Announcing the 2014 JustGiving Asia Pacific Award Winners

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This year we held the inaugural 2014 Asia Pacific (APAC) JustGiving Awards, which recognises  and celebrates the phenomenal achievements of fundraisers, charities and corporates taking place in the past 12 months in the Asia Pacific region.

Voting for the 2014 JustGiving APAC Awards was hosted on our JustGiving Facebook page, where members of the public were able to vote for their favourite charity, corporate and fundraiser – putting the destiny of award finalists in the hands of the public.

Announcing the winners

Australian Charity of the Year: ChildFund Australia

The winners of the 2014 Australian Charity of the Year award are ChildFund Australia. This award recognises the charity’s significant work in partnering with local communities to improve the lives of millions of children and their families in developing countries.

ChildFund Australia

Hong Kong Charity of the Year: Summerbridge

The winners of the 2014 Hong Kong Charity of the Year award are Summerbridge. They help improve the education of underprivileged students from low income families in Hong Kong by providing tuition-free quality English language and personal development opportunities.

Summerbridge

Australian Fundraiser of the Year: Nicole Sharrin

Perth fundraiser Nicole Sharrin, who shaved her head to raise vital funds for Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) is our The Australian Fundraiser of the Year. Nicole raised in excess of $13,000 for ACRF –  a fantastic achievement.

Nicole Sharrin

Hong Kong Fundraiser of the Year: Simon Holiday

Our Hong Kong Fundraiser of the Year is Simon Holiday. In a project to raise funds for environmental group Ocean Recovery Alliance, Simon took on the challenge to swim from Hong Kong to Macau in March this year. In the end he took 10 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds to complete the journey across the Pearl River Delta Crossing, beating the previous swim record by more than 10 minutes. During the course Simon passed large container ships, overcame strong currents, and swam alongside some 30 pink dolphins for an hour. Simon raised HK$230,000 for Ocean Recovery Alliance, exceeding his target by 15%.

Simon Holiday

Australian Company Fundraiser of the Year: PHD

This award highlights the agency’s creative fundraising initiative to raise much-needed funds for the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC).

PHD was recognised for its participation in the Paralympic Challenge, a staff-fundraising activity that saw the agency divided into teams to compete in paralympic sport challenges such as wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball. Coupled with the support of event sponsors, PHD Media managed to raise a grand total of $12,000 for the APC.

PHD Media

Hong Kong Company Fundraiser of the Year: IP Global

The Hong Kong Company Fundraiser of the Year is IP Global. Through JustGiving, IP Global has raised over HK$370,000 for international charity ShelterBox  – a charity that provides emergency shelter and vital supplies to support communities around the world that are overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis.

IP Global

Special Tech4Good Award: Hearts4Heart

The Special Tech4Good award goes to Hearts4heart for their Million Beats App that they built using the JustGiving data APIs.

Hearts4Heart CEO Tanya Hall explains: “We wanted to make Million Beats 2014 even bigger and better than last year. We wanted the campaign to go national and make it really easy for anyone to get involved. So we came up with the idea of creating a mobile app to make it easy for people to raise money for this fantastic cause, at the same time as introducing an element of fun and playful competition into their training!

We encouraged people to sign up as either an individual or as part of a team or group. They then had to pledge to raise one million heartbeats over four weeks through a chosen sporting or exercise activity of their choice, like walking, running or dancing.

The app tracked their exercise time and intensity and each heartbeat raised through the activity was sponsored at one cent per beat.”

hearts4heart has created an app to be used in conjunction with their Million Beats Challenge

 

The results of the public vote are a testament to the inspirational work that our charities, fundraisers and companies have carried out in 2014 across the Asia Pacific region and we look forward to celebrating even more success stories in 2015.

 

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Nikki Kinloch is the Country Director for Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, bringing JustGiving to the Asia Pacific region. She's passionate about making fundraising easier for communities and companies by combining the power of social media and technology to allow for anyone to become a powerful advocate for the causes they care about.