Making A Difference

How A Small Startup Can Make Big Things Happen

Recently here at TicketSuite, we were approached by Switch8 fitness director Mike Helg. Mike’s dream was to make a fitness challenge with a difference but didn’t quite know how. We sat down and looked at all the main things people in a similar space are doing. The first thing we noticed was that the clear majority of these 30-day weight loss and boot camp style challenges is that they were focused on simply churning out a result for the participants.

We took this and formulated a way to make it different, a lot of people burn out of these types of programs because it’s easy to not do something for yourself. We decided we needed an edge, a way to keep participants truly accountable and so ‘The $10k Give’ was born. The idea is simple, participants register, create a champion profile and pick 1 of 6 charities to raise funds for. We figured that if participants had to stay accountable to a cause and in turn the people sponsoring them then they would be less likely to quit.

But we needed more, something to really sweeten the deal for people to want to do ‘The $10k Give’ so we came up with a single cash prize, $10,000 for the person who not only transforms their body the most but also who raises the most for their chosen cause. There is no shortcut with this program, it's not going to be won by the person who just slams the gym for 12 weeks nor will the most socially minded person wins. The winner will be a truly committed person who can demonstrate both a willingness to change their own life and make an impactful change for others.

OK, cool so what makes this something I should care about? The reason is simple, be the change you want to see. Change your own mindset to care for yourself and caring for others will be a natural, organic change too. We hope to be a catalyst in peoples lives to be socially minded and self-aware long beyond the finish date.

And there you have it, this is how one young startup is aiming to make a mark on the world. The Registrations for ‘The $10k Give’ are open so head to Switch8 Fitness Facebook page or visit www.switch8fitness.com to register now and to learn more about the 12 Week Fitness Challenge. 

8 unique low-cost ideas for Fundraisers

Sometimes its hard to be in the non-profit or charity sector, because let’s face it raising money is hard to do on a shoestring budget. This week we will be looking for some tips and ideas for low-cost fundraisers that any organization can do even if the team is small these events should be simple to pull off.


#8 The “No Event” Event

This one is simple to do, simply set up a Facebook event that your supporters can follow along with at home. No need to get any special items or tables etc. that normally go along with an event it's as simple as sitting at home and asking for donations. A few years ago, a local drinks company ran a very successful campaign around this idea and got people doing “nothing much” on mass. It’s also a great way of getting attention for your organisations social media page as well since it has that “LoL” factor and you can even do a “send us the best picture of you doing nothing” competition to boost engagement.


#7 Near New Auction

The idea here is to hold an auction whit items sourced from your supporters, things like homeware, clothing and knick-knacks that they either don’t want or need can be given. The catch is they need to be near new and interesting (no socks or items that are a snore) think of regifting or when online auctions fill with unwanted gifts after x-mas, the same principle just with a charitable angle to it allowing maximized funds for your NPO or charity.  You can either set up a page for this or even tie it in as part of a bigger event you may be holding.


#6 Cook-Off

Everyone loves a good eat so why no host a cook-off? Get your supporters to a location such as a park or a beach along and create banners and buzz to get the passing public involved. Outreach to local supermarkets could help source materials for the cook-off and be a great way to build ongoing relationships with potential sponsors. You could even get their exec team to play judge for the cook-off!


#5 Recycled Art Auction

Recycled art auctions are not new but they are an awesome way of raising funds. Reach out to local artists and get them onboard for your cause, especially if your organization has an environmental spin to it. Since the materials are sourced mostly for free this keeps your costs down and you can run the actual auction either online or at a bigger event you may already be doing like #7 in this list, auctions are just a great way to get more value from big events.


#4 Gamers Marathon

Everyone loves a good bit of fun so why not do a fundraiser around it. A gaming marathon is a fun way to do this, just borrow a few tv’s or have the participants bring their PC’s along for a LAN party and live to stream the whole thing on Facebook or Twitch. Create a Peer to peer page for people to sponsor their participant of choice and even run spot prizes for viewers to win.


#3 Tie-Dye Party

Tie-dyeing is fun by itself but why not use it to get donations?  Get some cheap tee shirts without any logos form an online shopping platform, this can normally be done for just a few dollars per shirt. Simply set up shop at a location like a local park or a community center and charge a door fee to cover the cost of materials and a donation. You can even have a BYO item for a small extra fee per item and it’s a great way to get out and meet the community you work in.


