Corporate
The RSPCA would like to invite your organisation to take part the Million Paws Walk on Sunday 17 May 2009, held at more than 70 locations around Australia.
The Walk is the RSPCA’s major fundraising event and your support will assist us to care for and protect the hundreds of thousands of animals helped by the RSPCA every year.
More than 60,000 people, in every state and territory of Australia, took part in the Million Paws Walk in 2008 and we anticipate even bigger crowds this year.
When you register a corporate team, your organisation can benefit from increased staff morale and better internal relations and communication, as you work together to put an end to animal cruelty.
Each year, RSPCA Inspectors investigate more than 43,000 complaints of cruelty and neglect, from starvation to physical abuse of thousands of animals.
Through your involvement, your organisation can help put a stop to this inhumanity!
Getting involved is easy - you just have to REGISTER, RECRUIT and RAISE FUNDS.
1. REGISTER
Contact Us
If you’d like to help your organisation take part in the Million Paws Walk, contact the RSPCA office in the state or territory where your organisation will be participating and ask them to send you a group coordinators kit, including registration forms, posters and lots of other useful materials.
You can register more than one team! - why not appoint a few Team Captains to head up separate teams in each state and create some friendly rivalry and healthy competition amongst states and between colleagues?
Each team member must complete a separate registration form (you can photocopy registration forms which will help keep our print costs down) and forward them with all other team members’ forms to the state or territory RSPCA office.
Registered teams may also be in the running for great prizes!
2. RECRUIT
Once you’ve decided to take part in the Million Paws Walk, we’ve found appointing Team Captains streamlines the recruitment process.
Team Captains will be responsible for recruiting as many team members as possible, as well as ensuring they are updated on all information relating to the Million Paws Walk throughout the campaign.
Make use of all your organisation’s internal communications to stir up interest in the Million Paws Walk – some great ideas can be found below!
Encourage employees to recruit their business contacts, family members, friends… and of course their pets! The more members your organisation gets on board, the more fun you’re bound to have and the more money you’ll raise for animals in need!
3. RAISE FUNDS
The RSPCA will send information to Team Captains, who can then distribute it to all the Million Paws Walk participants in your organisation. Participants can then approach business contacts, family, friends, colleagues and whoever else they can think of to ‘sponsor‘ their Million Paws Walk campaign with a (tax-deductible) donation to the RSPCA.
Participants who raise sponsorship donations may be eligible to win fantastic prizes! There are also a number of corporate prizes up for grabs - these vary from state to state, so check with your RSPCA Million Paws Walk coordinator for details.
Another easy and efficient way to raise funds is through an online fundraising page.
Once each team member has set up their own fundraising page, it can be e-mailed out to friends and family all over the world, to gain sponsorship and help raise funds for the RSPCA.
Getting involved also has many benefits to your organisation: you will promote your organisation as an avid supporter of animal welfare and a responsible corporate citizen. You will also have the opportunity to motivate and boost morale amongst your employees as you all work towards the same cause - to show the world that animal cruelty is just NOT okay!
If you require further information on the Million Paws Walk or would like additional registration forms, please don’t hesitate to contact the Million Paws Walk Coordinator in your state by phoning the RSPCA.
Team building checklist - how to recruit team members and leaders
Send e-mails
Communicating with potential team members within your organisation is made easy with e-mail. Remember to keep it short and to the point and don’t forget to ask for a reply. Keep track of who says yes and who says no. You may like to create a Million Paws Walk folder in your e-mail program, with separate yes and no folders within it. You can then file each e-mail response accordingly.
Post details to the Intranet
Posting Million Paws Walk details to your organisation’s Intranet means your colleagues can access all the information when it’s convenient for them. You may like to include it in the ‘Upcoming Events’ or ‘Social Club Events’ section. Don’t forget to include your name, e-mail address and contact number so they know who to call for a registration form.
Write an article for your newsletter
If your organisation produces a newsletter or magazine, why not write a short article about the Million Paws Walk and ask people to contact you if they’re interested in participating. You should find the information you need on this website, contact the RSPCA on (02) 6282 8300 or news@rspca.org.au and we’ll help you out!
If you send the newsletter or magazine to external clients, invite them to join your organisation’s team too or encourage them to form a team of their own. Again, don’t forget to include your name, e-mail address and contact number.
Place flyers and registration forms around the office
Notice boards, tearooms, staff areas, bathrooms, lifts….just some of the places you can post up flyers and posters. Perhaps you could also use the internal mail system to distribute registration forms.
Send letters to branches to encourage people to be Team Captains.
If your organisation operates from multiple sites, challenge your colleagues at the other offices to either join your team or create their own and get an internal competition started where everyone wins!
Internal incentives
Incentive prizes will attract both Team Captains and Team Walkers and can be used to recognise top individual fundraisers; the department/branch with the highest average fundraising per Walker; the top fundraising Team Captain etc. Incentive prizes don’t need to be expensive and can include:
- a special parking place for a week/month
- a group pizza party
- vacation days (half or full)
- movie tickets or any other benefit your organisation is able to provide
Incentives prizes could also be raffles e.g. for certain dollar amounts raised, a raffle ticket is received. At the end, raffle off one big prize or several smaller ones.
Team t-shirts
This is a great way to really feel like part of a team! Designing your own team t-shirt is an incentive for the Walkers and also gives your organisation’s team a huge amount of visibility and unity on Million Paws Walk day itself. Even after the WALK is over, team members will wear the t-shirt and feel proud of their participation as part of a team. It will also act as a continued reminder of your organisation’s commitment to employees and the Walk. Contact the RSPCA to order team T-shirts.
Internal launch
Internal kick-offs are a very effective way of recruiting Walkers. Team Captains can host floor or department/branch parties, encouraging colleagues to get involved. A scheduled department/branch meeting provides a perfect opportunity to host a kick-off and an RSPCA representative will be more than happy to visit at this time to make a 5 - 15 minute presentation about animal welfare and the MPW.
Internal Walk Displays
For example, why not construct a temporary ‘Wall of Fame’ on a bulletin board? Have every Walker’s name listed under the words ‘Look who’s helping the RSPCA put an end to animal cruelty - join us in the Million Paws Walk’. You could even write their name on a cut out RSPCA paw, and pin them up to make it more attractive and noticeable.
Once you have registered your team and begun to raise sponsorship donations, there are a number of additional activities that you can get involved in at the Million Paws Walk.
As well as providing further support for RSPCA, these additional activities will provide your team with more options and activities at the event. You might also find that when your employer gets involved, you might end up with greater team participation that will certainly add to the spirit and camaraderie of your team - both at the Million Paws Walk and within your organisation.
Encourage your Managing Director or CEO to help your team in the Million Paws Walk by outlining their support through a memo or email and then following up with a personal request to each employee encouraging them to participate. Your Managing Director or CEO might also be able and willing to contribute in one or all of the following additional activities:
- Enlisting the support and participation of Senior Managers and their families.
- Contacting suppliers, clients, contractors and business partners and encourage their participation or sponsorship donation to add to your organisations fundraising.
- Sponsoring each employee who attends with a set donation e.g. $10 per employee.
- Matching each employee’s sponsorship donation amount with a corporate donation.
- Sacking anyone who says no (just kidding!)
