BEST PIVOT CAMPAIGN OR INITIATIVE

Team

Jessica Mienert MFIA

Elizabeth Gordon

Stepping

Stone House

Sleep Under the Stars 2022

Finalist

Sponsored by:

Daniel Hockey

Jason Juretic

Since 2015, Stepping Stone House (SSH) have held their flagship fundraising event, Sleep Under the Stars (SUTS), at the Sydney Harbour foreshore.

With Sydney going into its first lockdown in 2020, SSH were left with an extremely difficult decision; to cancel the event, or to go ahead with it virtually. Without any information on how long lockdown would last or the impact that COVID-19 would have worldwide, they made the difficult and risky decision to pivot the event to online. In 2020, SSH’s SUTS campaign was more successful than ever. In 2021 further lockdowns were being announced and the decision needed to be made on whether to go virtual for the second year running.

Understanding the deep investment that SSH’s major supporters and donors have in SUTS, it was decided to involve key stakeholders in this critical strategic decision. After many, many phone calls, there was a clear consensus that the SSH community would feel safer if the event was held online. SSH had now pivoted to a participant-led, virtual event.

This was by far the biggest and most successful SUTS event to date. Raising just under $1.2m far exceeded SSH’s income target of $800,000, and nearly doubled the funds raised from their last SUTS event. The event enabled SSH to house and holistically support 46 at-risk young people for an entire year.