Artezians are passionate about fundraising and Harp Athwal, our IT Manager, just proved it again!

This year Harp raised $7,540 for Guluwalk, a Canadian initiative that benefits children in Northern Uganda. As a top fundraiser, Harp will get to visit a youth centre in Uganda to see his fundraising efforts come to life... literally! Congratulations Harp!

Check out this article by CityNews for more details.

And as for Harp's fundraiasing strategy,  "It was strategy was pretty straightforward", he says. "I wanted to educate my friends about the cause (since many did not know all the details), tell them why I was participating in the walk, and asking them to help these kids enjoy the type of lifestyle that we take for granted.  When they realized that their support would go into the funding of a youth cultural community centre, so many of them were more than happy to ‘buy a brick’ and help make a difference too.  My close family and friends were also great advocates of GuluWalk, and further helped spread the message to their social networks."

Harp's Top 3 Fundraising Tips:

1)    Friends support their friends – if they see you are passionate about something, they will want to help you succeed in your efforts … so rely heavily on your friends and family to support your efforts
2)    Educate your social network about the cause (email and facebook is all I used). If something about the cause strikes a chord with them, they will be more than happy to support it, but if they don’t understand what you are raising money for, then there is a good chance they will not sponsor you.
3)    Have fun with it … it never felt like work to me to raise money…I started only 2 weeks ago (!) and somehow it just took on a life of it’s own!

Happy Fundraising!