Award winning marketing agency's year of fundraising for Africa
03 September 2013
Cosine staff embrace call to help tackle hunger in Africa
Staff at an award-winning field sales and marketing agency are leading the way in showing how cutting edge business can be combined with extraordinary corporate fundraising that motivates employees and broadens their horizons.
The Buckinghamshire-based Cosine agency decided that its charity of the year for 2013 would be Farm Africa, a leading UK charity that is working in eastern Africa with smallholder farmers to help tackle hunger and poverty.
And staff at the Haddenham headquarters of the company have lost no time at all in putting their creative skills to good use to devise a myriad of ways to maximise the fundraising effort.
Safari Day and Dig for Good
To kick off the fun in grand style, Cosine staged a Safari Dayin April. Each employee made a donation to Farm Africa so they could arrive at the office dressed as an elephant, monkey, lion, meerkat or whatever other beast took their fancy. The fun-packed day also featured an Africa-themed communal lunch and a quiz with beautiful Africa-themed prizes up for grabs.
A few weeks later, Cosine Director Jacqui Sheldon joined a team of high-powered women executives on a trip to one of Farm Africa’s projects in rural Kenya. The UK women worked with local women to dig and build a huge fish pond that will be a lasting source of food and nutrition for years to come for the local community. All the sponsorship money raised from ‘Dig for Good’ has gone towards a sum of £300,000 already raised by the UK food and hospitality sectors for Farm Africa.
Swimming the Channel, Harvest fundraising and charity balls
And Campaign Executive Sharon Moore has gone to extraordinary lengths, quite literally, to raise money for Farm Africa. 1416 lengths of her local pool to be precise, split into four separate swims over two weekends. That equates to just over the distance of swimming the channel. And not content with that, Sharon has also been selling jacket potatoes to colleagues on ‘Spud Friday’, and has even been spotted out in the office car park washing her colleagues’ cars for a donation.
Later this year a Harvest festival fundraiser will precede a glittering fundraising ball, to be held on 28 September.
And perhaps most excitingly of all, the fundraising effort will culminate in October when three lucky Cosine employees travel to Kenya to work on a Farm Africa project. They will work side by side with smallholder farmers, digging shallow wells know as ‘zai pits’ to help boost rainwater capture, so that farmers can continue to grow a diverse range of crops and food, despite a crippling lack of rainfall in the area. On average these zai pits increase a farmer’s yield by 500%.
Welcoming Cosine’s support, Farm Africa’s Head of Corporate and Community Fundraising, Cathy Wentworth, said:
“We have been thrilled to see the huge enthusiasm for Farm Africa’s work right across Cosine UK this year. Their commitment to our life-changing work is a powerful demonstration of how UK businesses can be a force for good and positive change, even in the most challenging economic environments. I’d like to extend our huge thanks to everyone at Cosine for helping Farm Africa end hunger for good.”
Jacqui Sheldon from Cosine UK said:
“We really believe in the work that Farm Africa does and the support they are giving to farmers across eastern Africa. We have always supported charities that work in Africa and as an agency that has strong links to many retailers and brands in the food industry, we are excited to be partnering with Farm Africa to support their campaigns. I am really looking forward to being able to look back upon at the fantastic legacy that this project will leave.”
You can make a donation to Farm Africa’s life-changing work here: www.farmafrica.org/donate
Ends
Images of Cosine fundraising activities are available on request.
To arrange an interview with Cosine staff or Farm Africa, please contact:
Farm Africa press office:
Matt Whitticase, 020 7067 1237 / mattheww@farmafrica.org
Laura Oakley, 020 7067 1252 / laurao@farmafrica.org
Cosine UK press office:
Ruth Stainton: 01844 296738 / ruth.stainton@cosineuk.com
Notes to Editor:
About Farm Africa
Farm Africa is a charity working with families in rural Africa, helping them to produce food more effectively. By providing training and support to help farmers improve the way they manage their crops, livestock, forests and access to water, we help families build a future free from hunger. For more information about Farm Africa please visit www.farmafrica.org
About Cosine UK
Cosine is an award-winning field sales and marketing agency with a proven track record of increasing clients’ sales, retail presence and brand awareness, achieved through merchandising, auditing, mystery shopping and other field marketing services, with our outsourced sales teams trained specifically for every campaign.
Website: www.cosineuk.com
