Sovereign celebrates two years of Sunshine

Sovereign celebrates two years of letting the Sunshine in
Sovereign Sunshine donates $340,000 to New Zealand charities

New Zealand children’s charities are more than $340,000 better off thanks to Sovereign Sunshine, which turned two in May.

Sovereign Sunshine, Sovereign’s unique online children’s charity initiative, has donated the money to more than 38 not-for-profit organisations, helping these and more than 100 other charities increase their public profile.

“We’re delighted with how many children have benefitted as a result of the programme,” says Sovereign CEO Charles Anderson. “It’s a slightly different take on corporate giving in that we encourage the public to get involved too – by voting, donating and volunteering.”

Each month, Sovereign donates a total of up to $15,000 to a shortlist of six charities, chosen by Sovereign staff.
The shortlist is displayed on Sovereign Sunshine’s homepage each month. Visitors to the site can vote for their favourite charity, the more votes the better as the final proportion of the votes received by the six charities will determine the percentage of $10,000 they will receive, plus determine the monthly winning charity. The winning charity receives an additional donation, made up of staff fundraising and a dollar-for-dollar matching by Sovereign, up to $2500 (usually a total of $5000).

Any New Zealand-based children’s charity can apply to be part of Sovereign Sunshine. To date 140 have signed up, ranging from small community organisations such as the Hibiscus Coast Community House to national support groups such as the Epilepsy Association of New Zealand.

In recent months, New Zealand Riding for the Disabled received nearly $9000 which went to train more volunteers to lead their therapeutic riding and horse care programme; the Children’s Autism Foundation received $9181 to use towards providing more services and support for children and families and the Lisa’s Wish Charitable Trust received $7181 which will help them support children whose parents suffer from terminal cancer.

As well as getting donations, each charity gets free pages on the Sovereign Sunshine website to promote their cause, for some, this is their only web presence

“Most of the organisations we support through Sovereign Sunshine are small and relatively unknown, so the free marketing support is especially valuable to them,” says Anderson.

“But Sovereign was conscious that there’s more to supporting charities than just donating money – we also wanted to boost the profile of some of the lesser-known but very worthy charities,” says Anderson.

“Thus Sovereign Sunshine was born in May 2008. The idea is that the programme has a snowball effect – with each donation we hope to improve the public’s knowledge of these organisations, thus improving their chances of getting further donations.”

The public face of Sovereign Sunshine, actor and mother Greer Robson, says the community programme has been a huge success. ‘I’m really proud to be involved with Sovereign Sunshine. This is a great way for all New Zealanders to join everyone at Sovereign and play a part in building a brighter future for New Zealand kids.’

ENDS

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