#2 Walk & Paw

This is a spin on the walkathon idea, the idea here is to get people and their pets out walking for sponsorship, you can also have collection buckets on the day and the appeal to animal lovers will be huge!


#1 Guess Jar

Probably the most tried and true and cost-effective fundraiser you can do the guessing jar is a perfect way to get an office collection going. The idea is to fill a jar with something like jelly beans and have people make guesses as to how many are in the jar. The prize, of course, is the jar of candy, but participants can make multiple guesses for a few dollars a time. As competition heats up people will often make multiple guesses just to block others, so the funding potential is awesome especially if you nurture people’s competitive nature.

So, there you have it, some ideas to get your next fundraiser up and running no matter if it’s a big charity dinner with an auction or just a small simple office fundraiser there are options galore out there to fit your needs. If you still feel a bit lost reach out to us and we can help you with events and peer to peer fundraising, here at TicketSuite we know that every dollar counts so get in touch and let’s reach that goal together!

5 Tips for a Successful Peer to Peer Fundraiser

We often hear on social media sites about people’s success running peer to peer fundraising campaigns but have you ever wondered how many fail? And why did they fail? What did they do or not do that sealed the fate of their campaigns? Today we are going to look at some tips to make sure your peer to peer fundraiser gets off to a roaring start.

5. Have a clear, concise goal in mind:

When creating your peer to peer fundraising page make sure you tell your audience exactly what you intend to support. Be as transparent as possible about how the funds will be allocated and what you are hoping to achieve. This will add vital credibility to your campaign. Try avoiding vagueness around your goals or not being clear with who and why you intend to help this will be a huge turn off for potential supporters.

4. Consider holding an event too:

When fundraising a lot of us limit ourselves to just one method of collection with the belief that we should focus solely on one avenue so that we don’t seem too needy, but why? From charity Fight Nights to office cupcake days there are so many options for additional giving just find a way of getting your audience involved after all who doesn’t love a good bit of home baking?!

3. Go all in for your event:

Holding an event during your peer to peer drive? Great why not use your peer to peer profiles as champions for the event? Get people to support not only by purchasing a ticket to the event if it is required but also supporting event participants whether it’s a Gala Dinner, fun run or exercise challenge any sponsorship is good sponsorship after all which leads us to the next point.

2. Social media is your BFF:

Sharing, liking and posting updates to your social media is critical, if you aren’t using social media to drive donations to your champion pages, charity events or just to let people know what’s going on you are missing a huge piece of the pie. Social media is free and has thousands of people using it every single day and for the price of a weeks’ worth of coffees, you can promote a post to reach even more potential donors and supporters.

1. Be genuine, not cheesy:

In this day and age being genuine is the most important thing if you want people to take you seriously. We all remember the tacky ads from the TV that try to elicit those guilty emotions, DON’T DO IT! Be clever, be funny and tell real stories because the punters can smell a lie from a mile away!

At the end of the day, there are many options out there for fundraising and peer to peer is a great idea especially if it’s in conjunction with other avenues and why not maximize your effort if you can? At TicketSuite we believe in only taking what’s fair and that is why we have made it our mission to create a platform that offers all the bells and whistles but for a fraction of what others out there charge. To learn more, read through our 'About Us' section or get in touch with us today via our 'Contact Us' page to see how we could help you run a cost-effective peer to peer fundraiser or simply handle ticketing for your event today!

The Modern-Day Collection Bucket: How to fundraise in a declining donation market?

When you come across a person standing on the corner of a street holding a collection bucket you immediately think “oh, do I have any spare change to give?”

With so many charities competing for your support, it’s hard to decide whom to give your money to.

Most people like to support a cause. Most people will give what they can if they feel it is a great cause.

In a world where money is becoming less and less an item we carry in our pockets we often find ourselves with nothing to put in the bucket. Some charities have caught onto this and now invest in portable Eftpos machines or ‘txt a donation’. Both options present a considerable cost to the Charity and we know there is a considerable drop in the number of donations each year.

People live busy lives, running to an ATM machine to withdraw some cash for the collection bucket is not a priority. Even ‘text a donation’ is not that simple.

Giving should be made easy. Dropping a few coins in a bucket, that is easy. Without the coin it gets difficult.

We have the modern-day collection bucket.

TicketSuite is an online platform that uses Peer to Peer fundraising to help you raise funds for your cause. Imagine reaching many homes across the country, ready for people to donate at their convenience. Using our online payment system, no coins are required.

