You can experience personal and business growth beyond your greatest expectations and engage your community in a positive meaningful way when you take a more philanthropic view of the world.
Eugenie Pepper owner of Plum Collections, one of Australia’s most loved and trusted brands for children and babies did just that when she partnered with SIDS and Kids.
Here’s Genie’s story:
Background
‘I am co-owner of Plum Collections. Plum is an award winning business that produces an extensive range of babywear, toddler fashion and kid’s swimwear and baby sleep bags.
One of my personal, and our businesses, core goals is to contribute meaningfully to the community through ‘giving’ initiatives. We do this through contributing our time, resources, expertise and by organising community and charity events.
Our whole team gets involved based on their genuine interest in the charity/event and their personal skill set. For example, Members of my team have helped with graphic design, backstage, face painting, and packing and distributing goodie bags at events.
Plum is an official SIDS and Kids partner. (* scroll to the bottom to read all about SIDS and Kids exciting new name and new direction)
SIDS and Kids is a cause close to my heart having personally experienced their services when I lost several pregnancies.
It is a nice fit personally and professionally, being a charity that promotes and researches saving the lives of babies and who also supports grieving families in need.
About SIDS and Kids
SIDS and Kids is dedicated to saving the lives of babies and children during pregnancy, birth, infancy and childhood through research and education. SIDS and Kids also support bereaved families.
A percentage of Plum sales support SIDS and Kids Safe Sleeping educational campaign. The events reinforce and strengthen our collaboration as well as raise much needed funds and awareness.
The partnership involves the sale of Plum’s babywear and sleeping bags through the SIDS and Kids online shop and the promotion of our Safe Sleeping message to their customers, retail partners and supporters.
Plum supports SIDS and Kids national Safe Sleeping Education campaign through the funding of selected safe sleeping education materials.
The Safe Sleeping materials funded include safe sleeping, tummy time and safe wrapping brochures and posters.
SIDS and Kids together with Plum also launched the Safe Sleeping iPhone application in March 2012. The iPhone application is available free of charge to the community.
‘SIDS and Kids has significantly benefited from the long standing partnership with PLUM. Not only have PLUM assisted in raising awareness of our cause they have donated vital funds and promoted our safe sleeping messages to parents purchasing PLUM products ultimately helping us in saving little lives. Associate Professor Leanne Raven, Chief Executive, SIDS and Kids, 1227 Malvern Road, Malvern VIC 3144
While the charities we support benefit, so does our business. We believe our association with SIDS and Kids gives parents a sense of security in buying our product which ultimately leads to increased sales for us.
Our logo is featured on the Safe Sleeping brochures we distribute for SIDS and Kids to our retailers and customers. We have the SIDS and Kids logo on our baby sleep bags packaging and SIDS and Kids endorse our products.
Giving back is a highly rewarding initiative for me and for the business. I also believe businesses no matter how big or small should be socially responsible and I would like to encourage other businesses to do the same.
Plum has more recently partnered with Wonderwoman Children Accredited First Aid Education Program. The courses empower those that care for children to know what to do in case of an emergency by offering accessible infant and paediatric first aid for families.
Plum sponsors the family first aid courses delivered by Wonder Woman Children.
Our next Plum sponsored first aid course will be offered free to the community. Events will be hosted in baby specialist retail stores throughout Australia in 2017.
‘Our community organisation provides family first aid that is affordable and accessible. Through our partnership with PLUM Collections we have been able to raise awareness about what we do and have been able to maintain a service of high quality, provide additional resources to families and to also have access to a great deal of support. In return we are able to share with those families that use our services about Plum Collections and maintain a partnership that both parties value’. Nataly Tormey from Wonder Woman Children
How we got started
The first step is contact your chosen charity and ask them what they need.
When organising a charity event the success comes down to collaboration. I decided I wanted to give back to SIDS and Kids. The collaboration was initiated simply by just getting on the phone and calling them.
I initially spoke to Leanne Raven, SIDS and Kids CEO and she was very excited about forming a partnership.
