How Zac (14) has helped Future Choices raise vital funds to support those with disabilities in his local community

Many of the cause stories that we tell focus on the wider work of the charity or cause and how they have been able to further their work through their fundraising efforts. This time however, Future Choices, a voluntary led charity supporting disabled people across Aberdeen, have shared their story of how a young volunteer has made such a positive impact on their fundraising and their service users. Here’s David, Chairman of Future Choices, to tell us more about the remarkable Zac.

Firstly, tell us all about the Future Choices charity

Future Choices is a local voluntary led charity in Aberdeen, founded in 2008. Our objectives and aims are to do all we can to break down the barriers of social isolation and to help improve the mental health and well being of disabled adults in the local area.

We provide a social setting every Tuesday for disabled adults to come together and have fun and have lunch, we provide support to carers in the area too. We also go on other social trips, like the local pantomime. We run 2 disabled friendly mini buses so we can transport our vulnerable members from their homes to our social gatherings and back home again.

What do you need funding for?

We as a charity rely heavily on the generosity of the public. We do everything we can to fundraise, to help fund trips the services we offer. The biggest expenses for us are our days out and the cost to keep our 2 buses on the road, along with volunteer recruitment.

Tell us all about Zac

Zac Mackenzie (14) is one of our remarkable young volunteers. As well as being passionate about the work that we do, he knows from supporting some of the activities we offer that we simply couldn’t provide our services without more funding. Inspired from seeing the impact that our service has on visitors, Zac has taken a real leading role on our fundraising. He’s a very mature young man and knows that our community is not in a position to always donate out of their own pocket frequently, especially with the cost of living currently.

Zac was really intrigued by easyfundraising. We signed up to raise with the platform back in 2012 but in that time we hadn’t really raised much from it, we hadn’t promoted it much. Zac has made it his mission to promote it more and make our community aware that they can support us without needing to ask them for money directly. They can instead collect donations for us as they shop.

How has Zac rallied support for easyfundraising and what has been the result?

As one of our younger volunteers, Zac knows the potential of social media and he’s taken some key steps to drive awareness of easyfundraising for our charity which include:

  • Setting up a dedicated Facebook page about supporting us simply by shopping online
  • Making use of all the pre-written social content that easyfundraising provide, along with creating his own promotional materials linking to our cause page. Even using QR codes on them so people can sign up straight away wherever they are!
  • He made his own promotional video to explain how it works
  • Seasonal messaging, especially at Christmas time

He’s developed a slogan on all his materials of ‘Pennies make pounds’ which is a great mantra for easyfundraising – the donations can seem small, but with more of us doing it, it really adds up! We have now amassed over £500 with just over 30 supporters, Zac’s impact has been fantastic.

How does the funding help?

The funds that have been raised go towards our general running costs, keeping the charity running to help us keep supporting our vulnerable members and their carers every week.

What would you like to say to Zac and those that support Future Choices?

For a teenager to give up his time to help support the most vulnerable in his community is hugely commendable. We can’t thank Zac enough for his efforts and we love having him as part of the team. We hope as many people as possible can support us in response to Zac’s efforts! To all who are behind us on easyfundraising, who I could even call Zac’s supporters, Thank you!

How you can support Future Choices

The way Zac has devoted his time to supporting a cause he cares about is incredibly inspiring. His creativity in promoted easyfundraising has really started to pay off. If you would like to support the excellent work of the charity, you can support them for free with every online shop – sign up to support them here.

Want more advice on how to promote your easyfundraising cause? Click here.

Want to register a new cause with easyfundraising? Click here.