Time to Get in Gear for Better Together 2012!

Submitted by paulmeade on 15 August 2012 - 4:23pm

The Wheel is pleased to announce that the 2012 Better Together Video Competition and Ireland’s Charity Hero Award will both be opening for submissions at 9am on Thursday, 13 September.

This is your chance to elevate your organisation’s public profile, attract new supporters, raise funds and win cash prizes to boot!

But you have to start preparing your entries now…

Please read on for full details (including a Giving Challenge update and Key Dates).

Video Competition: WIN €3,000 and Raise Your Profile!

Community and voluntary groups, clubs and associations are invited to submit your short video clips to www.bettertogether.ie from 13 September. Your video should aim to tell us a story about:

what your organisation does,
why it matters, and
why you think we are “better together”.

It can be a new or existing video clip, but it must be no longer than two minutes. (Yes, we have decided to cut the maximum video length from three to two minutes for 2012 - giving you 120 seconds max to impress Ireland!)

In late September / early October (exact date TBC), we'll be holding a public campaign launch, at which point we will also be inviting the public to start voting for all their favourite videos. The top 30 videos will be shortlisted in three organisational categories (big, medium and small/voluntary) and the winners in each category will receive a €3,000 cash prize!

In addition to the €3,000 prize in each category, you can also use the handy built-in donation function to raise funds. So whatever your weight division, there is no reason that your organisation can't do a Katie Taylor and win gold for your good cause too!

Get Inspired Now

Not sure where to begin? Get your movie-making mojo on the flo-jo right now by browsing through the 2011 Better Together Video Competition shortlist. Or, have a read through our updated Lights, Camera, Action! guide to making an online video.

Ireland’s Charity Hero Award (€1,000 prize)

The 2012 Better Together Ireland’s Charity Hero Award celebrates the great and selfless work being done by countless volunteers for good causes up and down the country. And let’s face it - has the need for these local heroes ever been greater?

So, we're asking you to identify the heroes in your area and then nominate them for Ireland’s Charity Hero Award. As already mentioned, the nomination process opens bright and early on 13 September and you can nominate as many heroes as you like.

Ireland’s Charity Hero will win €1,000 cash to donate to their favourite cause.

A Note about the Giving Challenge

Due to the unprecedented success of the 2011 Better Together Giving Challenge (which raised a heap of cash for good causes) we have decided to give it its very own spot in the limelight. Thus, the Better Together Giving Challenge will now run in the spring of 2013 as a standalone competition.

We will keep everyone informed about the specific dates and details as the date grows nearer. The good news is that any organisation that enters the 2012 Better Together Video Competition can automatically sign up for the forthcoming Giving Challenge too!