Outstanding Fundraising Initiative

Hazelwood School

The Help for Heroes Hero Bear Triathlon event was delivered through the tenacity, vision and enthusiasm of a group of parents. The event raised funds that smashed the original estimates three times over. A cheque for £16,000 was presented to the Help for Heroes charity, making it their biggest ever schools-based event. With 60 per cent opting in for Gift Aid, the total will eventually top £18,000.

The event was conceived after one of the school's parents met Bryn Parry, the founder of Help for Heroes, at a fundraising event. The charity was looking for a schools-based idea to encourage young people to become aware of the charity's work. The idea for the triathlon was suggested by the parent's daughter, a pupil in Hazelwood's Y6.

To encourage as many children as possible to take part, there were three levels of triathlon event: Bronze (15m swim, 400m run and 1km cycle), Silver (45m swim, 800m run and 2km cycle) and Gold (90m swim, 1.2km run and 3km cycle).

The purchase price of the event T-shirt covered its production costs, so that all of the sponsorship money was given to Help for Heroes.

Winner: King Edward's School, Birmingham

King Edward's raised over £1 million for a new bursary fundraising initiative last year for its Assisted Places Fund, which aims to double the number of bursaries available at the school. This achievement is impressive given that the development office is only two years old.

The new fund was launched in July last year with a film, featuring bursary recipients and donors, which was made by two former pupils of the school. This was followed by a three-week telephone campaign which raised over £320,000, making it the most successful school telephone fundraising campaign in the UK. A team of twelve current and recent students contacted 1,000 former pupils to ask them to support assisted places and over half of the alumni pledged their support.

Ten former pupils are also sponsoring boys; a scheme which attracted national press coverage.

The school also received a gift of £250,000 from The Tolkien Trust after a careful cultivation process. JRR Tolkien was a former pupil at the school and he benefitted from financial support when he was at KES.

Twelve additional assisted places have been awarded to boys starting this September, bringing the total number of places available this year to 36, a 50 per cent increase.

Lord Wandsworth College

The LWC Development Office was established in 2004, with the aim of raising funds for the foundation, which supports 50 children at the college. A high-profile dinner with former pupil Jonny Wilkinson got the fundraising off to an impressive start but reached only a small number of the former pupils who were interested in supporting the foundation. In 2008, a fundraising strategy was presented that expanded beyond the tradition of holding sports dinners to include regular giving, direct mail, and legacy giving. With a large number of former beneficiaries and a well-developed database in place, the college launched a legacy campaign.

The campaign started with two mailings of a targeted legacy leaflet and a series of articles in the newsletter sent to former pupils and staff and current parents. At every event there is a short mention of legacy giving, with updates on giving or new legislation.

Within three years, the number of known legacy donors has reached 50. A significant number of donors have pledged to give £100,000 or more, with the aim of paying for the entire seven-year education of a foundationer. In the last twelve months, bequests totalling more than £750,000 have been received.

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