In the case of SIDS and Kids it was suggested our contribution could come via sponsoring the SIDS and Kids safe sleeping campaign.
What we did
The first event was an art exhibition, followed by several kids fashion shows attracting large numbers of people to each event, increasing awareness of both SIDS and Kids and Plum Collections.
We had almost 60 children participating in the shows which in turns attracts their families and friends to participate in the event. It was hectic, but well worth the effort.
It’s great to get a special guest that encourages publicity and attention for the event.
Natasha Silva Jelly, Associate Editor of Harpers Bizarre presented our first event. The second show was hosted by Dijana Mulhearn, Fashion Journalist author and owner of Wardrobe 101 of a Fashion mum’s book.
The Wiggles are ambassadors for SIDS and Kids and we requested their support and they kindly offered for Dorothy the Dinosaur to be the special guest annually at the Plum Fashion Show.
Dorothy is a wonderful drawcard and danced and sang with the children.
How we did it
It can be overwhelming in the beginning planning an event. The following are my tips to support an event. There are lots of resources available online to help. The first thing I did was search out budget and checklist templates. We rounded up as many supporters as possible, including friends and family. Colleagues of another organisation that were already supporters also supported and collaborated with us.
We used social media extensively to get the word out and found businesses outside our own network, interested in collaborating and/or sponsoring through free advertising on Sourcebottle.
One local woman’s fundraising group donated their time by selling raffle tickets and helping put together the goodie bags.
A group of students who were studying a Master’s Degree in Media Practice and Public Relations at the University of Sydney worked on the event to gain experience.
The local dance school co-ordinated a kids dance routines and some high school students also volunteered selling raffle tickets and generally helping on the day.
There are many online resources to help find volunteers.
Genie’s Tips for Success
Take advantage of online templates that suit your event and include all spending on your budget, create a timeline, and develop a check list.
Sponsorship
- Make a list of potential sponsors.
- Put together a sponsorship request letter and email out to your list as soon as possible. Don’t be afraid to follow up with a phone call if you don’t hear back.
- Take advantage of any contacts you may have. It makes a big difference when you contact people if you can tell them that someone they know suggested you call them.
- Use Source Bottle as a resource to do a call out for potential sponsors.
- See if you can get sponsorship for someone to design promotional, drink and food, etc for your goodie bags.
Marketing & Promotion & Publicity
- Get help with distribution of flyers/posters/newsletter/brochures to community.
- Submit event information to local events calendars and websites such as CharityDOs.com.au
- Send a press release to your local paper and relevant website and contact bloggers to write about the event.
- Send an email announcement to your database with link to your online registration form
- Get everyone involved to send out the newsletter to their list of people
In summary
Take a leaf from Genie’s example when choosing the charity or community group you partner with:
- Align with your personal values – Genie had experienced the work of SIDS first hand
- Align with your company goals – SIDS and Kids and Family First Aid are both perfect fits for a childrens wear business
- Ask for help and don’t be afraid to follow up when people don’t get back to your from your first contact. It takes time to build trust.
This is the first in a series of great business/community partnerships. The series will ultimately be published as a book.
Do you have a business/community partnership event you’d like to share? Contact me at desley.cowley@spruikerhire.com for an information sheet.
Breaking News - SIDS and Kids Officially renamed today - 13th October 2016
Today, SIDS and Kids will be officially renamed – Red Nose, saving little lives – to better reflect the work they do saving the lives of babies and children. Their vision remains the same – a future where no child dies suddenly or unexpectedly during pregnancy, infancy or their preschool years.
Since SIDS and Kids first started in 1977 they have saved the lives of 8,959 babies. However, in Australia every year over 3,200 families experience the sudden and unexpected death of a baby or child from 20 weeks in pregnancy to 4 years of age. This is nine deaths per day.
To celebrate the launch of the organisation, today (13th October 2016) SIDS and Kids CEO Leanne Raven will be at Parliament house to officially announce their new name and national organisation. They have also have also been working on a short film that announces the name change and new vision to the general community. You can view the film on the homepage of the new website here.