7 minute read
SBT Charity
from SBT issue 439
WIN A £1 MILLION HOUSE FOR AS LITTLE AS £2
ALL IN AID OF CHESTNUT TREE HOUSE
RUNNING A CHARITY DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
BY RYAN HEAL, CEO OF ROCKINGHORSE CHILDRENS CHARITY
CHOSEN CHARITY PARTNER:
WIN a £1 million house
for as little as £2!
Local hospice user urges people to enter £1 million house prize draw for charity.
There is currently a prize draw to win a
Charity £1 million house for as little as £2. 10% of the money raised will go to Chestnut Tree House (a charity providing hospice care for children and young people based in Sussex) and St Barnabas House (a charity providing palliative care to adults in the Worthing area). Becca Torricelli, a long-standing user of the children’s hospice, talks about the importance of Chestnut Tree House and what this money would mean to the charity.
The ‘Dream Home Prize Draw’ to win a £1.25 million house is now well under way. The general public can purchase as many £2 tickets as they like to be in with the chance of winning a stunning four-bedroom seaside house in West Sussex. 10% of the sales will be going to local hospices, Chestnut Tree House – who care for children and young people with life-threatening conditions, and St Barnabas House – who provide palliative to adults with life-limiting illnesses, both at the hospice and at home.
West Sussex man, Peter Pearce, decided to launch the once-in-a-lifetime prize draw after seeing a crisis appeal from the hospices earlier this year. Learning that the Covid-19 pandemic
had caused the charity’s fundraising income to plummet by 70%, he wanted to do something to help, to ensure the hospices can continue to be there for local children, adults and families who need them, now and in the future.
A long-standing user of Chestnut Tree House, Becca Torricelli, has spoken out about the ‘life-saving’ impact the charity has had on her and her family, and how this prize draw will help.
Becca has a rare neuromuscular condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and has been receiving respite care from Chestnut Tree House since
Becca Torricelli
she was five years old, when the hospice first opened in 2003. “My condition affects every part of my daily life. I use an electric wheelchair 24/7 as I have never been able to walk. All my muscles are extremely weak so I need help with pretty much everything you can think of; not just getting dressed and out of bed in the morning, but simple things like picking up a glass of water, or being passed the TV remote. At five years old, my mum was doing all of my care, as well as looking after my two-year-old little brother. As you can imagine, this was absolutely exhausting for her and things were pretty tough at home, but going to Chestnut was like a safe haven for us all. We used to go and stay as a family, and while my mum knew that I was being cared for by medical professionals, it gave us all time to be just that – a family.
“I think there are some misconceptions around hospice environments; people often think they are very medical, scary places, but Chestnut has always been a home away from home for my family and me. The house is beautifully decorated and there are so many fun things to do for children of all ages and abilities: there are music, cinema, and sensory rooms, a massive garden with a play park, and you can do all manner of arts and crafts, to name but a few things. Of course, the medical aspect is there, but it’s done very discreetly and respectfully so that you don’t really notice that side of things.”
We asked her how beneficial the house prize draw will be for Chestnut Tree House:
“It costs £4.6 million each year to provide all Chestnut’s specialist care services. They receive very little government funding, so rely almost solely on fundraising and donations to continue supporting families like mine in truly difficult times, and they’ve been hit so hard by the pandemic. Most children cared for by Chestnut Tree House are vulnerable and will therefore have been shielding since March, most likely without care. Many families will be on their knees after such a long period without support, which is why it’s imperative, now more than ever, that the hospice can continue providing care, help and support. So please, buy some prize draw tickets - you’ll be supporting an amazing charity, and could win a £1 million house… what’s not to love?”
The Dream Home Prize Draw ends on 31st August and Peter Pearce hopes to sell as many tickets as possible to support Chestnut Tree House and St Barnabas House hospices. The higher the total sales, the higher the donation to the charities; head over to www.dreamhomeprizedraw.com to buy your tickets now, and be in with the chance of winning a £1 million house!
Running a charity during a global pandemic
“7pm – March 23rd 2020 – Lockdown.
Charity Running a charity has always been a balance between fundraising and over asking with the latter running the risk of alienating your market with untimely, insensitive asks. This was different…Within 4 days of the lockdown being introduced, ALL of our fundraising events had been postponed or cancelled and we were facing a funding crisis never before seen in over 50 years of Rockinghorse.
During my tenure, I’ve always professed that its crucially important for charities to operate as businesses. This doesn’t necessarily have to affect your market profile, your cause or your engagement with supporters but it does make you more aware of your opportunities and threats just as you would see in the commercial world. I immediately took the decision to keep all staff on and not furlough, this enabled us to work with what market we had left and embark on a fundraising “push” that saw us achieve over £150,000 across April, May & June. As per the rules of the furlough scheme, none of our team would have been able to carry out any fundraising at all and the impact would have been felt far more keenly. I appreciate that Rockinghorse bucked the trend in this sense (locally) but it felt right to me that we were present in the market, engaging with our supporters that remained so keen to help and to maintain our support of those in our community that need our help the most, Covid or no Covid.
Continuing to operate during the initial phases of the pandemic enabled us to
get creative and launch many virtual fundraising initiatives. My team were / are utterly inspiring during this period and they were an honour to lead at a time of crisis. However, as is always the case, we completely rely on the goodwill of our supporters to continue our work. Unfortunately, we received no government support. Upon the Chancellors announcement on the 8th April that there would be a £750M “pot” available to the charity sector, many quickly commented that it was a drop in the ocean compared to the cliff edge the sector faced. Our supporters truly stepped up. From our corporate partners to our challenge event participants to our major donors and event organisers, the Rockinghorse family genuinely steered us through the first phase of this difficult period with a united sense of “we shall overcome!”
Our Coronavirus related projects included equipment; resource and innovative research into Covid-19 amongst teenagers in the region. This is groundbreaking research that will have a major bearing on the future of how the virus is understood in the future. We were able to continue to support our key beneficiaries including the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and The Trevor Mann Baby Unit at this time, alongside supporting our many County wide beneficiaries including Chalkhill – the only mental health unit in Sussex.
So, thank you to everyone that hosted an online quiz; ran a virtual 5k; set up an online auction or who just simply made a donation. We will be forever grateful. Now for the shameless plug as unfortunately we are by no means out of the woods. All events that had originally been postponed to the Autumn are now having to be pushed back into 2021 creating a second black hole of funding for the Autumn / Winter. Our own second wave. I personally and respectfully invite you to consider Rockinghorse for any charitable partnerships you are considering and would welcome the opportunity to speak to any Sussex business about who we are and what we do.”
