When Simon Greenfield became a business ambassador for Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice, little did he know that he would have to brush up on his raffle skills, walk hundreds of thousands of steps, and even take a visit to the House of Lords. Here, the managing director of creative communications agency, Colour Cubed, gives us an intriguing insight into his ambassador role…
So, why did I become a business ambassador?
To begin with, it wasn’t because I felt an urgent need to get involved with charity work. In fact, it was quite the opposite! I had never been busier in my job as managing director at Colour Cubed but as the Hospice had become a good client over the years – and I started to understand more about the vital work they do – I decided that I wanted to give something back. Little did I know what was in store for me…
How about that never-ending raffle?
It’s day one of being an ambassador so what’s the first thing I do? I decide to host a quiz! I like quizzes and thought it would be reasonably straight forward to hold one. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to get all our clients together, whilst raising the profile of the Hospice and much-needed funds.
I knew that the first thing I had to do was find a prestigious, local venue to host it. As the new Library of Birmingham had just opened – and as they were one of my clients – I decided to ask them. So, there I was, in the manager’s office of the biggest library to be opened in the UK for decades asking if I could hire her library for the night. And for free. After a lot of persuasion and reminding that the event was for a fantastic cause, I ended up hiring it out for forty quid, which was to cover the cost of security. I was thrilled!
The night was a brilliant success. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and we raised thousands of pounds for the Hospice. The only slight hiccup was the extremely long raffle. My co-director at the time, James, had done a magnificent job of selling raffle tickets but then spent an hour putting all the tickets from the book into a bucket. But when I say all the tickets, I mean all of them – even the ones that hadn’t been sold. Thankfully, we still managed to announce all the winners on the night and get their prizes to them.
