My First Week...

Hi,

I started at Lifeline WA, the leading suicide prevention charity in Western Australia, in February. I however didn't officially start my placement until May 1st. The reason why the first three months of my placement did not count was because I forgot to hand in my paper work, silly me!

At first, I was sceptical about working for a charity, I always thought I would be working for a sporting team or company. I was never sure about what actually goes into the behind scenes of charity fundraising. I can now say that I am thrilled to be working for Lifeline WA, I have the opportunity to work on a lot of first hand Public Relations and Marketing tasks.

So far in my placement I have had the privilege of attending the Lifeline WA fundraising brunch which raised a total of $205,000. It was amazing being at the event and seeing how everything operated backstage at an event like this on. I was amazed by how smoothly everything ran however the day was long. This was an external event ran by Mondo's butchers, so the Lifeline WA Fundraising and Marketing department did not have much to do with the planning. Instead they ran the silent auction and processed the payments of the sales. This was the first time I had ever been to an event where this much money was raised, it was also a record for Lifeline WA and the brunch. It was the first time they had raised this money at a brunch, normally this much is only ever raised at the annual ball.

The following weekend, Mondo's butchers, put on a butchers picnic as a family fun event. This event attracted a lot of people throughout the day and gained Lifeline WA much needed publicity. The event raised over $15,000. Again though this event was an external event, which meant that the money was given to Lifeline WA but the fundraising team did not have to do very much. Instead they set up a stall which had information booklets, stickers as well as other promotional goods. Along with that a raffle was also held, that was my job for the day, I had to sell raffle tickets. It was fun but definitely not as enjoyable as the brunch, all in all though I was very appreciative to be asked to help and for the experience I gained. I was very impressed with how organised both events were and how smoothly they went as well.

At the moment I am working on the HBF Run for a Reason, Lifeline WA is one of the naming charities. I am responsible for the email marketing, keeping a database of the participants running and fundraising for Lifeline WA, I am also keeping a database of the donations made and recruiting volunteers for event day (Lifeline WA needs 30 volunteers, which I can safely say we now have 35 volunteers! which is just awesome this far out from event day. As Melissa Howie my supervisor puts is "We are the good kids this year")


I am working on the Black Diamond Supper Club and the HBF Run for a Reason, it is a great opportunity to be working for a Not for Profit, like Lifeline WA as I am getting a lot of hands on experience. I am able to use what I am learning at Uni and the skills I have already attained. I look forward to blogging about what I next endeavour at Lifeline WA.

Regards,
Karla Cavalli