Together Fight

We did it!! Yesterday at our The Hospital Research Foundation Group Giving Day we smashed our target and raised over $450,000 for life saving Medical Research and Patient Care!

Over the last few months my team at THRFG has been preparing for our annual Giving Day. Specifically, for our Supporter Engagement team Kristy Wildy Jacqui Church Travis Hill Judi Wakeling Jo Overbeek Emma Breidahl this time of year (as we approach the EOFY and tax time) is massive. Over the last 3 months, we’ve been engaging with Major Donors, Trusts, Foundations and Private/Public Ancillary funds to build a Matching Fund for our Giving Day. This meant that every donation that our supporters made yesterday was matched $ for $ - and 100%+ goes to causes close to their hearts - which is a huge incentive to give more!

I read a friend’s post this week on LinkedIn, and he used the analogy of a sports team where each player is skilled and ready to play. This was us to a tee yesterday, as we all had to utilise our strengths, skills and contacts to reach our Giving Day target that seemed almost unsurmountable at the start of this year. Within our roles and support network we engage with so many different stakeholders to reach our financial results and fundraising targets and outcomes. Within our team we utilise data analysts, graphic designers, communications specialists, social media and tech support, and event professionals (an so much more). Then there’s our wonderful donors like The Northern Region Crematorium, the hospital staff members who are peer to peer champions for our cause within the Hospitals, researchers like Toby Coates AO John Beltrame AM BMBS FRACP PhD FESC FACC FCSANZ FAHA , our valued volunteers and ambassadors Paula Vidale Leah Baylis ? Jordan Platis Berni Woods who help us promote and reach a larger audience. There are too many wonderful supporters to even mention here.

Yesterday our third annual Giving Day was a huge success!! In saying that, if our team members didn’t have ‘coaches’ to lead them, we would have ended up in a mess instead of winning. At THRFG,?Organizational Alignment?is like our coach. It makes sure everyone’s roles and goals match up with what we want to achieve. For our Giving Day, we achieved this again this year and we are all very proud of the results we achieved together.

At our recent strategic planning day with Think Human we discovered that transforming a growing organisation like ours is a big deal, like going on a long trip. We need a map and a compass. The map is what The Hospital Research Foundation Group wants to become in the future. The compass is making sure everyone is working towards the same goal.

This process starts with the Board and Senior Executive Team Paul Flynn FUniSA, GAICD, FFIA Briony Marshall , who are like the main players in a band, setting the pace for everyone else. When their way of doing things spreads to other leaders Bianca DalCollo Ash Shukla , it’s like a tune that everyone follows, moving the whole company in one direction.

We still have a long way to go, however, we are in the process of developing our next strategic plan that will show us the best way to run things to reach our goals as an organisation and make a huge impact on health and wellbeing outcomes for all. Knowing where we want to go is just the start; getting our people to follow that path will impact our big leaps forward. Moving quickly and carefully to innovate, change and improve how things are done will be important for us to grow into and thrive as the #1 charity Group in Australia.

Our big changes as a Group will come from having a clear?Direction, a strong?Alignment, and a real?Commitment?to our plans. For me it’s not about showing my team how to succeed but also getting them excited and passionate about stepping up to the plate, having fun and giving everyday their best CRACK! When everyone knows their part and does it with all they’ve got, we will really shine!

Thank you to everyone who made yesterday so special, fun and such a huge success. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us as an organisation and as fundraising professionals. The sky is the limit!!