A record number of 50 Business Leaders, from 40 organisations around Galway, braved the cold, wet weather for 12 hours on Friday night, for the annual COPE Galway Sleep Out. The leaders spent the night on Shop Street raising awareness and funds for COPE Galway’s vital homeless services and experiencing first-hand the difficult conditions that those without a home experience every night.
Speaking about her experience of the Sleep Out, Sinéad Carey, Head of Homeless Services at COPE Galway shared that ‘It’s an eye-opening experience to sleep out on Shop Street on a Winter’s night’ but ‘one that only gives a tiny glimpse into the realities of homelessness’.
iDonate were proud to support the COPE Galway Sleep Out this year, developing a unique, fully bespoke microsite for the event, which facilitated the entire donation process. The focus was to make the donation process as smooth and engaging as possible for supporters, through features like customised microsite fundraising pages synced to iDonate.ie and integrated donation forms featuring tangible, meaningful donor impact values.
Supporting the 50 participants with their fundraising journey was also a big priority for COPE Galway, so the site also featured a private hub where leaders could login to get info and resources and could contact the COPE Galway team directly.
The campaign was also the first to utilise SwiftDonate by iDonate, following the recent launch in November. All Business Leaders received contactless SwiftDonate enabled donation ID cards, making it easy & safe for them to accept cashless donations on the night.
As well as attracting a record number of participants this year, the COPE Galway Sleep Out has already smashed last year’s fundraising total, with the event raising an incredible €187,000 so far.
A huge congratulations to all the generous and selfless leaders who made this such a great event and to the fantastic team at COPE Galway for an amazing achievement. Thanks to their tireless efforts, the vital homeless services in Galway can continue to operate this year, serving those who are most vulnerable in our communities. For more details visit https://copegalwaysleepout.ie/
