As part of the Project Management MSc at Westminster Business School, each student undertakes a ‘Fund Raising Project.’ This is a group assignment for the BPMA702 Project Management in Practice module, where groups of four students are required to plan and execute at least one fundraising event for a selected charity. The reason for this choice of assessment is that the students will learn to apply the theories and frameworks of project management, leadership and team work to a real live fundraising plan and event. As well as organising the event, each group has to submit a report (highlighting their work and referencing relevant literature), and each student must compose a reflective statement.
Choosing our charity
Every year, the class votes for a charity among several charities nominated by students. This year the class decided to collect funds for Mind, the mental health charity, which got 20/27 votes. The objectives of the projects are to raise funds, raise awareness of Mind’s causes and, by association, raise awareness of the University’s Project Management MSc.
Fundraising & boosting awareness of mental health issues
Brainstorming together, the eight participating teams came up with various ideas and ways in which we could support Mind. These ranged from arts and crafts, to food, sports and others, all of which aimed to promote mental health and wellbeing. Here are a few of the projects developed by the students:
Knit for Mind was a very creative initiative aimed at knitting phone covers, socks and cup holders. Team members learned how to knit and to create personalised items for clients. Products were sold out at the University and online. They also created this fantastic video to encourage engagement with their project:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uiYkIq65JE]
Another team held a 5-a-side mini football tournament at the University of Westminster Sports Grounds in Chiswick. Five teams participated in this one-day tournament, which also included raffle.
One of the Project Management MSc teams organised an arts exhibition “London Mindful Art” which included a live performance, an auction and a raffle where paintings were the prizes. Six artists and around 100 people attended the event.
The #dark2light.MIND was another initiative to fight against the stigma surrounding mental health issues. Participants were asked to out there to their favourite place to take a selfie/video/picture at sunrise, post is on social media, nominate 3 people in your social group and give them 72 hours to also complete the sunrise challenge, then donate for Mind.
We should also give a shout out to the ADAS team who not only set up a raffle to raise money, but also ran a 10 km Superhero Run dressed in Superheroes outfits!
Most of the teams showed real creativity in designing posters to advertise for their events around the campuses and on social media & students involved also utilised the power of social media, using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to raise awareness of their cause and to market for their events.
Seeking funding and sponsorship from various sources, many of the teams also secured valuable prizes for raffles, cash to cover expenses and of course online donations from families and friends. All funds from the mentioned events were either collected online through fundraising platforms and were delivered directly to Mind or through cash collection boxes handed to Mind directly. This year the class raised more than £2500.
Thank you!
Thanks should go to the University of Westminster for their support, for assisting with publicity and for allowing us to hold many of the events on the Social Learning Platform. Also to the Students’ Union who helped some groups with printing posters and with providing publicity and equipment for some of the events held at the Business School. To Mind Charity themselves for their support with T-shirts, leaflets, collection boxes. And finally, thanks to the University of Westminster Sports Grounds in Chiswick who kindly offered the venue free of charge for the football event.
Thank you to Project Management MSc student Rouba Sayed for this great blog. To find out more about the Project Management MSc, visit the course page.
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We had a similar task in UCB in Birmingham. I remember this time of semester as the most stressful but also fun and exciting time. Setting up a fundraising event for the first time is not easy and in my experience, you just have to be really lucky with your team mates.