Fundraising Archives - The Burdekin Association

Fun run fundraising

August 23, 2024August 21, 2024

Did you know that you can become a Northern Beaches Hero and choose to fundraise for The Burdekin Association in the Beach2Beach Charity Fun Run and Festival on Sunday August 25?

All you have to do is go to the fundraising section, click on start fundraising and scroll down to select your favourite charity (Burdekin!) You have the option to register, start fundraising (easily set up your own fundraising page) or make a donation (sponsor a fundraiser or give directly to your charity).

The family friendly event offers three course options, catering to everyone from serious runners to families: a 14km route from Dee Why Beach to Newport Beach, a 6km route from Warriewood to Newport Beach, and a 3km route from Mona Vale to Newport Beach. The event promises an awesome atmosphere with live music, international food and fun activities for the kids all at the finish line.

We are also delighted that our community partner the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles is supporting us again too!

Keep in mind for next year that The Burdekin Association also registers for the infamous City2Surf, which this year took place on Sunday August 11. Described as ‘The World’s Largest Fun Run’, this epic 14km course takes you from Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach with a great party atmosphere. The 2023 event hosted 70,000 participants with over $2.9 million already raised for over 400 charities. Participants need to be very organised for this fun run and register early as it is guaranteed to sell out!

A charity fun run in Sydney for all the family — The whole family can join in.

Join us

We would like to invite you – friends, family, colleagues, partners and kind strangers to join us. Some of you will perhaps already be signed up or intending to just for the fun of it, and we ask that you consider joining our team and helping us to fundraise for our young people.

We think fun runs are a particularly great and risk-free way to raise money for your favourite charity. We also like them because:

Anyone can participate
It is great fun
It’s achievable for everyone
It is a shared experience with the community
If you want to get fit, it is a motivation to do so
If you want to raise funds for charity, it’s a great motivation to do so
It’s a great opportunity for making friends
It is less cost prohibitive than many other events
It connects us to the cause – youth homelessness
It promotes physical, social and emotional wellbeing
It promotes feelings of support and inclusion

What’s not to like? Would you consider joining us?

Tips for fundraising:

Some people find it challenging to ask for support for their fundraising efforts – but if you don’t ask, then people don’t know about it. Take Burdekin for example, we don’t like having to ask all the time, but without money coming in from friends, family, partners and philanthropists, we would never reach our fundraising goals.

As soon as you have committed to the event, tell your network of friends, family and colleagues about your efforts to run, walk, skip, hop – whatever way you want to roll – your way. We can help you with this email template that you can send to your contacts to ask them to support your fundraising efforts.

Email template

Dear (donors name),

I have exciting news! This August I have registered to participate in the Beach2Beach Fun Run and Festival (and/or) the City2Surf to raise money for a charity that is close to my heart.

The Burdekin Association offer an incredible service to children, young people and their families. They are passionate about creating solutions to solve the problem of youth homelessness in our community.

I hope that you will consider sponsoring me to participate in (name of run). Race entry fee is not part of my fundraising goals and I have paid for that up front. 100 per cent of all funds raised will go directly towards The Burdekin Association to help fund their support and responses to children, young people and their families.

Please find a link to my fundraising page: (insert link)

Thank you so much for your consideration,

Sincerely (participant’s name)

Northern Beaches - Beach2Beach Fun Run and Festival — For health, wellbeing and a great cause!

How to get started

Personalise your fundraising page: if there is an option to personalise your fundraising page – make sure you do it – add photos and other relevant details. People also love hearing from you – a short video or regular updates to your your page and socials, sharing your progress.

Entry fee: if you are concerned that people won’t support you because running is your hobby – make it clear that you are paying the entry fee yourself. Consider also donating to your own event, to start the ball rolling.

Friends and family: close friends and family have your back, so consider asking them to start the ball rolling with donations – a fundraising page that already has donations is more likely to receive more – strange, huh?

Social media: don’t be afraid to post to your social media networks – again, people can’t donate if they don’t know. If people don’t want to donate, they can just keep scrolling. Post regular updates, one post on your social channels may not be enough to reach many people in your network. Ask your contacts if they would be willing to share your fundraiser too. Ask the charity you are supporting (hopefully Burdekin) do give you a shoutout too – it all adds up!

Thanking people: please make sure to thank people for their support – it only takes a second and goes a long way!

After the event: you would be surprised how many donations come in after the event, make sure to update people after the event via email, text message and/or socials.

Team Burdekin

For the Beach2Beach Fun Run and Festival, teams of twenty-five people or more receive a guaranteed 25 per cent cash back to the charity they are supporting – the more people we can get on Team Burdekin – the more money we can raise for local youth! Team members will also receive a Team Burdekin t-shirt and if there is enough interest, we could organise group training sessions and a bus to the start line!

Partners

In the past we have been the very lucky beneficiaries of our partners’ fundraising efforts. In 2023, Manly Warringah District Club raised $8,262 for the Burdekin Association. If you would like your organisation to participate in any event, of which The Burdekin Association would be a beneficiary, would be delighted. Please let us know how we can help you with this, and as always, we are incredibly grateful for any and all support received.

