Problem Resolved - (Famous Last Words?)

Ok so after all the negativity and stressing out that’s been done in the past few weeks I thought I would request a meeting with my supervisors and tell them how concerned I am about the fact that a) we only have four weeks left to organise a major event for 100 people, b) we need to get everything sponsored, but nobody is willing to sponsor, and c) nobody seems willing to offer up their venue free of charge for an entire evening during peak wedding season.

I addressed these concerns with my supervisors and suggested that instead of worrying about all the additional sponsorship that we would need to hold an event, we should hold an online auction instead, meaning that we would only need to worry about getting product sponsorship from businesses. My supervisors seemed happy enough with this idea and it was agreed upon that now we would be running an online auction instead of a physical one. I couldn’t be more relieved.

At this point, which is about the half-way point, I have some great sponsors on board but need to secure many, many more. So far, I have received donations or commitments to donate from Hoyts, Westfield, Axis Capital, Beds Plus, Sharma Heylen-Silvia (Artist), Sienas of Leederville and Little Creatures. I cannot tell you how thrilled it makes me when I receive a positive response from a prospective sponsor. Who knew that charity work was so damn difficult!?

One of the things I need to remind myself about asking for sponsorship is that I’m not asking anyone to do me a personal favour. I keep feeling like I’m asking so much of people and that they are really doing me a huge favour by sponsoring my auction. I am just so overwhelmed that I get one yes out of every one hundred businesses contacted that I forget that I’m not actually doing it for myself, I’m doing it for the tens of thousands of cancer sufferers and their families across Australia. I think that most Perth businesses forget that also!

If you guys have any tips for securing more sponsorship, I’m open to suggestions!

Until next time,

-Carmen.