Founded in 1645 with a long-standing history of providing excellent education facilities, Cheam School is based in Headley, Hampshire. With a promise to offer pupils ‘the time of their lives’, Cheam School works hard to create a welcoming environment which gives children he best possible start to their academic journeys.
As part of their commitment to education, Cheam School offers several life-changing bursaries every year to help underprivileged children via the Cheam Foundation. This 100% bursary improves the educational, social, and environmental circumstances that pupils would otherwise face. There is also a focus on helping those with challenging family situations and giving them a chance, they would never have been given.
Prior Fundraising Challenges
The Cheam Foundation find it can be challenging to raise money for bursaries as donors can’t always see the impact that their donation makes. It can be complex to articulate how this money can change a child’s life, as the information is always confidential, and the recipients are anonymous due to their ages.
Due to the individual cost, only a small number of students receive a bursary each year. This mean it can be hard to persuade people to donate as sometimes they are looking for a bigger impact to support with a larger number of children support.
The Cheam Fiesta Party was a vibrant event that used a mix of Silent Auction and Live Auction features from Givergy. Online Pledges were also integrated to ensure maximum fundraising options were available. Onsite, ten Givergy tablets were used alongside mobile bidding, to make the process of donating super simple.
The school felt that the silent auction worked brilliantly as it allowed people to donate and get to know the items before the event itself. As storytelling can be hard, this also meant that more time could be taken to build connections with donors, both new and existing.
The total amount raised came in at £39,493 which consisted of £31,693 from the silent auction and £7,800 from the live auction. Cheam School were thrilled with this and commented that it would support their bursary needs well.
How did you find the Givergy system?
Cheam School felt that the system was easy to use and offered lots of support when needed. They commented that Hannah, their Customer Success Manager, was brilliant and quick to respond when queries were put forward.
There was also a collaborative effort between Givergy and the school to launch the auction items which worked well and helped in the busy run up to the event.
- It is important to select the right type of event for your prospective audience. We knew that a silent auction would work well due to the reach that our organisation has.
- Choose a mix of auction items as you may be surprised about what performs the best.
“Hannah and the team on the night were brilliant. They noticed even the smallest details and supported us in every way. Givergy really added value to our fundraising cause.” .