IMPACT THROUGH EVENTS

Team

Lizzy Kwan

Caitlin Crowther

Chelsea Ong

Canteen Australia

Canteen’s Facebook Challenges

Finalist

Helen Day

Sarah Rossiter

More Strategic, Elevate Fundraising & GivePanel

In 2021, Facebook Challenges were not only new and unique to Canteen, but also for the Australian Fundraising Industry. Canteen was one of the first Australian charities to trial this new way of fundraising with the 100 Sit-Ups a Day Challenge in November 2021 Challenge. Facebook Challenges have had an enormous impact on Canteen’s fundraising income and supporter acquisition. Previously, aside from their flagship National Bandanna Day event, Canteen did not run any large-scale peerto-peer events and the community fundraising portfolio was made up of small third-party, ad-hoc fundraising events.

When COVID-19 hit, most community fundraising events were cancelled, so when the opportunity was presented to run a test in Facebook Challenges, they jumped at the chance to re-engage with the community and acquire new supporters in a unique, efficient, digital and COVID-19 friendly way. The initial goal was to recruit 1,250 people and raise $120,000. Expectations were far exceeded with results reaching 3,163 (+253%) registrations and raised a total of $370,100 (+308%). Before starting, the challenges raised between $2k - $5k a month. Now, it has increased to an average of $10k a month, with some months bringing in around $20k. An additional two challenges were run over the past 10 months, resulting in just under $1.5M raised across all three challenges.