Most Innovative Charity Event
Alzheimer’s Society – Care Sector Fundraising Ball
When Avnish and Anita Goyal of Hallmark Care Homes and the Hemraj Goyal Foundation realised that the care industry was suffering from an unfair reputation, they wanted to do something about it. In a siloed industry it was rare for people to come together with their peers and shine a light on the fantastic work the sector does to deliver excellent standards of care. They therefore launched the Care Sector Fundraising Ball (CSFB). The ball was designed to unite the industry and put beneficiary charities front and centre to share their messages and inspire guests. The CSFB is crucial to changing perceptions of the industry and demonstrating its commitment to improving areas where there is room for enhancement. The 2019 CSFB raised an incredible £200,000 net – a staggering increase of 38% from the 2018 event – for Alzheimer’s Society and The Care Workers’ Charity.
At Alzheimer’s Society, we treasure our partnerships with committed individuals like the Goyals, and the event has now become a highlight in our calendar. We cannot wait for the 2020 ball to build on the exceptional growth and guest experience of last year’s event, and feel extremely privileged to be a partner.
GroceryAid // Wellpleased Events – Waitrose & Partners Garden Party in aid of GroceryAid
The Waitrose & Partners Garden Party 2019 was a new event that spectacularly reinvented the charity fundraiser model last summer.
GroceryAid and Wellpleased Events took the bold move out of London and away from the traditional spaces associated with such events. Using a ‘green site’ they were able to adopt a ‘site from scratch’ approach to perfectly create their vision and every bespoke element. The result was intricate network of 17 structures blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor. Bars made from vintage cabinets, a 7m stately home, an orchard, vegetable floral displays, edible table centres and an elaborate lighting system to mimic the natural light outside left guests stunned.
Insisting on inclusivity, 125 suppliers were represented in the 920 guests. The result was a magical night raising funds and awareness for GroceryAid, uniquely in an arena where every attendee could benefit from their work. Relaxing and reformatting the approach to fundraising was a dramatic success with 100% feedback of planning to return.
JDRF – The Sugarplum Dinner
Raising an incredible £1.5million, The Sugarplum Dinner 2019 was the fourth Sugarplum event for JDRF and the most successful in the charity’s history.
On World Diabetes Day, Thursday 14 November 2019, The Sugarplum Dinner attracted 350 high-profile guests to the V&A Museum for a night of exquisite dining, record-breaking fundraising and private performances. Guests included Mark Ronson, Florence Welch, Lord Julian Fellowes, Dolly Alderton and Jonny Labey.
The special events team assembled and collaborated with an 18 member Event Committee, using their unique strengths and connections to secure exclusive prizes, special guests and Michelin star winning chefs for the evening. The team also built on the back of previous Sugarplum events, innovating to bring a fundraising-focused evening that still inspired guests to believe they could affect real change for those living with type 1 diabetes. The event secured an incredible £1million solo pledge and raised £266,000 from live and silent auctions.
The Dinners are hosted by Jubie Wigan and raise money for JDRF, the type 1 diabetes charity. Jubie founded Sugarplum Children in 2013 after her daughter Aliena was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just two years old. Since 2013, The Sugarplum Dinners have raised over £3million for JDRF.
Shine Cancer Support – Shine Connect 2019
Back in 2016, TTA collaborated with Shine Cancer Support to devise and deliver the inaugural Shine Connect – a national conference open to any young adult with a cancer diagnosis and their family or partner. Our challenge was to create a live, life-affirming experience on a shoestring budget.
The unique format gives participants the chance to meet and talk about life, cancer and everything in between, learn from cancer experts through insightful workshops, and enjoy complementary experiences from make-up tutorials to massages and therapy dogs.
In 2017, we delivered the second highly successful Shine Connect, expanding its reach to carers and healthcare professionals, and introduced a marketplace exhibition for relevant organisations. By 2018, the marketplace had burgeoned from five exhibitors to nineteen.
For 2019, we additionally enabled participants to connect and forge new friendships in the event lead-up through a multi-functional mobile app. The 132 participants included 17 carers, and six healthcare professionals who gained a Continuous Professional Development certificate for their attendance. 100% reviewed the event favourably, with 86% rating it as “excellent”. They particularly appreciated the sense of community fostered by the app, and the opportunity to meet other young adults with cancer in a life-affirming context.
Sightsavers – BLINK
Sightsavers’ “End is in Sight” campaign is on a mission to end the blinding eye disease, trachoma, in the countries where the charity works by 2025. We wanted to raise awareness of both our brand, and campaign through an innovative event – seeking to reach audiences and media outlets that might often be resistant to a typical charity message.
Working with an amazing group of agencies, led by MET Studio, we dreamed big and made something amazing happen. As a team we delivered an innovative, interactive photography exhibition – BLINK – where visitors would be able to literally see beautiful images disappearing before their eyes. Each digital image was fitted with tracking technology programmed to detect blinks – each blink then triggering a process within the image that resulted in a little bit of the image being permanently destroyed.
This decaying photography created an artistic representation of irreversible sight-loss from advanced trachoma, and really made people think about the impact of sight loss.
This event also launched our latest Aid Match appeal – where donations received would be matched by the UK government. Raising awareness was vital on so many levels, and through this innovative approach BLINK really delivered.
The Prince’s Trust – Trust Us
Trust Us… a step into the unknown. The Prince’s Trust’s, innovative immersive event.
Using the organisation’s name to create a play on words, the title asked guests to “Trust Us” when accepting their invitation to an unknown experience that is unlike anything they had been to before.
The Prince’s Trust believes that every young person should have the chance to embrace exciting opportunities. Through a series of immersive experiences, including powerful storytelling, role play activities and thoughtful conversation, the fundraising event offered guests a new and unique perspective on the challenges affecting young people today, the complex factors that can influence their lives and how, with The Trust’s support, they can fulfill their potential for a bright future.
The impact of the event was profound…
