Fundraising - FAQ
Q.What's this 'Creating Community' all about?
A.In short... Basically if you want to raise money for your favourite school, charity, sporting or social club (which we will lump together under the heading of 'group' for ease of read) then every time you or one of group order something through Big Time Wine (entering your special code as part of the ordering process) you then raise a percentage of the price you paid for your Big Time Wine goods that goes directly back to your chosen group via a quarterly cheque.
Q.Come again?
A.Look ... say you buy $100 bucks worth of wine from Big Time Wine. You enter a code that says you are part of 'Joe Blow's Footy Club' at the checkout whilst completing your order, two things then happen.
One - we send your wines/products out to you as per normal. They arrive on your door step in a few days.
Two - it is automatically noted, through the code you entered, that a percentage of your purchase is returned to 'Joe Blow's Footy Club'. So not only are you getting the wine that you ordered, but now your chosen group (being Joe Blow's Footy Club) is also getting up to dollars back because of you. (For example - lets say the agreed return to your group is %5. So every time someone orders $100 worth of product through Big Time Wine your group will receive $5 back).
Q.$5 isn't very much!
A.Well it is $5 for buying alcohol you were probably going to buy anyway. In short - $5 for nothing.
...But it doesn't necessarily stop there.
You see, we'll be offering 'double discount deals' and getting suppliers on board who may offer more of a discount, should you buy their products, for a special time period or similar. Therefore, there may be times you will be getting $10 back or even more, for that $100 spend.
Q.$10 still isn't very much...
A.You're kidding aren't you? Say your chosen group (whose code you entered) has 100 members for example. And say that 50 of those members ordered something off Big Time Wine every month. Say they spent on average $100.
So, this means that your chosen group ('Joe Blow's Footy Club) gets about $250 a month to do with as it wishes. Times that by 12, and this means that every year 'Joe Blow's Footy Club' gets $2500+ from Big Time Wine. Not bad I reckon... it sure is a lot of sausage sizzles and cake stalls!
Then think of all your family and friends that you can get involved (and your other group members do the same) ... pretty soon there are hundreds of people raising funds for you every time they buy something through Big Time Wine.
Q.That's pretty impressive when you put it like that. There must be a catch, or a limit?
A. Nope. That's what makes this whole thing so attractive to the community. The beauty of this is that if you were a sporting club for example, trying to raise money for a trip or new uniforms, if you get all your parents to buy at Big Time Wine, you could probably buy what you need in a quarter of the time. You also get this money from Big Time Wine aside or on top of all your usual fundraising activity that you normally do. Like Fete's, Cake Stalls, fun runs etc
It is the fundraiser that never sleeps or never stops making money for your group!
There's no limit on how much you can earn either. The more your group buys the more your group gets back. It really is that simple.
Q.So how do we get involved?
A.The first thing is to contact Tosh at Big Time Wine and let him know your name, the name of your group you would like to get involved, and the contact name and position of the person he needs to speak with (e.g. fundraising manager; club president etc). The contact box is below, at the end of these FAQ's. He will take it from there. Would only take a few days before it was all up and running. He'll make an appointment with you (or the designated person involved at your end), come out and see you and get it all happening if you would prefer to do it this way.
Q.That's easy enough and all well and good, but how do we really make it work for us?
A.The best way is to let your members/participants know about it via email, newsletter or something similar. You will be provided with a specific code for your group only, so that every time one of your members orders from us, they enter the code and your group (e.g. Joe Blow's Footy Club) gets the money allocated to them.
You can control this from your end, or alternatively give us a list of your members and we can send out information to them for you. We simply set up a secure group member data list and then whenever 'Double Deals' or similar are on for your members, we fire out an email to them advising of the new deal. Alternatively, we send your contact the information and they pass on to the group members.
The trick is to get the information to everyone and continually make the information accessible. Keep promoting it in other words. Your group's own website etc would help. If you don't have a website for your group, we can set up a special log in section just for your group on Big Time Wine. That's right - we'll even provide our website to give you a website!
Q.Wow - that's pretty good... our own website home at no cost. Has to be a catch!
A. No catch. We are quite happy to give your group a home. If you go to the front page you will see that the 'Be The Ball Golf Tour' group has their own sign-in gateway. They simply click on the logo, enter their log in details, and they get to see all of their results, news, info regarding their golf club and the competitions they run in-house. No one else can see what is going on - in essence it is their own site. Oh yeah - they also raise money to go towards their yearly tour every time they choose to buy something on the way out.
Q. So do we have to have a site with you on Big Time Wine?
A. Not at all. Some groups, clubs etc already have their own site. Therefore they don't need us. The offer is there for those smaller groups who may be a little too small, or not have enough organization/funds/knowledge to set up their own. No catch - it doesn't worry us either way - but obviously the offer is there.