Sounds perfect right? So, what exactly is peer to peer fundraising?

With the modern-day collection bucket, there is no need to stand on the street collecting from people who wonder pass. You can share your bucket to your social network anywhere, anytime.

This way you can,

1.    Extend that collection day to a week or a couple of weeks

2.    Decrease the amount of time a volunteer would have to give to help your charity raise funds

3.   Capture a guaranteed audience

So how does it work?

1. Register as an ‘Event Organiser’ to create an event page on TicketSuite. Create the event page here: http://bit.ly/OrganiserTS

2. Share the event page on your Facebook and other social networking sites with your friends, family, advocates, volunteers, and staff.

3. Encourage them to register as a ‘Champion’ for your event. Who is a Champion: A Champion is a person who will fundraise for your event.

4. Champions need to fill a form to create a ‘Fundraising Page’ telling why they are a champion for your event.

5. Once the ‘fundraising page’ is set up the champions need to share the page on their Facebook and other social networking sites. This will help in reaching many people who would probably be difficult to reach using other traditional methods.

Does Peer to Peer fundraising work?

Let's imagine you are driving down the motorway and you see a billboard with a picture of a Big Mac saying purchase this Big Mac and all proceeds will go to a charity.

Now even though you may think that’s a great idea and there is a call to action, does it inspire you enough to get off the motorway and go to the drive-thru?

What if the same billboard had a picture of your best friend saying, “Please buy a Big Mac and support this cause that I believe in”. Now not only would you probably get off the motorway and go to the drive-thru, you would probably upsize, right? Unless of course you don’t like Big Macs, but I hope you get the point.

Peers inspire their peers. We are more likely to give if we are being asked by someone we know and trust. So, if your friend was on social media telling you what they were doing to help this great cause, why they needed your help and what your donation could do, you would be more inclined to give a donation and probably give more than a few coins.

Peer to peer fundraising has proven to be more successful than any other forms of fundraising. Blackboard says, “People who use online tools, raise 6 times more funds than those who don’t”

So, if anything its worth a go, it’s worth giving it a shot and seeing how you can fundraise. Get in touch with our team to learn how to make TicketSuite work for your cause. 

What is TicketSuite?

There are a lot of options out there for online ticketing and fundraising platforms. TicketSuite’s aim is to make it easier and more cost-effective by combining the ticketing and fundraising platform in an online one-stop shop, making it easier for you to do all you need to sell event tickets and fundraise.

TicketSuite is a new kiwi made platform specifically designed to help charities and not for profits. However, anyone looking to sell tickets to an event and/or who wants to fundraise through peer to peer fundraising can use TicketSuite.

It really is simple just register as an organiser, set up your event either to sell tickets or to fundraise and share it with your networks on social media. No more chasing people up for that ticket money they just purchase the ticket via the link shared and all the money gets deposited into your account.

Another important aspect of TicketSuite is peer to peer fundraising which makes fundraising easier. To start collecting funds for your cause you need to become a Champion or recruit Champions, who advocate for your cause. Once your event is set up you can now set up a champion page just remember to select for which event you are becoming a champion to raise funds. TicketSuite allows you to share your champion page on your social media platforms to spread awareness. All the money raised gets deposited into your account. TicketSuite also gives you access to all the data collected once a user purchases a ticket or donates to your cause.

Considering how difficult it is to raise funds these days, to make it easier TicketSuite has no set up fees and no monthly fees. To discuss further and know more about it contact us by clicking on this link: http://bit.ly/ContactUsTS

So, go check out www.ticketsuite.co.nz. Sign up for an account today. Free of charge and with no obligations. Use it whenever you like and how often you like. Talk to our team who can help you develop a great marketing plan to make the most out of this opportunity and raise more funds for your cause today!

Make more when fundraising by registering on TicketSuite right now!

What a difference a donation makes!

Last month a young girl reached her dream to attend the 2017 Victoria Aboriginal Cultural Festival to celebrate National Aboriginal Day in British Columbia Canada.
Makanihi had been given this great opportunity to attend the festival with her Kapa Haka group, He Waka Kotuia who had been asked to perform to represent Aotearoa.

"I am so proud to be a member of He Waka Kotuia, the waka that interweaves us together Since moving to Dunedin last year and not really knowing anyone this kapa haka cultural group has interweaved me into a community, into a family, into a school of learning that supports and encourages me to achieve goals that I thought I would never reach." said Makanihi.

