By The Fred Hollows Foundation
Most of us are celebrating special occasions like birthdays, weddings, Christmas, New Year, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day so why not give back and have fun at the same time? A donation can help us end avoidable blindness -- The Fred Hollows Foundation has a clear goal: ending avoidable blindness. When this day comes, people in developing countries will get the same quality eye care the rest of the world takes for granted – and we won’t stop until this is done. Here is some inspiration to get you started. *Cover Photo by Alasdair Elmes on Unsplash
Jellybean Guessing Competition Count them first, then fill a jar with jellybeans or other lollies. Display the jar in your office and ask everyone for $10 for a chance to successfully guess the correct number. Keep it up for a few days and the winner with the closest guess wins the jar full of sweets. Float A Lemon All you need for this one is a jar, some water, and a lemon. Simple! Fill your jar with water, add the lemon, and the challenge begins. Participants need to balance a $2 coin on the lemon - anyone who can do that without the coin falling in receives a small prize. All of the ‘drowned’ coins are yours to donate. --- Don’t forget to ask your HR or CSR department if they offer a matched-giving program to staff who fundraise. This is a great way to instantly double your fundraising efforts. Our Fundraising team can supply you with the documentation required to make a matching giving arrangement. Contact us at [email protected] to discuss.
Fundraising at school can be a great way to raise some money for an important cause – and you can have heaps of fun at the same time. Chocolate Drive Almost everyone loves chocolate! Organise boxes of chocolates to sell to your friends at school, soccer training or band practice. Get your friends or classmates involved to boost sales and raise more funds for The Foundation. Bake Sale Show off your baking skills with a bake sale! Cookies, muffins, protein balls, cupcakes … get creative and make all sorts of goodies to sell to your classmates and teachers. You could even think about a theme that relates to the charity you’re raising funds for or for any holidays or events going on! ‘Your-Choice-A-Thon’ You’ve heard of the ‘-a-thons’, right? This is where participants try to complete as many rounds of a particular activity within a specified time period. For example, how many times can you run a lap of the oval in 30 minutes? How many pages can you read in 10 minutes? You can dedicate one lunch break and see who can outlast the others. You don’t have to offer a prize, however it might encourage competition if there is a prize. The best way to raise funds is by asking participants to donate to participate, or they can ask their family and friends to sponsor them and donate accordingly (for example, $100 for every lap of the oval). Set up The Fred Hollows Foundation campus chapter Help spread the word and build support to end avoidable blindness for us! Get in touch with us for resource support at [email protected] --- Don’t forget to ask for your teachers or principal for permission before starting your fundraising activity. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected] or call us on 36146240. To track your fundraising progress, make sure to start your fundraising page here and check out more of our tips here to maximise your potential.
Movie Night Hold a movie night with your friends to raise funds for The Fred Hollows Foundation this holiday season. You can keep things small by holding a movie night for your closest friends or family, asking for donations to help fight avoidable blindness, in return for snacks and great times with friends. If you want to take things to the next level, why not gather your family, friends, neighbours or co-workers together for a fun movie night fundraiser at your local cinema. Raise money for The Fred Hollows Foundation and help to restore sight to those that are needlessly blind – all in one night! Turn your Trash into Cash The saying ’one person’s trash is another person’s treasure’ couldn’t ring truer in the current climate of conscious consumerism. Mass purchasing of clothes isn’t kind to our environment and doesn’t do our wallets any favours in the long run either. Why not sell the clothes you aren’t wearing and donate the money to The Fred Hollows Foundation? Not only will you get more room in your walk-in, someone else will gain a stylish new outfit, and more importantly, someone might get their sight back because of the money you’ll raise.
A one-time donation of as little as HK$150 can help restore sight to one person living with avoidable blindness. Your donation may also go towards a range of other program activities like training surgeons or eye health workers. All the work we do helps build capacity in developing countries to create sustainable public eye health systems so your donation will help thousands of people in their communities into the future.
The Fred Hollows Foundation also allows for monthly donations to help support our goal to end avoidable blindness. You can choose exactly how much you want to donate monthly in your loved one’s name. Every dollar will go towards creating sustainable public health systems and helping less fortunate communities well into the future.
One of the most important steps a person can take in looking after their eyes, is booking in for an eye health check with their local optometry clinic at least once every two years. During an eye health check, an optometrist examines both the inner and outer eye sections of the eye, conducting a number of tests to make sure the eyes are healthy and that there is no deterioration of vision. It’s extremely important to push your loved ones to have these tests, as most eye conditions do not have visible symptoms, which can lead to late diagnosis, treatment and could lead to long term eye damage. The best gift you can give your loved ones is the gift of ongoing sight.
Watch this video to learn more about The Fred Hollows Foundation and check out our YouTube channel for more.