Volunteer and fundraising groups find Covid-19 tough
Organisations have had to rethink sourcing funding
The impact of Covid-19 is being felt by all parts of society — tourism, hospitality and entertainment industries most notably. But perhaps one of the forgotten cogs of society during the pandemic has been the fundraising groups working hard to make life better for their chosen cause.
“If there weren’t volunteer organisations society would come to a grinding halt,” Ka¯piti Soroptimists president Diana Ponsford said.
“There is so much that needs to be done and without volunteers, it wouldn’t happen.”
Volunteer Ka¯piti manager Susan Ansell said because of Covid-19 there have been fewer viable options out there for community groups and organisations to fundraise.
“A number of fundraising events across Ka¯piti have had to be cancelled or postponed over the last couple of years which puts big pressure on being able to fund muchneeded services.
“A lot of our members have been impacted by being unable to run (or having to adapt) some of their main fundraising and collection events such as the Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and the Mary Potter Hospice’s Strawberry Festival.”
The Ka¯piti Soroptimists are one of the many organisations in Ka¯piti finding it hard as Covid-19 has made it near impossible to run fundraising events the way they used to.
The Ka¯piti Soroptimists are part of the Soroptimist International group which supports local, national and global projects for women and girls.
Inspiring action and creating opportunities to transform the lives of women and girls, they have held movie nights and fishing days at the Waikanae Boating Club, organised camps, the Tu Tonu Retreat, and supported the Ka¯piti Women’s Centre, while also supporting a women’s shelter in Fiji.
This year they are focusing on raising money for the Ka¯ piti Women’s Centre, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren and are continuing to give out the Betty Loughead Scholarship.
Organising three movie nights which were all cancelled last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, the group is hesitant to organise another one so has resorted to creating raffles out of their own pocket to raise money.
Working closely with the Ka¯piti Women’s Centre and Women’s Refuge, a chat with manager Louise Waterworth at the start of the year put plans into action to raise money for some of the mums and teens that visit the centre.
“She suggested in the middle of the year that we could do a midwinter Christmas event which would give some of their mums and teens a bit of a treat.
“A phone card, a petrol voucher, a move ticket . . . something to treat them a little bit.”
Diana said organisations like the Soroptimists were needed to make society continue operating as it does.
“We need to keep having a voice and doing what we can to raise money to support these worthwhile groups.”
For groups like the Soroptimists, modernising with the time is important as many of their members have been around for a while.
“Younger people have great benefits for our group, and we would love to have more of them join to help modernise what we do.”
Susan said organisations had had to find new ways of sourcing funding under Covid-19 restrictions, often going online, but said they were grateful that a number of grant funders had been quick to respond, providing new grant opportunities for community organisations affected by Covid.