Makanihi talked about how life wasn't  always  easy for her, so an opportunity to attend a cultural exchange trip to Canada where she performed with the local communities of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, sounded too good to be true.

Makanihi and her group worked really hard to ensure they could represent our beautiful country and our beautiful culture well. 

Now for any 16 year old, travelling to the other side of the world is a dream come true. The $5,000 needed to attend is when reality settles back in. Especially when your family necessarily can't afford to pay the ticket for you.

Makanihi was very resourceful though, she worked extra shifts at her part time job. She made poi to sell, She had  people selling cakes and prepared meals, she had hairdressers cutting hair she even had a tattoo artist raffling off his work. She also set up her own fundraising page on TicketSuite and managed to collect the remaining funds she needed just in time.

In early June Makanihi set off to British Columbia where she lived with the local indigenous communities, learning their culture and way of life. She performed on stage at the cultural festival with the rest of her group and her passion for culture and language grew.

Upon returning to Aotearoa, her group entered into the regional's for Matatini 2018. This is the national kapa haka competition and not only did her group take out first place  to represent her region but Makanihi won the Kaitātaki Wahine, the female leading role. A great step towards going to the national competition

A family member said "We are a proud whānau of Makanihi who won first place Kaitātaki Wahine and whose Kapa Haka Roopu won first overall and will represent our region at the nationals. You defiintely deserve a night off from doing the dishes! Well done honey"

We here at TicketSuite are proud of this young wahine and proud of everyone who made a donation. It really is amazing just what our young people can achieve when they have many people supporting them.
It's amazing the difference a donation can make!

Fundraising for our Kids

Everybody knows raising a child is expensive but when you start to add it all up, it can kind of seem really daunting. I think we should teach this at secondary schools as part of the sexual health education curriculum .

With school fee's, school uniforms, sports clubs, cultural groups, music classes, singing lessons, dance class and don't forget the day to day costs like the excessive water bill from their extremely long showers, mobile phone bill from their excessive need to communicate to ALL of their friends ALL of the time, the pantry being restocked three times a week due to the mysterious food terminator and then there's the "mum can I have" hidden costs.

Honestly I don't know how I do it but I do and I wouldn't change it...well not all of it.
And you think you are doing well, you think 'I got this I know how to budget I can save the world, I'm supermum!' and then you get that letter from your child's school.

Seriously they should put these letters in a red envelope, a bright red envelope so you know not to open it.
Now I am not one of those mums who isn't involved in their child's education, I get right in there with my calculator and iPad ready to Google the answers. I attend my teacher parent date and all the school activities. I help out when I can and I love their schools. I acknowledge the enormous task these poor under valued superstars have to endure and salute them for trying their best to inspire, teach and look after 1500 kids just like mine every weekday.
So I take a really really long breath and I open that letter and yes my child has another school trip.

Now I don't want to complain this is not my intent here, though  in my day, our school trip was to go to the park down the road, we would pitch our tent and the only cost was the old Milo can we would convert to a hobo oven and the sausages to cook that mum packed for us. Now I know times have changed. These were the days of playing bull rush and making leg warmers from cutting the sleeves off your old jersey. I don't remember much about the trip but I remember having a lot of fun with my friends. It really is that simple, kids just need fun and in an ever developing world where kids fun comes at an ever increasing cost, as a parent I have to sit and wonder, what happened to the good old days.

Should my child go to a school trip to the other side of the world? These culture exchange trips are an incredible opportunity for my child to experience. I know this is something I could possibly never give them, so how can I say no. How can I say to my child, it is so fantastic that you got nominated out off all the other students to go on this trip because you have done so well at school but.... I just cant. I look at the $8000.00 I need to raise and think 'where is that supermum, that one that thought she had this, thought she could save the world, where is she now? I now have to include fundraising in my repertoire of skills. This isn't the cupcake sales my mother use to do, as good as her secret recipe was it isn't worth $8000.00 . I need help!

Here at TicketSuite we understand the need for parents to fundraise to help with their children's education costs. After talking to one mum we decided we needed to help and provide our facilities to more families. To raise funds online through peer to peer fundraising, buy a ticket, raffles or any other ideas you can think of. to raise funds for your child's trip.
Talk to our team who have helped other families raise the much needed funds for their child's school trips, we could even help the whole class to collect. No membership fees no hidden costs. Get in touch and see if we can help you visit www.ticketsuite.co.nz

Fundraising Made Easy

After 16 years working in charities I never would have thought I would ever hear the words "fundraising made easy". As anyone in the charity and not for profit sector will tell you, fundraising is a lot of things but easy, it is not.

