Icon Group’s Andrew Wells – An expert fundraiser

April 11, 2017

This will be Andrew Wells fifth year participating in the 24 Hour Treadmill Challenge with his colleagues from The Icon Group, and over the past few years his incredible efforts have not gone unnoticed. We decided to ask him some questions and find out how he does it:

Can you share some of your fundraising tips with us?

Make sure you ask people and that they understand why you are asking. We are all inundated at times with requests for good charitable causes but if people can see you’re passionate about a cause they will donate. Personally I focus my fundraising requests to family, friends and business colleagues on one major cause like the 24 Hour Treadmill Challenge and really concentrate my time and effort to raise money. Making it personal always helps too- we have connections with some families from Very Special Kids so we aim to share their amazing stories.

This is your fifth year participating in the 24 Hour Treadmill Challenge, what are you/your team most excited about?

The Icon Group team are a pretty energetic group of people but the treadmill challenge has such a great vibe that it tends to lift that energy to another level – even at 4am in the morning! What really excites us though is the amount of money that such a dedicated community of 32 teams can raise in a 24 hour period and the effect the event has on the kids in the hospice – both seeing their faces on the day and knowing that for the following year Very Special Kids will have the funds to continue the personalised level of care.

What advice do you have for other treadmill participants trying to raise funds?

Use your contacts to your advantage. Some will donate money but also look for suppliers etc. who will donate products or services in kind that you can then use to raise money through raffles and the like. For example, The Icon Group cancer care and pharmacy sites run gold coin donation morning teas. I’d also say that every cent counts so encourage people to donate what they can.

Andrew is the perfect example of a dedicated participant, “having a team captain who is so passionate about the cause helps a lot. The staff want to get involved if the boss is willing to put himself out there! He is there for almost the entire 24 hours and his enthusiasm is contagious (and his love for dressing up)!” said his colleague, Debbie Reid, this year’s team captain of Icon Group.