Not Quite the end for me...yet!

Hi Guys,

So although my required 20days of interning is officially up, I have decided to stay on at Telethon to help out with the rest of the years events. As I'm sure many of you are aware the later half of the year is were most of the fun begins culminating with the Telethon weekend!!

Prior to that weekend i have the 92.9 kids appeal which sees Telethon raise funds specifically for much needed equipment at PMH. I will then be helping in the continued development of the Cole's Kids carnival held over Telethon weekend and will lend my hand to any other tasks required for the live 26hour broadcast. Offering my services a couple of days a week will really boost my experience within the not for profit industry and will in turn help me shape some vital contacts moving forward.

Hopefully i can aid in helping Telethon implement a viable PR relations plan to help further their organisation and its already broad reach.

I have to admit entering this unit at the start of the semester was a hassle!trying to find a placement and giving up work hours at my current job proved difficult obstacles to overcome. However, the experience and insight i have learnt from the placement program is beyond anything i could have every imagined. Not only has working at Telethon shaped my values and attitudes, but it has also provided me with a future direction for my career post studies and for that i will be eternally grateful.

Good luck to everyone in your future endeavors
Its been a pleasure interacting with all of you.

Until next time

Catie
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Telethon Presents Cirque Du Soleil Sneak Peek!!

Events just dont seem to stop at Telethon!!

This year saw the first event of this kind as Telethon teamed up with world renowned Cirque Du Soleil to rasie money for the children of Western Australia.
Presenting a sneak peek of the popular Ova performance last Saturdaay saw families from all over perth meet at the big top to pay a $10 donation to view a snippet of the performance and the opportunity to meet and greet with the performers after the show, with all proceeds going to Telethon. After a couple of weeks with constant liaison between us at Telethon and Cirqu's PR team an event run sheet was finalised and saw us all meet Saturday morning at Langley Park. On Telethons end we were able to promote the event through an exclusive segment on Today Tonight (thanks is part to Telethons association to Seven) we also ran a variety of post on the Telethon Facebook page encouraging families to come down, The West also did a write up promoting the event and ran some ad's for it whilst regional stations such as Seven Mate played advertisments on their channels. We were amazed at the responce as the two of us from Telethon arrived early on Saturday morning to set up for the event.

Two hours prior to the gates even openening the line was around the corner, which really demonstrates the support Telethon has from the Western Australian community. After meeting with Cirque Security and PR team we were issued backstage working passes and began to set up for the event. Volunteers were given a run day of the day and it was my responcibility to keep an eye on Fat Cat.
Being the main branding image for Telethon, Fat Cat's presences at community events is huge which I'm not sure i realised until this event. I was incharge of walking around with Fat Cat who was immediatly swarmed with children and parents all wanting a photo and a cuddle, chatting with all sorts of publics about their love of Telethon or how Telethon had helped them or people they knew was the most rewarding part of my day.
After watching the performance and then coordinating photos it was time to pack up the event.

After a couple hours of work we established we had raised just under $16,000 for Telethon which was just amazing to be apart of the support of the community within Western Australia is so overwhelming!! I think today really highlighted to me the improtance of branding within an organisation and providing the community with something they can associate your company with, also getting the opportunity to go out and speak with key external stakeholders who you might not often get the opportunity to speak with is very rewarding.



Fat Cat and the Performers


Until next time

caitie
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Presenting the 2012 Telethon Beneficiaries!!

When i first started at Telethon one of my first jobs was to help with the 2012 Beneficiaries function, regarded as the 'heart end' of telethon by Mr Kerry Stokes himself, this function saw Telethon distributed the $16million raised last year to a variety of beneficiaries who would all put it towards research and aid for the sick children and families of Western Australia. Being named a beneficiary is no easy thing, each charity must put forward a business case outlining what every single cent of their grant would go towards and inturn how that would help the children of Western Australia, the Telethon Board of Trustee's then take each application into careful consideration before determining a final number of recipients. This year it was 45 Western Australian charities and research organisations who Telethon felt could best utilise the funds. The function also acknowledges its million dollar partners who donate in excess of a million dollars each year to aid in the cause.  

The beneficiaires function was to be held on the 29th of May at the Perth convention and exhibition centre and my first task was ot monitor the 500+ guest list. Telethon invites all its major stakeholders your share a vested interest in the organisation as well as those it has worked with over the years. A generic email invitation is sent out to all beneficiaries as well as other stakeholders inviting them to the event (i even had to hand write some for the likes of our Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi and the Premier Colin Barnet just to name a few..). I was then incharge of monitoring their RSVP's and forming an official guest list.

Leading up to the day there was a lot of work to do, we contacted media outlets such as Seven News and The West who both agreed to send crew along to report on the function, with Seven news playing a broadcast on that evenings news and The West doing an article for the following days paper. A run sheet was created so we all knew exactly what was to be done and who was doing it on the day. I got assigned the job of greating the guests as they arrived, checking them in and answering any questions they had regarding the event, i got to chat with some very amazing people ranging from representatives from each charity, as well as some of Perths big names and million dollar partners.

I also had the opportunity of hanging out with the telethon stars of 2012 Conor ad Sophie and a little legend named Scott Geurini who at 6 yrs old has, in the last three years, raised over $25,000 for telethon by walking from his home in the country to their local footy oval which i hear is over 25km. Scott become the centre of both media reports appearing on the news and then in the paper the following day with Mr Stokes.

This event has encouraged me to, beyond my study, seek a job in the Not for Profit industry where my skills can be utilised to raise awareness to the amazing things these organisations achieve for our community.

Scott and Mr Stokes in The West



Beneficiaries recieving their certificates



Until next time

caitie

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Telethon time!

Hello fellow bloggers and PR enthusiasts!

Being giving the opportunity to intern at Telethon was a scary, yet exciting thought. I expected to walk into a huge office with a whole team of people and different departments carrying out their various duties for this infamous organisation. Little did i know!! The team at telethon consists of four people. Yep that wasn't a typing error I said four.

This team of extremely hard working individuals cover all aspects of the not for profit organisation ranging from an executive manage, marketing and events, events and administration and accounting and bookkeeping, all working efficiently together to run this organisation 365days a year. Telethon is infamous for the attention it attracts on its weekend in November, however, its operations don't stop there, its community and corporate fundraising efforts run all year long, and its communication with its various stakeholders and beneficiaries is daily and its up to these four people to make sure its all done effectively.

Telethon does not have the budget for a PR department, 100% of its donations go towards a selected number of beneficiaries each year, and until recently most of its social media and PR strategies were run through a company called socialite media who offered their services for free. Telethon now takes care of its own PR with all of its social media activity coming from the members within the office and its news and print exposure comes from the support of Seven West Media.

On my first day i was informed that the major two projects i would be working on would the Beneficiaries Function and the Telethon Kids appeal. The beneficiaries function is one that sees telethon hand out grants to all the charities receiving funding from last years record breaking total of just over 16million, it also acknowledges its million dollar partners, which are those companies who donated a million dollars or more over the telethon weekend. The telethon kids appeal sees telethon partner with 92.9 and over the course of two weeks raise the funds to provide Princess Margaret Hospital with new equipment they need from a 'wishlist' they create. I look forward to contributing my skills to both of these events and gaining much knowledge from the team at telethon.


Stay tuned for updates!

Caitie
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