 So how did I find the easy way, well I left the charity sector for the corporate sector and here is where I found a company wanting to help charities. This wasn't a one off sponsorship for a tax reduction, or a gift of over stocked product, or even a well hearted person who wanted to do some good. This was a company who had thought about how they could help charities to help themselves to raise more funds continuously, with no strings attached.

Ok so what am I talking about? We have all heard about online giving, sites like "Give a Little, Local Hero or Go fund me" I have even tried some of these sites myself. I've set up a fundraising page and shared it and waited for the money to roll in. Well we got some money which is great, there really are some generous people out there but we didn't get a lot of donations. Sound familiar?

These sites work best when you apply the peer to peer fundraising philosophy.  According to John Haydon, a well-known FB marketing consultant, Haydon describes it like this. Peer-to-peer fundraising is based on a two-way relationship. Traditional fundraising appeals are often one-sided, broadcast messages. These promotions can move people to act, but they don’t easily capture the emotion or relationship that can drive giving on a massive scale. Social fundraising puts the message in the mouth of the person who is most likely to prompt a donation: someone the audience knows.

The experience of supporting a good cause becomes one that people can have together, which makes it even more powerful. Peer to peer fundraising sites makes it incredibly easy to raise money online for the things that matter to you most. In minutes, you are able to personalise your fundraising campaign and share it with your networks and the networks of your peers.

So ok Haydon, its people driving people to donate I get that but it can’t be that easy right? Even I was sceptical even after they showed me all the data to back up their claims. And I won’t lie to you, you do have to work at it to make it work, nothing can really be that easy.

How much work is involved and how easy is it really?

So I wanted to test this new company Ticketsuite out. A peer to peer fundraising site and event management site in one. Think of it like this, Give a little and Ticketbrite in one. A one stop shop.  On this site I was able to sell tickets to an event and have champion’s fundraisings for me too.

The event was for CanTeen, Fight Night. A Gala Dinner with a boxing ring in the middle. Now anyone who knows me, knows I hate boxing but this is an annual event they do, it’s for a good cause, so you get over yourself and do the job anyway. So for those who don’t know how this event works, we had 20 fighters (all amateur volunteers) and a couple of celebrities to bring in the punters. Each fighter has to sell a table which were set at $3000 and set up a fundraising page and bring in as many donations as they can.  We actually started with 40 volunteer fighters but 20 pulled out because of injury, other commitments, fear or whatever reason. With 40 we set the fundraising goal at $35K. When we were left with just 20 I said leave our target and even if we only make half we will be happy.

Our volunteers came from various backgrounds and lived all over Auckland, we really didn’t know how we would do. We raised $34,890.00. We sold 37 tables to the event and with TicketSuite we could download an app on our phone so we could scan the tickets when people arrived.

Now running this event was not easy, it’s a lot of work, we hosted it at the Cloud, so we had to pack in everything. But the fundraising, other than a training day and an email now and then to provide tips on peer to peer fundraising. This was totally driven by our champions. It became a competition and in the last week we were sitting at 20K which we were very happy with and it jumped $15k in the last few days because they were all competing, driving it hard, on their FB pages.

In previous years money has been made by what profit was made after covering costs from ticket sales and the silent auction.  We still had the silent auction but we definitely made the most from the peer to peer fundraising.

Ok still sceptical? I know what you're thinking, "but it is CanTeen, young people living with cancer, you would have to be a cold hearted soul not to care" right?  
How can this help other causes that aren’t as well known? Well, like John Haydon said “Giving is also social in that we are strongly influenced by our family, friends, and networks—as well as those we perceive to be our peers. When an appeal for funds comes from someone in our networks that we trust, we’re more likely to act”.

Its not about the cause necessarily, its about the people who care about your cause, its your champions who make fundraising easy. 
So why TicketSuite? 
Well it has no set up fees, no membership fees, in fact there is no cost to you at all. All these sites make money by taking a percentage per transaction from a ticket sale or donation. TicketSuite has the best value online.  Beginning with an option to start at1.5% fee per transaction, that's as little as .30cents for every $20 you raise, because as they say “We help those to help others with event management and fundraising made easy” If you want to know more visit www.ticketsuite.co.nz