On Wednesday 1 June, Storyfest is holding its inaugural Giving Day. Find out why you should consider supporting children’s literacy programmes with your generous donation, and how you can get involved.
At Storyfest, we believe every child deserves the opportunity to fall in love with reading. We have been working at fostering this love for over 29 years, and in that time have achieved some truly wonderful things. Besides the three-day writers’ festival, we now host an annual calendar of events throughout the Gold Coast and regional Queensland, spreading the love of literature far and wide in the community.
With your friendship and support, in the past year alone we have been able to impact 27,863 people along with 74 schools, and put over 4,700 books back into the community. Over the next three years, we have plans of expanding our reach to even more areas, and hopefully inspiring a love of reading in many more children and adults.
As part of our Annual Giving Day on Wednesday 1 June 2022, we will be aiming to raise $100,000 over a 12-hour campaign during which time your gift will be doubled by our generous matchers in order to be able to deliver on our mission.
Join us in nurturing a love of storytelling by changing children's lives one story at a time!
What is a Giving Day?
Giving Days are fundraising events that usually last between 12-24 hours, aimed at rallying communities together to raise donations for a good cause. They facilitate a focussed approach to fundraising, by finding generous people and organisations who are happy to match each donation made to an organisation on Giving Day.
That means that if you decide to donate $100 to Storyfest, one of our incredible donors will match it and donate $100 themselves. This way, we will be bringing everyone together in a concentrated effort to raise money for imperative children’s literacy programmes.
3 reasons you should consider donating to Storyfest this Giving Day
Your donation will ensure Storyfest can continue to connect children with books and authors – an important initiative that aims to foster a love of reading and storytelling in younger generations. So why should you donate to Storyfest? You will be:
Supporting a good cause
Storyfest’s mission is to provide access to a love of literature for everyone – whether that’s through our regional programmes, our writers’ festival, or different partnerships, author events, or book signings throughout the year.
By donating to us on Giving Day, your investment will be going towards supporting an important initiative and bringing this love to more people all over our communities. In other words, you’ll be supporting a good cause!
If you need any more insights as to how supporting Storyfest benefits the community, check out what Justin Miller, a Storyfest business partner, had to say about us.
Promoting literacy
According to a study that examined the habits of kindergarten to year 12 students, just six extra minutes of reading time per day can help a struggling reader reach – and even surpass – the year level’s benchmark, whereas students who read for 15 minutes or more per day can improve their reading skills at an accelerated rate.
When you combine that with the obvious benefits of reading – improved cognitive abilities, a heightened sense of empathy, lowered heart rates, and an overall happier life – it’s no wonder that we want to promote literary events and education among children. A little extra support here and there can take their love of reading to a whole new level. Your donation would be ensuring that we can continue to promote these literature programmes to even more children.
Helping your community
While Storyfest primarily focuses on children’s literacy, we believe that storytelling is for the whole family. Which is why we have many important events both for the young, and the young-at-heart. Our Long Table events, Business Lunches, various partnerships and other corporate series all contribute to a strong Storyfest community in the wider sector.
These events enable us to connect with like-minded entities, and by participating in our Giving Day, your contribution will go towards ensuring that these occasions live on as part of the Gold Coast’s rich culture.
Where will your money go?
We have an ambitious 3-year plan for 2022 to 2024 that includes, but is not limited to:
- Exposing more children – especially children from regional and remote areas – to the magic of stories and reading.
- Expanding our First Nations programming opportunities.
- Finding new ways to tell stories, capture audiences and immerse young people in the magic of storytelling.
- Celebrating young voices by offering opportunities to publish young writers' work.
- Opening the programming up to a wider community audience and making the festival more accessible.
With your help, we can deliver on all of the above and more – so what are you waiting for?
Join us for our inaugural Giving Day on the Wednesday 1 June, and spread the word within your networks!
