Putting the FUN in FUNdraising - MOVE 4 MATES gets people active and connecting

When 30 year old Jake Buckland moved from the UK to Australia four years ago, he farewelled family and friends, including close childhood pal, Ed. 

Ed and Jake had gone to school together, grown up together. So when Ed lost his life last year, Jake wanted to bring other people together in his memory - and to raise funds and awareness about mental health.

He needed two things. A charity to support. And an idea for a fundraising event.

“I wanted to do something to raise money for a charity, but the main reason was to connect people,” Jake said.

“When you live on the other side of the world away from your family, particularly at times when something like that happens and you lose a friend, you do feel quite far away. Your friends where you are become your family. I wanted to bring people together.”

He called his dad in England, telling him of his plan. His dad said a couple visiting from Australia was staying with friends down the road in Buckinghamshire. They were from a charity. A mental fitness one too. Jake should contact them. Their names? Gus and Vicky Worland. Gotcha4Life’s founders.

Gotcha4Life’s mission and approach to building mental fitness resonated with Jake’s own vision for his fundraising event. Bringing people together to connect? Tick. Getting people talking? Tick. Drawing on a village of support? Tick. Helping people understand that building mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness? Make that four ticks.

Jake had found his charity. Now he needed an event.

Sport was a no-brainer for Jake, who works as a sports partnerships account director, plays sport - and is even running the Noosa Marathon this year.

“We wanted it to be about taking action and sport - because physical fitness is so closely linked to mental fitness,” he said. 

“We decided on a mixed netball tournament because we could have guys and girls playing together.”

The inaugural MOVE 4 MATES mixed netball tournament was born.

Jake set a goal. Raise $4,000, to fund 100 people to attend a Gotcha4Life workshop. 

He set to work with partner Hattie, securing venues and donations for raffle prizes. They booked three netball courts in Sydney’s Moore Park for the day’s action, and the Bondi Bowling Club for a fun evening afterwards, where music, a raffle and socialising would build more connections and raise more awareness and funds.

It takes a village

At every step of the way, whenever Jake and Hattie needed the support of their village, their village delivered. The village of friends who the put together the teams. The village of small business in their local community around Bondi who donated raffle prizes. Their village of family and friends back in the UK who made donations when they couldn’t be there in person. And the inaugural MOVE 4 MATES village who came together to make the day such a huge success Jake plans to make it an annual event.

Jake knew he and Hattie couldn’t pull it off on their own. So he asked good friends to be team captains - and build their own teams. 

“The people I nominated as captains were my closest friends. I knew I could trust and rely on them to bring in more people. They went out to their networks, reached out and spread the message even further.”

It worked, 14 teams of 10 were formed, with each team donating $500 to play on the day.

“Everyone was buying into it. I reached out to local businesses and got so much support from people in the community who wanted to support the charity because they believed in the cause. People were offering to buy things to donate to the raffle.”

Come game day, teams played each other in a round-robin format, before the top of each pool went into semis and finals. When they weren’t playing, people volunteered to help out - from scoring and umpiring games to assisting with all the admin to keep the day running smoothly.

Back at the Bowls Club, Jake did a presentation about the purpose of the day, a big screen kept track of the amount raised.

“I explained why we were doing it, what happened to my friend, how the funds could be used by Gotcha4Life and the importance of everyone supporting each other.” 

“People absolutely loved it. They loved being active. Lots of people hadn’t met each other before so they enjoyed that part. They were connecting and using sport as the way to get out and move and meet people.

“Everyone just came together. We sold more than 1,000 raffle tickets. It took 20 people to fold all the tickets up before we could draw the raffle.”

It’s a small world, after all

Jake tapped into his social network to spread the word across time zones. Family and friends from the UK donated, including Ed’s parents.

“I sent the link to the fundraising page to everyone back home and said if you can’t attend on the night, buy yourself a virtual pint.” 

“We got the message out on the other side of the world, which is awesome.”

As for that original goal of $4,000 to fund Gotcha4Life mental fitness workshops for 100 people?

Jake and Hattie smashed it, more than tripling their target.

The end result was a whopping $13,500, enough for 338 people to attend a life changing - and sometimes lifesaving - Gotcha4Life workshop.

Workshops that will help people from high school students to members of local sporting clubs learn and practice skills to build their mental fitness. Skills like the confidence and ability to reach out and connect with others, to be brave enough to ask for - or offer - help when it’s needed. And to be vulnerable enough to have open, honest conversations that can make all the difference in the world to someone going through a tough time.

Just do it!

Jake’s message for others thinking of organising a fundraiser to bring people in their community together is simple.

“People want to support - they just need something to support.”

“We had so many people offering to help. People are already asking what they can do for the next one.”

“If you can get things moving, it will generate momentum really quickly. Be the person that initiates it. People want to support a great cause and they want to be involved in something amazing.”

Amazing is what it was, Jake!