major dailies too. In addition to that we contact business and service clubs and schools in the local child’s area and ask for their assistance in running a fundraiser or hosting a collection tin etc.
Now, we are a small charity – in fact up here in QLD there’s just me (Barb) and my husband Peter. And in VIC there’s just Liat for 20 hours a week. Yep, three of us. That’s it. Between us we do everything. So to keep up the Phase 1 activities for every appeal would be pretty hard. That’s where Phase 2 comes in.
In Phase 2 the appeal stays open – we’ll never close an appeal until it’s finished – and the appeal page stays on our web site so that online donations can still be received for that child. And we still work behind the scenes looking for every opportunity there is to raise the shortfall. We also keep updating everyone once a week or so on our Facebook page as a reminder that help is still needed.
The biggest difference between the two phases is feature spots in our weekly e-newsletter. During Phase 1, every appeal gets a feature spot in the newsletter but during Phase 2 they don’t.This is for a couple of reasons:
- everyone on the newsletter mailing list that was going to donate to any particular appeal would have done so within that 6 week period if they were going to
- we know from experience that most of our members donate to a given appeal just once and then they wait for the next child to help
- we know from experience that we get the best results when we give people just one or two stories at a time
What this means for Harry is that he’ll no longer have a feature spot in the newsletter, but everything else will stay the same. We’re going to get Harry back on the road again. We won’t stop until we do.