Registration

There are a number of ways to register.

You can sign up as part of our team by selecting Team Burdekin in the registration process, or
You can register to support Burdekin and select – no to team.
If you are an organisation, you might have your own team set up and can still support Burdekin
Sponsor a runner – support a friend, colleague, or family member

Read more about Community Fundraising here.

Why giving back matters

August 14, 2024

When we lift others up it's good for us too!

If you’re reading this, you are most likely someone who already knows why giving back matters and you most likely share our concern about social issues, including youth homelessness, and may want to do something about it. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and it is difficult to know where to start.

Many, rightly believe, that it is our moral obligation to look after those less fortunate in society. But, did you know that people who give back tend to be happier, healthier and live longer?

“If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.”
Chinese proverb

The power of giving back

Volunteering your time, energy, attention, expertise and financial assistance doesn’t just make the world a better place, it also makes you better as a person. You could be the most successful person in the world, but what does it mean if we don’t use it to make a difference and share with others? True fulfillment in life comes from lifting each other up.

In times of uncertainty, nurturing empathy and kindness buffer us from the various negative narratives around us. In fact, being kind and altruistic can offer a solution to many of the problems we face as a society.

Kindness: The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. From a survival point of view, kindness makes sense – we have evolved to understand that kindness and cooperation means inclusion and safety.

Empathy: Humans are hard-wired for empathy. It helps us to connect with and respond to our babies, but it is also a skill that develops over time and is why, perhaps, some people are more empathetic than others.

Kindness and empathy are good for us as a species and because of this, we intuitively know that our happiness depends on the happiness of others.

Altruism: True altruism is the unselfish concern for other people, doing things out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons. Altruism is about reducing another’s suffering, without expecting anything in return.

Kindness is contagious: If you dropped a single pebble into still water, the water would ripple outward in widening circles. Kindness contagion is much like the ripple effect of the pebble and the water. Even just witnessing an act of kindness motivates us towards acts of kindness ourselves.

The ripple effect of doing good. — The ripple effect of giving.

Health benefits of giving

‘Helpers high’ refers to the feel-good chemicals our body releases when we do something good – release endorphins (oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine) – that make us feel good and therefore are ways of supporting our own wellbeing too.

As mentioned, we have evolved to understand that acts of kindness and altruism improve wellbeing and foster social connections – making us both personally happier and stronger and more resilient as a community. Doing good, makes you feel good, and because it is contagious, we do more good.

Wellbeing: Small and large acts of kindness help reduce stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness and increases our levels of life satisfaction, happiness and self-esteem, diverting our attention away from ourselves, giving us a sense of purpose. We can have all the success in the world, but if we don’t share the success with others – what does it matter? We need a community to belong to – something that is bigger than us.

Physical health: Giving back may also improve our physical health by lowering blood pressure, strengthening our immune system, staving off disease and lowering cortisol levels. Ultimately, helping us to live longer, happier, healthier lives!

Sometimes we will never know the impact we have had on someone’s life – so, do it anyway.

Do you ever experience helpers high? — You might never know how much your support means to someone.

Ways to give back:

Give time: get hands-on, we are always looking for volunteers to help us make a difference.
Expertise: do you have a special skill or service that could help us? Get in touch.
Partner: would you like to partner with us to solve youth homelessness?
Be a carer: Burdekin foster carers, care for children and young people in a variety of settings.
Fundraising: make a difference by fundraising for youth.
Donate: your donations make our work possible.

Further reading

Host a BBQ Block Party for Burdekin

June 18, 2024

We love nothing better than a good Aussie barbecue and the timeless sausage sanga! Unless, of course, you are vegetarian or vegan, in which case you’ll enjoy vegan sausages.

Why not make it a block party and invite the whole neighbourhood, make it a celebration of food, culture and community? Even bring your own twist to the classic snag and celebrate diversity and culinary traditions in your community!

A block party BBQ is great way to bring people together, while raising money and awareness for a cause that is close to your heart – such as youth homelessness.

Planning your BBQ

Planning a community Block party BBQ takes a little planning, but not much! Consider hosting your event at a particular time of year:

Your very own birthday fundraiser
A summer BBQ
A public holiday BBQ
Grand Final Day
Harmony Day
Youth Homelessness Matters Day
Welcoming new neighbours to the area
Another day of significance for you
A Bunnings Sausage Sizzle – a 25 year institution! Bunnings in the community.

Where should you host your BBQ?

Park, beach, street – public spaces, just check with your local council to see if you need a permit!
Your local farmers market, school fete or sports club event.

Spread the word

You might have access to a WhatsApp group for people in your community – let them know about your event! Spread the word via friends, family, neighbours and ask any groups that you are involved with – school, a sports club, a community club, RSL and your employer to share your fundraiser – they might even support the event in some way.

Share the event on your socials, ask your local radio and/or paper for a free advertisement slot. If you use social media, please tag us so we are aware of your posts and can share them if appropriate.

