Over the past couple of weeks I have been interning at an equine welfare organisation called Second Chance Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation based in Bullsbrook.
Together myself and the Fundraising Coordinator have been busy planning a Fundraising Gymkhana, which for all those who aren't involved in the equine world, a show with fancy dress, games, show jumping and hacking classes. Hence it has something for everyone.
I have been busy organising sponsors for the day as well as securing media coverage, with a number of newspapers preparing stories as well as photographers and journalists coming from WA's very own Perth Rider Magazine. It was all running very smoothly, until disaster struck and we were forced to cancel the Show, which was mean to be held on the 22nd of September in the suburb on Wungong.
Luckily due to the warning we gave many of our suppliers and the host venue, the charity received most of their investments into the event, back.
We sent out a number of media alerts and contacted journalists and editors first hand to tell them the bad news and to make sure no one drove all the way to the venue grounds on the day and found that it has been cancelled that way. We emailed all the Second Chance members, posted an alert on our Facebook page as we all the website and a number of forum pages.
It was my job to contact all the sponsors and tell them the extremely bad news.
I did a mixture of emails, phone calls and letters, depending on how professional the business were, how eager they were to get on board and how they had approached the sponsorship. Many small businesses preferred personal phone calls whilst other "chain" establishments regarded the emails and letters as professional so they can easily record the situation.
Out of the 16 sponsors we had for the show, 14 of them understood the situation and were eager to be contacted about sponsorship for future events. Because we contacted them promptly, professionally according to their desire and gave them a large warning period before the event, majority were happy with how we handled ourselves and the image of Second Chance.
We issued the stock that was sent to us by the sponsors extremely fast, hand delivering it in some circumstances, whilst refunds and receipts were sent within 24 hours of the news going out.
Hence because we acted swiftly and transparently we minimised any negative impacts that could be placed onto Second Chance and have secured relationships with these businesses for the future.
