Taking the Plunge

An Eco Fundraising Success Story from Wellington Diving Club

Wellington Diving Club is based at the Regional Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie. It is one of the most successful diving clubs in New Zealand and helps coach and encourage recreational and competitive divers from the age of 5 years and up. Its top athletes compete on a national and international level. We spoke to Susan Smith, the current club Secretary, who successfully co-ordinated raising over $1000 in just 6 weeks by selling reusable produce bag packs from The Rubbish Whisperer. 

“There are 42 families in the club and this year I was looking for a healthier, greener alternative. I googled ‘eco fundraising’ and several NZ options came up but some of the products I thought would be too hard to sell. Produce bags have a broad appeal.”

The club which is set up as a non-profit organisation and administered by volunteers – it’s funded through a mix of fees from divers, grants from organisations and trusts, and our own fundraising. The proceeds from fundraising go towards their basic operating costs such as hiring the pool or dry gym. 

Susan explained to us how the produce bag fundraiser worked…”it was really simple, I got in touch with Lisa ([email protected]) who was easy to engage with, friendly and a good communicator. So, we ordered a pack for each family in the club and gave it to them with a poster explaining the ethical and environmental reasons why these bags are different to others on the market. People placed their order and picked their bag colours on a sign-up sheet and then these were returned with the money”.

The club put through a total of 3 orders to meet demand, all of which were delivered quickly. Perhaps it was the timing, being just before Christmas or just great timing with the announcement of the plastic bag ban which will begin in 2019. 

“Many parents took them into their work and the orders rolled in! They sort of sold themselves. When you are fundraising you are putting yourself out there, asking people for money but this product felt much easier to approach people with - you didn’t need to feel apologetic because of the environmental aspect – it feels good.”

There has also been some lovely feedback from the people who purchased the products – one story involved a young lady who has had several check-out staff congratulating her on using the bags! We asked Susan if the diving school would work with The Rubbish Whisperer again and the response was clear: “Oh yes! They were great to deal with and really responsive and friendly”.

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