Sadly, Australia has the highest cancer rate in the world with one in two Australians being diagnosed with cancer before the age of 85. With so many people (and their families) affected by cancer, funding for care, research and extra help for families is crucial. Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is the Cancer Council’s biggest fundraising event which is this year, aiming to raise over $13 million to fund research, prevention, and support services for those that need it. Scheduled for Thursday 27 May, Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is a fun way to bring your team together to raise much needed funds for this worthy cause – all the while enjoying some delicious treats! Here are 6 ideas for getting behind this important cause.
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Host a bake off.
Nothing beats a little competition to raise the stakes and increase the fun factor. From Adriano Zumbo-style pastry perfection to good old fashioned family favourites, you’ll find closet bakers come out of the woodwork when there’s a prize on offer! For the non-bakers, tasting the treats is half the fun and judging them is the other half. You can either select some ‘official’ judges or get everyone involved in the scoring process. The Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea website even has scorecards available for download here. Don’t forget to charge an entry fee (or gold coin donation) to bakers and tasters. For a full rundown on setting up a bake off, check out this resource.
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Morning tea with a side of entertainment.
Cast the aprons aside for a moment and incorporate a talent show into your morning tea. Baking isn’t for everyone, so this is a great way to extend the involvement to a wider crowd. You can invite people outside of your organisation to be involved and you’re sure to be surprised by some of the hidden talents! Encourage everything from music to magic tricks to dancing and everything in between. Here are some tips on how to host a workplace talent show.
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Incorporate a raffle.
Beef up your fundraising efforts by adding a raffle to your morning tea. With such a great cause, asking local businesses, suppliers, or business partners to make donations to your fundraising raffle is usually a breeze. Donations don’t need to be huge, and you might even find your company is willing to add something to the mix – it could be something as simple as a bonus day of annual leave. Here’s how to get underway with a raffle:
- Source some great prizes.
- Stock up on raffle tickets (you can grab ticket books like these from Officeworks) or simply download and print some from the Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea website here.
- Promote the raffle – place prizes on display in a high traffic area of the office, advertise it in a staff newsletter and place pop-up flyers around the office.
- Recruit a team of ticket sellers.
- Select a lucky winner at your morning tea.
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Hold a good old-fashioned bake sale.
It’s hard to resist a tempting table of treats, especially when it comes with the feel-good factor of donating to a worthy cause. Ask bakers and makers in your team to donate delicious goodies for Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea. Passionate bakers love showing off their talents and the rest of the team will enjoy sampling them. Don’t forget to put the tea (or coffee) in morning tea too. If you have an office coffee machine and a talented barista in your midst, ask if they’ll donate some time to making gold coin donation coffees for the team. For tea connoisseurs, you could ask the non-bakers to donate a packet of specialty tea to be enjoyed on the day (also for a gold coin donation).
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Reinvent the donation box.
Increase your teams fundraising efforts by instigating a challenge for the month of May leading up to Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea. Come up with something as a team that you want to commit to for the month and have a little fun while raising some extra funds. This could be something as simple as a junk food penalty jar, a penalty for saying a particularly hated buzzword, a procrastination penalty jar or a good old-fashioned swear jar. It’s sure to get a lot of laughs, get everyone involved and most importantly, add a decent chunk to your fundraising efforts.
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Matched giving.
Sometimes companies have policies for matched giving (or are open to the idea). This basically means that your organisation will match the amount raised by employee’s dollar for dollar – effectively doubling your efforts!
Feeling inspired? Check out Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea for plenty of resources to get you started. From downloadable bake-off score cards to bunting, event posters and crowd-pleasing recipes, you’ll find everything you need to host the perfect event on Thursday May 27th to support such a worthy cause. We wish you all the best of luck with your fundraising efforts!
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The following advice is of a general nature only and intended as a broad guide. The advice should not be regarded as legal, financial or real estate advice. You should make your own inquiries and obtain independent professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances before making any legal, financial or real estate decisions. Click here for full Terms of Use.