Article by Business Franchise Magazine – March 2023
NightOwl customers have turned small change into a large difference for sick and injured kids raising $36,826 for the Children’s Hospital Foundation as part of their inaugural OwlGood fundraising campaign.
Swooping across NightOwl’s 80 stores in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, the funds raised from this first of its kind partnership will help the Children’s Hospital Foundation support kids like six year-old Patrick Fleming, who was born with multiple joint deformities.
Since he was six months old, Patrick has travelled to Brisbane every three months for torso plaster castings and surgical procedures, with his family temporarily relocating to Brisbane from their home in the Northern Territory in January 2021 to enable Patrick to undergo further spinal procedures.
Being so far from home for such significant periods of time presented a plethora of challenges, however the family, who now reside on the Sunshine Coast, leant on the Children’s Hospital Foundation for support.
NightOwl Convenience National Marketing Manager, Glenys Tristram thanks NightOwl’s community for digging deep for sick kids like Patrick and the Children’s Hospital Foundation across the inaugural fundraising campaign.
“We need to highlight the stores that put in the extra effort to bring about this incredible result.” NightOwl Belgian Gardens in Townsville was our top store for donations. What is particularly interesting about that is they were going through a major renovation at the time.
The store was essentially a construction zone for weeks, yet due to the dedication of the team at this special convenience and petrol site, they alone raised over $6,000. When it comes to championing a cause like this, it is important to ask all customers if they would like to donate, and this store most definitely asked everyone.”
“The learning from this was that there is no predicting which stores would do very well asking customers to donate, and which wouldn’t. Stores that I would previously say from experience of customer engagement with competitions wouldn’t do too well, indeed surprised us, and geography didn’t appear to be a factor either. Within the top ten stores for donations we have stores from Townsville, Bundaberg, Brisbane and all the way over in Western Australia.”
“As an organisation, we are extremely passionate about supporting and adding value to the communities we live in and serve,” Ms Tristram said. “We are so thankful to each and every customer who donated across the last few months and allowed us to live up to this value – we look forward to continuing to build the legacy of OwlGood well into the future.”
From concept to completion, I must say a huge ‘thank you’ to the partnership team at the Children’s Hospital Foundation. They were there every time we had questions, and they were able to provide content and details that made sharing this new initiative with our network of stores, a fun and connecting experience. Change on this scale can be difficult and as a business wanting to bring ourselves into alignment with the expectations of customers today, this extra assistance was very helpful.
The partnership came about, as many things do, from my own network. The current head of Philanthropy at the CHF is a personal friend of mine. Nadine Moore and I met while we were both completing our Masters of Business (Marketing) at QUT during 2018. She has the same drive to excel in her pursuits as I do in mine, and when group work was required, we enjoyed the challenge of them most when working together. So naturally, when NightOwl was ready to begin a program centred around doing good for our community, she was the first person I called. She introduced me to Leigh Bartlett who is the Head of Partnerships and his enthusiasm for a connection with our brand was so overwhelmingly positive that there was no question of the partnership not being a perfect fit.
NightOwl Convenience is a joyful, youthful brand with values such as bring the fun, respect for all, and community-minded. Leigh and I both saw the perfect partnership fit as the Foundation holds the same values and certainly, bringing the fun to sick and injured children, is what the Foundation was built to do.
Children’s Hospital Foundation CEO, Lyndsey Rice said the funds raised by NightOwl will help the not-forprofit continue to change the lives of sick kids in hospital.
“Each breakthrough in research, investment into new equipment or day brightened by our patient and family support team – that is because of the support of our partners like NightOwl who allow us to continue to help sick and injured kids get better,” Ms Rice said.
“We are thrilled to receive this generous donation from the NightOwl community and know the funds will make a huge difference for sick kids like Patrick both today and into the future.”
NightOwl’s partnership with the Children’s Hospital Foundation was a first for the retail chain, and will help the Foundation support sick and injured kids through funding life-saving medical research, investing in vital new equipment and providing support and entertainment for children and their families.
For more information on OwlGood, head to www.nightowl.com.au/owlgood or #NightOwlConveinence #OwlGood on social media.
