A creative way to give worthy causes a hand

Sharon Hunter says the Robin Hood Foundation has ample room for more non-profit groups. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Jane Drumm once had modest fundraising goals for the non-profit organisation she heads, but now she's thinking on an "intergalactic" scale.

The reason?

The project brief for Preventing Violence in the Home is one of the first picked up from AdAid, a new website headed by Sharon Hunter and the Robin Hood Foundation that links non-profit organisations with donated creative talent and media placement.

As executive director of Preventing Violence in the Home, Drumm had struggled with the conundrum of how to raise money without spending any.

She loaded its latest fundraising idea on to the AdAid website, launched this year, and is now working with a range of people who are donating their time to help make the dream a reality.

The fundraiser, planned for November, is a huge garage sale called Get Organised Auckland, modelled on a successful American event.

"We've got this great idea and we really want to publicise it. It will only be successful if everybody knows about it," says Drumm.

"But we have no money."

Drumm says AdAid widened her previous fundraising ambitions and she is now thinking on an "intergalactic" scale.

Robin Hood Foundation director Sharon Hunter says Preventing Violence in the Home is one of 135 non-profit organisations that have loaded briefs on the AdAid website so far - and more are expected.

"There is ample room for more non-profit agencies to engage with AdAid," says Hunter.

The briefs ask for assistance staggered throughout the year, says Hunter, and are for a range of projects, including branding, website development and advertising campaigns.

Dozens of creative agencies have indicated an interest to date, as have television and radio networks and publishers.

Hunter says the website eliminates some of the work for companies wanting to donate.

Giving time and resources has positive spin-offs for business.

"You engender tremendous staff loyalty, and this is really important at a time when it's really hard to get good staff and retain good staff because of the very tight employment environment," she says.

"The research tells us that people are more likely to buy from a company that has a social cause than not. They are more likely to have more loyalty to that brand, company or service, than not."

The Robin Hood Foundation is running sessions for non-profit and creative providers to show how they can use the service.

AdAid was inspired by AD Council USA, which generates US$1.8 billion ($2.8 billion) worth of free campaigns a year.

Its New Zealand equivalent hopes to deliver between $600,000 and $1 million worth of free campaigns each year. It won $75,000 in funding for this year from the Ministry of Social Development's Community Initiatives Fund.


Adding value

* AdAid aims to give a media voice to non-profit groups struggling to be heard. This is how it works:
* Non-profit organisations log on to the AdAid website and post a creative brief.
* Creative donors take the brief and develop the campaign, branding or website for free.
* The finished promotion is posted on the site to be accessible to media donors.