PwYF 2023/24 Campaign Wrap
When we launched the 2023-24 Play with Your Food Campaign in May 2023, we thought we were ambitious, setting our fundraising target at $40,000. I mean, we had just come off a stellar 2022 year where we targeted $15,000 and ended up raising a little more than $45,000 – so $40,000 seemed like a stretch for a follow-up year!
As of April 30, 2024 (the end of the 2023-24 campaign), we’ve officially raised $70,004 all of which has been donated to Carmichael Outreach. Matt & I are so humbled and thrilled, and maybe a little flabbergasted, at this amount of money. Seriously, $70,000?!? This money can do so much for the community and we raised it by having fun and playing games.
It is humbling and completely wonderful to be surrounded by a community of like-minded people who have either joined in on the fun, participated as a team to raise the funds, sponsored our events with prizes, in-kind donations, cash to help us operate, or volunteered on the planning team to ensure PwYF was successful. We are very grateful for this support and all the hard work that has gone into the campaign this year.
Looking back at the last 10 months, it’s no surprise that we found this kind of success! We had more participants and teams than previous years, there were more events hosted by teams than previous years, and our annual Facebook auction alone raised $12,000, more than double what it did last year. This means we generated more fun than ever before and we have no intention of slowing down, not that the community would allow us to! Our grassroots weekly event, ChewsDay Challenge at Boston Pizza on North Albert, has also grown considerably this year too, reaching an average of 40+ people coming out to play games each week.
Community is everything to PwYF. This campaign is dedicated to bringing the love of gaming to the community. PwYF was approached by many community organizations asking us to join in their efforts of bringing board games to their community groups. While we weren’t able to bring any of this to fruition this year, you can bet that, as we begin planning next year’s campaign, this is a high priority on our list. We’ve already begun assembling an expanded volunteer team to help us address the demand for more PwYF Community events.
Matt & I have made it no secret that our goal is to have PwYF raise more than $100,000 per campaign. We thought this goal could be accomplished in five years. As demonstrated, it’s pretty clear that we don’t know how to set fundraising targets because our goals seem like peanuts to what the community is capable of – and it seems like we are just getting started! The power of play and the strength of our gaming community is unmatched – and the PwYF team has so much more in store!
To our PwYF team members – we hope you’ll stick with us! To anyone sitting on the fence as to whether you should join PwYF or not – just do it, you won’t regret it! To our sponsors – thank goodness for your generosity and time to help us raise money for the community in need. To our friends and family – even if you don’t love board games, thanks for supporting us, and in that, you also make a difference in the community.
Chelsea & Matt
PwYF Co-Chairs
