Creator / originator

Creating Better Futures.

Summary / objectives

To attract the attention of visitors to the Big Church Day Out (BCDO) to raise funds and awareness of our charity.

Background

Creating Better Futures (CBF) exists to improve the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children by providing them with education and skills to break free from poverty. We will provide a long-term commitment to each child's welfare, in addition to their educational needs. We are working in Zimbabwe, which has a significant number of children orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

We are a very new charity that only launched in February 2012. Since then we have been able to place 79 orphaned children into Cheza Primary School and establish regular feeding programmes. We have organised lots of fundraising events to raise money that will improve the lives of children living in extreme poverty. Our annual turnover is £16,000.

In May 2013 we organised a ‘name the bear’ competition, which took place during the Big Church Day Out. We made a list of most common names, including the names of the children we send to school. For a £1 donation, participants could choose a name from the list that they guessed could be the name of the giant five-foot bear. When they had chosen a name from the list they wrote it on a board with the QR codes (quick response) to lead them to our website, Facebook and Twitter pages. They guessed names, scanned codes and ‘followed’ us.

Influence / impact

Good donations both cash on the day and through Justtextgiving for those that did not have cash with them on the day. Increased online interaction on our website, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Costs

The bear was donated so there was no cost. The volunteers either paid for themselves or were compensated by BCDO.

Merits

We are passionate about education in the developing world and would like to show how people can make a difference through simple means on social media. Social media unites us all in different ways, in different worlds. It’s a new dimension of charity and global giving.