A born fundraiser
I’m fundraising for girls in need all around the world for International Day of the Girl and I really want to raise awareness about how girls are mistreated.If you think that sounds like the pitch of a seasoned community fundraiser, you’re not wrong. At 10 years old, Billie has been campaigning for Plan International Australia for more than a quarter of her life and she shows no signs of slowing down.
An ABCme program about International Day of the Girl ignited Billie’s passion for girls’ rights when she was just seven years old, and it inspired her to deliver a speech about girls’ rights to her class at school. “My teacher, she really loved it and she sent me and my friend to every class in the school to give that speech!” shares Billies.
After receiving such great feedback, Billie was keen to do something similar the following year for International Day of the Girl, and that was when her mum suggested that she add a community fundraising element to her campaign.
So, Billie set up a raffle at school, and devised a game called ‘Beat the Goalie’ where, for $1, students could test their soccer skills and win a prize if they scored a goal.
“All my schoolmates really liked it and some of them even helped,” shares Billie. “They had a lot of fun while they were fundraising, and they were all really positive about the results too.”
Since that initial school fundraiser, Billie has taken to the wider community, setting up fundraising stalls outside her local Woolworths, her friend’s ballet concert and beyond! She’s even managed to get retail sponsors on board, after reaching out to bookstores and sports shops asking them to donate prizes. All in all, her efforts have seen her raise a total of $2,754 for Plan International Australia.
No matter where life takes this 10-year-old, her passion for girls’ rights is sure to follow, “Girls in the other countries, they can’t speak up, so we have to be the voice for them and we have to fight for them until it’s equal rights for girls as well as boys.”
We can’t wait to see what Billie does next!
How do I organise a community fundraiser?
It’s simple.
- Choose your community fundraising activity.
Have a think about what you are good at and what you enjoy, then brainstorm how you could harness these skills and interests to fundraise. Get creative! The world is your community fundraising oyster!
- Tell us about it (link to ‘Tell us about your fundraising’)
Fill in this form and let us know about your brilliant community fundraising plans.Familiarise yourself with our community fundraising guidelines and sign the form at the bottom of the agreement. Please note that you will need a supervising adult to register on your behalf if you are not over the age of 18.
- Download our resources
We want to prep you for success, so we’ve put together a community fundraising guide, posters and social media resources you can use during your fundraising journey. - Set up your fundraising page (Link to ‘GoFundraise’)
Jump over to GoFundraise, our third party fundraising platform, and click on ‘Start Fundraising’. From here you can create and personalise your own page, complete with fundraising target, and once it’s all set up, you can share your page with family, friends and colleagues!
Alternatively, you can collect donations and send us the donation form when you transfer the funds to us – the choice is yours.
Let the community fundraising begin!