Q. I notice that the 'Be The Ball Tour' on the front page of Big Time Wine is for a golf group. They must be pretty big?
A. No way - they only have about 20 members. They're a social club too! We cater to big and small - Creating Community again! In saying that they have raised a stack that goes towards their yearly trip away. They did this just buying as they needed wine, beer, ciders etc through Big Time Wine. No pressure from us. They don't buy they don't get anything back.
They also run a weekly tipping competition through the portal logo. Use their space as a noticeboard to members etc for whatever they talk about. It also keeps a history of their social golf club. That's important to them - that in years to come their little golf club has it all recorded here on Big Time Wine, and they can access it any time they like. Very convenient.
Q. So I guess you must post their information on the site for them?
A. Yes we do. It has to be that way. It's pretty simple though. The designated manager/president/communicator just emails through what they would like posted on their special part of Big Time Wine. We post it for them.
This works for them in that they get all the info they want posted for their members, who in turn visit the site, click on the logo and log in whenever they feel like it.
And it works for us in that it keeps the site 'clean'. That is no material is placed on the site that we feel may be inappropriate. We are about Creating Community - not denigrating it.
Q. With the fundraising again - we must need special licensing or something? Or you must need it?
A. No, not at our end. We just trade as we normally do under the laws and regulations required of Big Time Wine. Provided your members are over the age of 18 there shouldn't be any other issues really. This is more a Loyalty Rewards Programme for us. If you choose to use it to generate funds for a group that is your decision.
Q. Say we wanted to do a wine, or beer tasting or something like that throughout the year to raise even more funds - could we do it and would we need special licensing then?
A. We could do it - no problems. We are quite happy to help organise and run tasting events or supporting events to your other fundraisers. We would use our wide network of suppliers to help out here if we needed to as well.
Licensing would become an issue if you wanted to run this wine tasting event somewhere that isn't already licensed. But you also need to remember that special licenses can be applied for, for one off events. These don't cost a lot, and we can transfer/use our license to help you make it happen, for the event. We would need to work it all out prior to the event, but we are more than happy to do this with you.
We currently run regular wine lunches for groups as well, complete with guest speakers, three course meals and a selection of wines to match the food. Another option if you have a group of like minded people who would like to get together for lunch once a month etc Nice way to grow your business network or simply have a bit of fun away from the grind of daily life.
Q. What if we had members that were part of two or more fundraising entities (e.g a community group and a sporting club).Can they put two codes in the designated box when they are checking out of Big Time Wine with their purchase, and halve the return between the two?
A. No - you can only pick one entity that the fundraising money will go to. Hard decision I know, but that's the way it works. Who means more to you? Maybe you could have the fundraising return go to one entity one purchase and the other entity the second purchase. And on and on ...
Q. What if someone gives the special code for their group out to someone else? Or someone guesses it when they are ordering?
A. No problems from our end. Your designated group/entity gets the fundraising money back still.
Q. So how do you decide how much my group/entity gets back every time one of us buy something from Big Time Wine?
A. That's decided when we organise everything with your delegated person. Put it this way - you will be getting something for nothing no matter what it is. And each time we reach an agreement we can review it yearly. This way if you are ordering more as a group we'll give even more back!
Q.Does this include the delivery cost? Say I buy a $100 case of wine and the delivery fee is the $10 flat rate. It costs me $110 all up. And say my group gets 10% back every time one us orders, this would mean we get $11 back - right?
A. No. You would get $10 back for the $100 purchase. At the moment we provide FREE DELIVERY ACROSS AUSTRALIA - ALWAYS! policy so unless things changed in the future I wouldn't imagine a problem here anyway.
Q. When would we get that fundraising money back?
A.This will be worked out when we initially set up everything between your group and Big Time Wine. General rule of thumb though is every 3 months. We also provide a full manifest of purchases made by your members as record for all involved. This allows all involved to monitor and maintain results going forward.
Q. Mate - this sounds sensational! Thanks for answering those questions. Right now I'm on my bike and off to hook up my kids footy and netball clubs, my social golf club and my wife's local charity. You guys will be sorry you ever did this!
A. No we won't! The beauty of this whole thing is that it really is 'Creating Community'. We are helping those who help themselves get those much needed funds for whatever it is in their community - small or large - that they need. We reward your loyalty and you do what you wish with the return!
And the basic premise is that if you don't order anything you don't get anything back. But if you do, as a community, you'll get heaps. But either way - there's no pressure. No contracts. No 100 page agreements filled with a million clauses and sub-clauses. Just us working together ... helping you Create Community.
