Sometimes it’s the little things that really matter – this evening being a case in point. A Grade 6 student from Auburn Primary School phoned me saying that his school thinks that what Servants does in helping homeless people is pretty good. To show their support of Servants the school will be holding a week long event of collecting tins of food and tea and coffee to donate to Servants. A lovely idea!! Just makes me wish the supermarkets sold catering tins of fruit and veggies!!
Category Archives: Giving, Donations, Fundraising
Back to the Future 2.
Following on from yesterday’s blast from the past HeartBeat re the hard rubbish collection in Box Hill many moons ago ………………..
We received an online donation of $1000 dollars today. One of our Team Servants ’16 runners had $50 donated to their running page. The parents of one of our resos committed $10,000 to some beautifying of an outdoor area at Hamer that requires some beautifying for resos to enjoy more fully. All this today. This takes me back to the days of the early 2000s and to Warren’s now infamous Shark Graph. We had no money. Like ….. NONE!! Richard Horne ran our accounts at that time ….. I used to sit down with him every second Tuesday morning and we would look at the figures together. The typical conversation was led off by Richard with ‘Ok Matt, we have $53,000 of bills to pay ….. and $4,200 to pay them with. What do we pay first?’ Halcyon days? No, most definitely not!! But I do believe that they were instrumental days in setting us up to be who we are today as it helped us to understand why we thought we had a unique and very special model of community housing; that we had something that was worth fighting for rather than taking our bat and ball and going home.
Having successfully acquired our full suite of ATO concessions in, I guess, the mid to late noughties, I remember well the first $1000 donation that came in. It felt like a game-changer. It probably WAS a game-changer at that stage of things.
And here we are in 2016 …….. where days like today with money and gifts coming in to us are now the norm. We have come a long, long way from those days. However, we would be wise to never take these things for granted. On each and every occasion we are treated as a trusted beneficiary of others income we should be as delighted as that first gift of $1000 many moons ago.
Still reading dear reader? If so, the only place to finish this HeartBeat is to recognize the quite enormous efforts that have gone into our finances over many years, particularly by Warren, but with the help of numerous others too. Great care with our finances over these years ensure that we are still here today to be the blessed beneficiaries of days like today.
30th
Our Birthday party is now over – but the effects and outcomes of it will be seen long into the future. From my position as CEO I thought it was a stunning success. The feedback to date has been wonderful – most importantly of all the residents LOVED the occasion. We have yet to do an official count but it appears that slightly inxs of 1 in 3 current SCH resos attended the party. Ace!!
Connie, Madeline and I will be reviewing the occasion later this week.
Just over 800 bucks was donated to Servants on the night itself – not of course that it was about donations – but I guess all gifts help with the costs.
Thank you so much to all committee members and staff who contributed to making it such a special, celebratory evening. I would be really pleased to hear others reflections on the night – especially highlights.
Visions
Some of you will know Visions Gym in Burwood Rd, Hawthorn (shameless plug here – it is such a well-priced gym and is almost completely devoid of the kind of morons one typically finds in most gyms) Visions has been very good to Servants over a number of years – providing us with free or as good as free exercise bikes and treadmills for the houses. They also sponsored our team shirt at last year’s Run Melbourne event. Over the past 12 months a handful of our resos have been given free memberships by Visions – one reso has particularly established a regime as a gym bunny. In the week just past 2 Carrical resos entered the hallowed, sweaty halls of the gym for the first time for their induction session. Both were thrilled to have been provided with such an opportunity (one had not done any gym work since he last holidayed at the pleasure of Her Majesty a few years back!!) As they both puffed on their after-gym-session cigarettes (well earned I’m sure!!) it was a delight to hear them talk about just having the opportunity to do something as simple as visit a gym because Servants can make it happen. I am sure many more resos will enter Visions in the coming months to work out. I see this as a small yet very significant example of the tangible add-ons we can bring into the lives our 89.
Sunshine
I met with one of the Trustees from The Sunshine Foundation yesterday. I initially met this chap when he was a part of the LV WCLP last year. At that stage he encouraged Servants to apply to Sunshine for a small amount of funding – we asked for 6k for a new freezer for Romana – and they gave us 10k!!
