the challenge
Sweet Louise brings hope, companionship and support to the lives of over 750 brave women across New Zealand with incurable breast cancer.
They do this through a range of programs but the Support Coordinators they have on the ground in communities around New Zealand are the linchpins of their service delivery.
In 2021, Sweet Louise were faced with a situation where their Support Coordinators were stretched beyond their limits. Their Auckland based coordinator for instance, was supporting 177 women while working part-time. They urgently needed two additional coordinators and a team manager to help meet the needs of the Kiwis they serve. To do this, they needed to raise $170,000 in additional cash income—and quickly.
how we tackled it
FED recommended a Giving Day as the best fit for Sweet Louise, due to the fact that a Giving Day could be turned around quickly (less than eight weeks for this one, to be precise!), and it had the potential to uncover and appeal to Sweet Louise’s major donors through pre-secured matched funding. What’s more, for an organisation like Sweet Louise who works so closely with the community, a Giving Day is the perfect opportunity to rally both supporters, staff, and family and friends alike—for a very sweet 24 hours.
It was recommended that the Stand Strong 4 Sweet Louise Giving Day would go live on 30 May 2021—on what would have been the founder and namesake, Louise Perkins’, 56th birthday.
Over the next 10 days, a series of emails developed by FED were deployed and Facebook posts published, asking their community to save the date, which culminated in a 24-hour matched Giving Day on 9 June.
the result
Over $210,000 was raised on the day—$120,000 from pre-secured matching and $90,000 from public donations, exceeding all expectations and warming our hearts with beautiful messages of support from the Sweet Louise community.
Best of all, the Giving Day meant that Sweet Louise was able to meet one of its critical needs: recruiting a Support Co-ordinator for the Auckland region to help improve the quality of life for New Zealanders living with incurable breast cancer.
