UK WHO
Founded in 1645 with a long-standing history of providing excellent educational facilities, The Cheam School is based in Headley, Hampshire. With a promise to offer pupils ‘the time of their lives’, Cheam School has worked hard to create a welcoming environment which gives children the best possible start to their academic journeys.
As part of their programme, Cheam School offers several life-changing bursaries every year to help underprivileged children. This 100% secondary school bursary improves the social and environmental circumstances that pupils would otherwise face. There is also a focus on helping those with challenging family situations and giving them a chance they would never have been given.
Prior Fundraising Challenges
The school finds that it’s harder to raise money for bursaries as donors tend to feel more passionately about other causes, such as health-related issues. It can also be complex to articulate how this money can change a child’s life, as the information is always confidential.
Due to the study’s cost, only a small number of students receive this generous donation each year. This means that it can be hard to persuade people to donate as sometimes they are looking for a bigger impact to support. However, just helping one child has the power to impact thousands which, thankfully, lots of the organisation’s supporters understand. Cheam School are existing Givergy clients so we already knew what needed to be overcome to create an outstanding result.
Event Highlights
The Cheam Fiesta Party was a vibrant event that used a mix of Silent Auction and Live Auction features from Givergy. Online Pledges were also integrated to ensure maximum fundraising options were available. Onsite, ten Givergy tablets were used alongside mobile bidding, to make the process of donating super simple.
The school felt that the silent auction worked brilliantly as it allowed people to donate and get to know the items before the event itself. As storytelling can be hard, this also meant that more time could be taken to build connections with donors, both new and existing.
The total amount raised came in at £39,493 which consisted of £31,693 from the silent auction and £7,800 from the live auction. Cheam School were thrilled with this and commented that it would support their bursary needs well.
How did you find the Givergy system?
Cheam School felt that the system was easy to use and offered lots of support when needed. They commented that Hannah, their Customer Success Manager, was brilliant and quick to respond when queries were put forward.
There was also a collaborative effort between Givergy and the school to launch the auction items which worked well and helped in the busy run up to the event.
TOP TIP
- It is important to select the right type of event for your prospective audience. We knew that a silent auction would work well due to the reach that our organisation has.
- Choose a mix of auction items as you may be surprised about what performs the best.
“Hannah and the team on the night were brilliant. They noticed even the smallest details and supported us in every way. Givergy really added value to our fundraising cause.” .