I requested the meeting yesterday to talk about the Sunshine/Servants relationship moving forward. It was all very positive and we are certainly one of the charities that they are keen to support over the next few years. The chap was very interested in hearing more about to establish a women’s only house – and also agreed to help us with the ‘matching’ monies for the solar project at Romana.
Chickens a cheque, chocolates and other things beginning with ch ……..
One of the wonderful things about being involved in The Wonderful World of Servants is how we sometimes develop relationships with folks that very quickly turn advantageous for us. One such relationship has developed with Red Rocks chicken shop in Burwood Rd, Hawthorn. We are now regularly picking up 5-10 freshly cooked chickens as their shop prepares to close. In effect this becomes a small license for us to print money as we estimate we have now received close to $1000 of free chickens!! Handy!!
Another handy addition to our bank account arrived today in the form of a $1300 cheque from a small philanthropic group who like supporting ‘the lesser known charities.’ I did not know whether to be thrilled or insulted!! Perhaps a bit of both …………..
One of the nursing teams from St V’s hospital chose Servants as the recipients of their Christmas gift giving. They delivered vast quantities of quality food and pressies this morning (including chocolates!!) The Hislops flat is starting to look like Santa’ Grotto. We know there is a great deal more ‘stuff’ to come this Christmas from various sources.
Other things beginning with ch include cherries, children, chips and chives. All of which should be safely enjoyed in moderation.
‘This is for the slaves.’
As many of you will know Servants has a terrific relationship with the management of the café Bar Ristretto in Burwood Rd, Hawthorn. This morning a small boy runs into the café, hands Andy, the Guv’nor there, a bag of very posh cutlery and says to Andy ‘These are from my Mum for the slaves!!’ Andy quickly worked it our that these items were indeed for Servants!!
Donation
Another donation from Trinity Grammar arrived today – cash donated to Servants via a collection at a Chapel Service that Connie recently spoke at. $930 is not an inconsiderable sum for such an occasion.
Trinity x 2
Although we are well into the school year I have been informed in the past week that 2 of Trinity Grammar’s 8 Houses have chosen us as their charities of choice for 2015. Great to continue to develop the relationship with Trinity – and being the charity of choice is handy from a financial viewpoint too!
7th
We are currently a somewhat mind-boggling 7th in the Top Ten list of organizations raising funds at this year’s Run Melbourne event. We have over $21,000 donated online alongside $3000 approx. from off-line donations. This is the BIG week for donations and by Sunday we should be up around the $30,000 mark in total. We are likely to have approx. 150 participants on the day.
Opalgate + 1
A couple of nice donations to talk about tonight – a friend of Servants sent in a cheque for $1000 and Opalgate Foundation deposited $3000 into our account today. I believe this is the third year running Opalgate have supported us financially – increasing their giving by 1000 bucks each time.
RC Hawthorn
Rotary Club of Hawthorn informed me yesterday that they will be supplying Hamer with a new $3000 freezer for the staff kitchen, a new fridge for the Resos Kitchen at Carrical and will be sponsoring 2 of our resos for Run Melbourne $250 each.
Whilst on the subject of Rotary we have been informed by RC Glenferrie that they are donating $2000 to us and RC Canterbury are donating $1000 to Team Servants ’15. The generosity that has come our way as a result of establishing relationships with local Clubs has really been terrific. I would not know quite where to begin in terms of putting a $ figure on it all – but it would be quite substantial by now. Of course, our relationship with Rotary cannot be measured in crude $ terms alone. I am very grateful to them for all their support and encouragement and for the friendships that have arisen thru these networks. I am also quite sure that Rotary loves Servants too!!
In a nutshell ……………….
The Budget for 2015/16 has been struck and is now awaiting committee approval at the June meeting. Many, many thanks to Isaac for his work over many weeks in setting the template for the budget so beautifully – and equally as may thanks to Amanda and Kara this week who have spent more hours than I care to consider fine tuning and refining it. I trust that all committee members will be pleased with the final document.
Whilst on the subject of thanks ……………… Mark and Amanda, with me on the periphery, have worked thru some very difficult resident issues this week. It is fair to say that all the houses are running beautifully BUT the issues they have dealt with this such care and wisdom have doubtless been exhausting. I think one of our great organizational strengths is the absolute quality we have in Amanda and the Housekeepers and the care with which they go about their tasks of interacting with the resos.
Whilst taxing reso issues and budget tinkering have taken up most of the week I managed to talk at both Strathcona and Carey. The talk to Strathcona was especially good.
