Here at Spindogs we pride ourselves on the many charities we support throughout the year, the events we attend and the sponsorships that we donate. In previous years we have raised as much as £10,000 in one year for a range of local charities including Ty Hafan, BulliesOut and Friends of the Dogs.
This October we decided to focus our activities on helping The Wallich, as part of their Clash of the Corporates challenge, in a bid to make life better for those who are experiencing homelessness.
This was a perfect opportunity for the Spindogs team to organise some great events for our staff, clients and friends, all while raising as much money as we can for such a worthwhile cause!
Who are the Wallich?
The Wallich have been providing accommodation and support services for homeless people since 1978, starting with a 20-bed hostel in Cardiff and expanding to a multi-project agency working in mostly all local authorities in Wales. The Wallich specialise in providing services for people with multiple, complex needs; and because of their high support needs, are often excluded from other services and have difficulty in accessing accommodation. The range of services offered by The Wallich is as diverse as the client group they work with. The Wallich’s main aim is to ensure all people have access to support appropriate to their needs, providing long term solutions, rather than short term fixes.
The Wallich believe everyone deserves the right to a home, but more than that, everyone deserves the right to feel safe, to feel valued and to feel positive about their future.
What is the Clash of the Corporates Challenge?
The Clash of the Corporates challenge is an initiative set up by The Wallich where a team of people from each participating organisation run a series of events throughout 4 weeks in order to make as much money as possible to help The Wallich support vulnerable people and give them the accommodation and support to live safer, happier, more independent lives enabling them to become part of their communities.
Our fundraising events
As part of our fundraising activities we hosted the following events:
14th October, Spindogs Cinema:
To kick off the Clash of the Corporates challenge our first event was the Spindogs Cinema. After being sorted into their houses the Spindogs team ‘flew’ back to Hogwarts to enjoy the first ever Harry Potter movie.
17th October, Spindogs Big Charity Quiz & Silent Auction
Everyone knows that Spindogs love a quiz! We invited a group of clients to join us at Little Man Coffee for a night filled with fun and trivia. After the teams were all quizzed out we hosted a silent auction with some incredible prizes that were sold to the highest bidder. Prizes included a weekend away in a luxury cottage, white water rafting, an overnight stay at Bryn Meadows Hotel and a luxury antique Fritz Fryer light.
25th October, Copperplate Calligraphy workshop
For this event we got creative, we partnered with the amazing Meticulous Ink to deliver a copperplate calligraphy workshop, teaching us everything from how to make basic strokes to how to craft beautiful script lettering.
Stoptober
Our Senior developer Gaz took part in Stoptober and abstained from alcohol, smoking and energy drinks as a way of getting healthier and raising as much money for The Wallich as possible. Gaz managed to raise an incredible £720.20 for The Wallich, congratulations Gaz!
Throughout the month we also held a number of other fundraising activities, which included #Spindogtober where we asked our social media followers to send in pictures of their Autumn pooch and for every picture we received we donated £1 to The Wallich, we loved seeing everyone’s doggy pictures and received over 90 entries. However, our favourite Autumn pooch was ‘Bear’ who was crowned the winner of #Spindogtober.
A number of bake sales and donations to the Spindogs tuck shop also contributed to our final total, which amounted to (drum role please) an amazing £2603! Thank you to everyone who donated and supported our fundraising activities throughout this challenge, we have surpassed our fundraising target to help fight homelessness in Wales and we couldn’t have done it without you!