Woolies and Coles grants

Your local Woolworths and Coles stores offer community grants and the money could help you to buy everything you need for your BBQ! Coles Community Support Applications and Woolworths Community Contributions could be of help.

Go extra

If you love organising these sorts of events, you might like to contact any businesses in your area to help and people generally do like to help if they know that it’s for a good cause, especially if they can get a shout out for it too! You could organise a raffle at the BBQ too.

Employer involvement

Don’t be afraid to ask your employer to assist – most organisations today do want to be involved in corporate fundraising for a number of reasons:

Good publicity
Morale boosting
Social responsibility

Corporate fundraising is a great way for organisations to show that they are committed to the community and to causes that matter – some employers will eagerly back you and some will even seek to get involved themselves and pay for volunteer days. Ask your employer about payroll giving and dollar matching!

Further information and ideas

Wills, bequests and legacies

June 6, 2024June 4, 2024

This month we want to talk about wills, gifts and legacies. The end of the financial year is a time when many of us tidy up our financial affairs for the tax man. It is a good time to prepare a will and be prepared for whatever the future may hold.

Admittedly, writing a will is not a fun topic and whilst there is no legal requirement to have one, having a will in place, could save you and your loved ones a lot of problems down the line. An added benefit? You can leave a gift in your will, creating a legacy long after you’re gone.

The Burdekin Association signed up with Gathered Here, an online will-writing service here in Australia (there are others internationally) who provide legally binding, free online will-writing services with unlimited updates for life.

About online wills

Although they have been around for many years prior, the use of online will-writing services accelerated during the pandemic, in part due to the restrictions of lockdowns, coupled with the consideration of our own mortality. Now post-pandemic online services such as will-writing continue to go from strength to strength.

Who should have a will?

Everyone – young, old and couples with children (especially). Once you’re over 18 you’re eligible, however many people put off writing a will until they feel they have to, or not at all. Major life events such as the purchase of a house, the birth of a child, an inheritance and sadly an illness diagnosis also prompt the writing of a will.

Write your will for free

Interesting facts:

In 2018, a study by ‘Which? Legal’ found that the average age of individuals writing a traditional will was 47.
In 2022, almost a fifth of will-writers on Gathered Here were over the age of 65.
In 2022, an estimated $224 million was pledged in online wills written via Gathered Here.
Residual gifts are by far the most common type of gift pledged in online wills, accounting for 78 per cent of all gifts pledged on Gathered Here.

Leaving a gift in your will

There is a misconception that leaving a gift in your will is only for wealthy people with lots of assets. In fact, without the gifts left in wills from ordinary people, many charities wouldn’t be able to sustain themselves at the level they do.

Types of gifts in wills

A residual gift – the amount left over after everything else is taken care of.
A pecuniary legacy – a specified monetary gift.
Specified legacy – particular items of worth.

Benefits to you

Gathered Here is FREE.
Unlimited updates for life.
No obligation to leave a gift – the will-writing service is still free.

Write your will for free

What leaving a gift in your will means to Burdekin and young people

Whether you are a new or long time supporter of The Burdekin Association, leaving a gift in your will is perhaps the biggest expression of your support of our work. Leaving a gift in your will allows us to plan for the future more effectively – creating a legacy, long past your lifetime.

Christmas Appeal 2023

November 24, 2023November 8, 2023

As we approach the festive season, we launch our appeal for annual donations for our children and young people. Christmas can be a challenging time with its huge emphasis on the family unit. This can have an unintended side effect on people without a family who feel more alone and isolated than usual.

This year we have a number of ways in which you can support our children and young people:

Christmas Wishing Tree

Our children and young people need us to meet not only their emergency needs but to provide normal experiences of childhood, such as the simple joys of a Christmas gift that they would really love and which gives personal meaning to the festivities.

You can either select a cash donation for the value of a particular gift, which we will then purchase in time for Christmas and/or purchase a gift card which allows our children and young people to enjoy participating in fun activities, such as going to the movies.

You can purchase a gift voucher from JB Hi-Fi, Rebel Sports, Kmart, Big W, Priceline / Sephora, EB Games, Westfields and a Myer or David Jones voucher and email it to us to at: burdekin.admin@burdekin.org.au

It is through these events that we can enrich the lives of children and young people who would otherwise – and in many ways do – go without.

Support young people this Christmas — Christmas Wishing Tree

Monetary donations

Alternatively, monetary donations which can be used by our dedicated staff to fulfil the wishes of our young people on your behalf is also hugely welcome. If you would like, you could make a donation for the value of one or several gifts online or by direct debit into our donation bank account. Simply click on the donate button on the right of this page.

Monetary donations may also be used to provide the more basic needs such as education support, internet access, reading glasses, swimming lessons, school supplies, course fees, driving lessons, crisis support and so much more.

So, before you finalise your Christmas shopping, please consider a thoughtful gift that supports our young people. Often these gifts are the only gift that a young person will receive at Christmas and the joy that it brings is immeasurable.