A new female reso moved into Hamer today. Good news! The Empty Room Nigh total for fin year to date is 98 – wobbling on the very precipice of 100!! I will be doing all within my significant powers to ensure the 100 Night barrier is NOT broached. Watch this space. We budgeted for 720 Empty Nights for the fin year – so I guess we’re doing ok.
Team Servants ’15 progress remains pleasing. There are currently 24 established Supporter Pages and an increasing number of enquiries about our team. Our total income to date for the Team is just inxs of $3500. Yes, still very long way to go – but good progress. Our Leaderboard, in terms of donations received, is our very own President Warren. The Pres currently has a very healthy $1100 gap between himself and The Husband of Vice-President Connie. Not that this is a competition of course, no, of course not. Next week the resos will have their Supporter Pages established. Let’s face it, who wants to be financially beaten by a homeless guy!!??
We found out today that Bunnings are giving us a shed for Hamer worth $900.
Cold. Colder. Coldest.
The new freezer arrived today at Carrical. it cost about 3k and was paid for via a generous donation from Rotary Club of Hawthorn last year.
If I was technical enough to post an image of it here I most certainly would. As I am not you will just have to imagine a shiny, new, silver-colored, 2 door, brand, spanking, new freezer. It looks good doesn’t it?
Next time you are in Carrical please feel most welcome to visit the kitchen to pay homage to it.
APS Captain’s Meeting
A Scotch College initiative recently saw me invited to speak to the APS Captain’s Meeting (12 schools) about the work of Servants in general and our Run Melbourne campaign specifically. All the schools will contribute some fundraising efforts on our behalf. Good news!!
$500
A supporter called me this morning to make a $500 donation. In the past 3 weeks we have now received 4 separate gifts of $500. If $500 is the flavor of the month in regards to amounts to donate to us ……………….. well, long may this continue!!
Run Melbourne update
Time for a Team Servants ’15 update
I think we are now 87 sleeps away from the event. The 300 t-shirts are on order. The Team tent for the day has been booked. 7 people to date have created fundraising pages – not a massive number at this stage but 7 more than this stage last year. Donations are trickling in. The first $100 donation arrived today. Being one of the ‘Special 35’ charities is clearly going to more than pay for itself based on the number of enquiries about our Team this has already created – inxs of 30 at this point. The trick here is to turn enquiries into fundraising pages. I recently spoke to a Captains of APS meeting re our Team and all these schools are going to support us in some way. Of all the schools who will be involved Scotch have been making the most noise to date – closely followed by Trinity and Strathcona. 2 local Rotary Clubs are heavily on board with RC North Balwyn not surprisingly leading the way. Connie and I are trying to make inroads into the local state high schools too – there is some success to talk of here with Balwyn High and MGC keen. A recycled brown paper bag style has been chosen for the show bags we are hoping to distribute on the day, 1500 max, and I am sourcing quotes for printing at the present time – a donor has generously offered to pay for all bags and printing. In total the event has 5000 people registered to run – they are expecting 30,000. If somehow we could have 300 people running for us on the day this would represent 1% of the field – this would doubtlessly create quite a splash. There will be significant efforts made to encourage as many resos as possible to participate. All in all, so far so good. There is still much to do as the event gets closer but I am as confident as I can be that we are nicely on track to bring in significant funds alongside gaining further exposure.
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The $160,000 Man
I had my annual mid-year meeting with our biggest individual donor of each of the past 6 years this morning. The good news is that he remains as impressed as ever with what Servants is up to.
Donation Friday
Last Friday 4 donations were received; a $5 donation from a lady who wanted to contribute to Narrative costs, $105 from a teacher at Xavier, $3000 from one of the houses at Carey who have been fundraising for us throughout the year and $30,000 from an annual donor. Not too bad for one day!
The Jewish Father Christmas
Josh Frydenberg, the self-proclaimed Jewish Father Christmas, has done it again. He established his Christmas Giving Tree in 2012 and we were his inaugural charity of choice. He chose us again in 2013 – and today, most surprisingly, his office informed me that we have been chosen once again! 3 from 3 – in this season of the baseball World Series this is a record anyone would be very happy with!! We have scored roughly $6000 per annum to date in cash and quality donated goods via this appeal. Josh loves us!!