Last May saw SUSU (University of Southampton Student Union) host their annual Big Give – A week long charity campaign looking at the impact donating £1 can have on local causes.
This year the event is back with a bang with a week of exciting fundraising activities taking place from the 22 – 28 March.
The Big Give motivates both students and staff to ask “what else would I spend £1 on” and is based on students not having to do anything out of the ordinary to make big change happen.
Talking about the event, VP Engagement Claire Gilbert said:
“The Big Give is a brilliant way to show the social impact students can have by giving just £1. The fact is we all spend around £1 a day on things that we could easily go without – a coffee, a newspaper, getting on the bus when you could walk etc – by empowering students to just give a little and see the large amount of change they can make I truly believe that we can make a massive difference to local, national and international causes. I am really excited to volunteer for such an exciting way to look at fundraising!”
In previous years RAG week made on average £1,000- £1,500 – but last year raised a record £6057 in five days.
This year the fundraising group hope to build on this this amount and aim to make at least £22,000 for their three elected charities – Medicin Sans Frontier, Motor Neuron Disease and Wessex Heartbeat.
People can get involved with the Big Give in a variety of ways, from taking part in one of the Big Give events, doing something sponsored that they feel passionate about, buying some of the products they’d normally would that includes a donation or even just donating a £1 coin in a shaker.