Fundraising for WWF Australia at BiU HQ raises over £2800

By now most of you will have seen or read about the bushfires currently burning in Australia. The fires first started in October and is expected to continue burning for another two months. This means that in addition to the 12 million acres that have already burnt across the country even more land is expected to be lost.

To put that into perspective England is 32 million acres so the amount of Australia that is burned is over a third of the size of the country we live in. So far, 24 people are confirmed dead, three of which were volunteer firefighters, and a billion animals are estimated to have perished with scientists predicting even more will die due to loss of habitat and food.

At BiU we decided to host a fundraiser to raise money for WWF Australia to help with the care and welfare for the animals that have been injured and displaced by the fires.

**An array of hot and cold savoury and sweet treats provided by staff for WWF Australia fundraising day**

On January 17th our charity and event teams hosted a luncheon with a range of sweet and savoury options provided by staff from a hot chilli to finger sandwiches, brownies to cookies, all bought by staff instead of their usual Friday lunch. We were delighted when our friends at Content Coms also generously donated to the fundraising luncheon.

**Senior Risk Manager, Andrew Anderson-Shepherd helping promote the luncheon in aid of WWF Australia**

But the ideas for fundraising didn’t stop there, some of the team started to contact local businesses and see if they wanted to support the fundraising efforts for WWF Australia with a raffle prize – the team were inundated with generosity and support!

**Raffle prizes donated by local businesses supporting BiU fundraising day for WWF Australia**

Raffle prizes flooded in from all angles, from KoCo Brownie Hamper to CrossFit Blackpool gym month membership; a full day of Lucy Dish Tattoo services through to afternoon champagne tea from Sheraton Hotel. Nail treatments, barber services, salon pamper packages, restaurant vouchers and much more – the team at BiU couldn’t believe the raffle list that kept expanding!

**A line-up of willing volunteers ready to be squirty cream pied for charity include CEO Michael Abbott**

And then the opportunity to bid on being ‘pied’ with a squirty cream pie happened. A handful of staff nominated themselves to be part of the line-up, including our CEO Michael Abbott. The bidding started, and the highest bid getting the honour of throwing a pie at another member of the team – yes, we do like a game or two at BiU!

In addition to everything that staff raised through the luncheon, raffle and pie’ing, BiU pledged to match it – well we couldn’t be prouder of the team effort to raise over £2800 for WWF Australia.

Our thanks for raffle prizes and support from: