Partnership Report: 2015 Tour de Chance

With special thanks to our Gold Partner, Just Better Care

Partnership Review
On Sunday 8 March, after a 1,100km journey from Brisbane to Sydney across 9 gruelling days, 22
amazing Tour de Chance cyclists and their support crew rode into Clontarf Reserve in Sydney where
they were greeted by family members and friends, two government ministers, representatives from
key corporate partners and Fighting Chance staff and interns.
In the three years since Tim Powell first proposed undertaking a solo Tour ride from Sydney to the
Gold Coast, the Tour de Chance hos grown into an event well beyond our wildest dreams.
The 2015 Tour was an incredible journey and achievement for our riders and organisation an achievement that would not have been possible without the support of our corporate partners,
especially Gold Partner Just Better Care.
This booklet highlights the achievements of this years Tour, including details of its triumphant
fundraising success, media coverage and community and online engagement.
The generosity and commitment of our corporate partners were central to the success of the 2015
Tour de Chance, and all who benefit from the work of Fighting Chance are eternally grateful for your
support.

Jordan OReilly
Chief Operations Officer
Fighting Chance Australia

What we set out to achieve

Following the success of the 2014 Tour de Chance in raising $350,000, we wanted to go one step
further in 2015, setting ourselves the ambitious target of $400,000.
Reaching this fundraising goal would allow Fighting Chance to establish two new Work Hubs during
2015/16, invest in our two social enterprise businesses that generate work, triple the vocational
opportunities on offer, and take our first steps toward national expansion through innovative
partnerships and collaboration.
In addition to our ambitious fundraising goal, Fighting Chance set out to use the Tour de Chance to:
Build awareness of the major issues facing Australians with disabilities and their families, including
endemic unemployment and social isolation
Develop new support networks, industry specific partnerships and corporate relationships that will
lay the foundation for Fighting Chances national expansion over coming years
Continue to raise the public profile of Fighting Chance and boost community awareness about the
opportunities the Tour makes possible.

1. Fundraising
We are thrilled to report that the 2015 Tour de Chance was a massive fundraising success,
exceeding all hopes and expectations. Overall, more than $450,000 was raised to support Fighting
Chances expansion and development goals.This money will allow Fighting Chance to:
Triple the number of employment, skill development and social participation opportunities we
provide to young adults with a disability, from 40 to 120 across multiple sites
Invest significantly in our two social enterprise businesses, Avenue and Jigsaw, which create jobs
for people with a range of significant disabilities
Invest in the key infrastructure and human capital required as we build our organisation for national
expansion
In just three years, the annual Tour de Chance event has raised over $850,000 in total to support
Fighting Chances innovative work. This is life-changing money for the people with disabilities and
their families who we can now support, and all due to the determination and selflessness of our
riders, their families, their friends and other networks, and the great generosity of our corporate
partners.
The 2013 and 2014 Tours helped to secure Fighting Chances future. The 2015 ride will enable
Fighting Chance to expand and develop beyond our initial Northern Sydney base, beginning the
process of taking our innovative ideas and pioneering disability employment programs to other parts
of Australia where tens of thousands of people with significant disabilities and their families are
crying out for meaningful and fulfilling employment opportunities and greater social inclusion.

2. Media coverage
In an extremely competitive environment for media coverage of charity events, the Tour de Chance
continued its impressive record this year, receiving significant exposure via national, state, regional
and local media outlets.
Television
3/3/2015

Channel Nine NBN Network: Northern NSW (approximate viewers 80,000)

Radio
4/12/2014

17/1/2015
1/2/2015
26/2/2015

27/2/2015

27/2/2015

10/3/2015

ABC Mid North Coast, Mornings with Michael Spooner, interview with Jo Berry
(approximate listenership 50,000)
2GB, Evenings with Susie Elelman, interview with Jordan OReilly
2GB, Evenings with Susie Elelman, interview with Jordan OReilly
ABC Radio National, Breakfast with Fran Kelly, interview with Jordan OReilly
(approximate national listenership 390,000)
2GB, Breakfast with Alan Jones, interview with Jordan OReilly (approximate
listenership: 450,000)
ABC 702, Afternoons with James Valentine, interview with Tim Powell
(approximate listenership 344,000)
2GB, Breakfast with Alan Jones, interview with Jordan OReilly
(approximate listenership: 450,000)

Print
2/3/2015
9/3/2015
11/3/2015
20/3/2015

Port Macquarie News (approximate circulation 16,900)

Manly Daily (approximate circulation 108,000)
Camden Haven Courier (approximate circulation of 12,500)
Ballina Shire Advocate (approximate circulation of 22,000)
Print figures do not include online readers.

Total campaign reach: estimated more than 1.7 million people.

3. Online engagement
For the 2015 Tour, in addition to the extensive content produced and shared by the Tour de Chance
team, we partnered with the innovative digital and creatvie company, Agency, to build a fundraising
platform that maximised user engagement, allowing individual riders to generate significant
personal content to engage their own networks.
Alongside the dedicated Tour de Chance website, our social media networks were utilised
extensively to engage our existing and emerging digital networks. We produced content across
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and saw good engagement across all four platforms.
Facebook
Total post reach: 59,502
Highest single post reach: 3,656
Twitter
Total tweets during campaign: 105
Total reach: 17,039
Highest single tweet reach: 1,075
Instagram
After launching Instagram for the Tour we posted 50 photos and gained 36 followers.
YouTube
12 Tour videos were produced, with 836 unique views.
Sponsors were regularly thanked and tagged across all four social channels.
Tour website
The Tour website opened to take donations in late 2014, and in this time recorded:
10,643 visits
5,132 unique users
26,885 separate page views
The site featured sponsors prominently, both with logo and links to organisation websites.

Thank you!
Fighting Chance wishes to express its heartfelt thanks to the many individuals and organisations
who made the 2015 Tour de Chance such a resounding success.
Our amazing Tour riders:
Parshu Chenji, Michael Johnston, Richard OLoughlin, Jeremy Powell, Brett Wilson,
Fergus Nelson, Damian Chapelle, Gavin Lister, Peter Ebborn, Stephen Cake, Jack McCartney,
Peter Banks, Graeme Wilson, Tim Smealie, Damian Roche, Greg Rector, Tim Powell, Dan Powell,
Emilio Gonzalez, Glenn Dobson, Paul Brown and Graeme Bricknell.
Our event Gold Partner:
Just Better Care
Our corporate partners:
Accident and Health International, Willis, Veloton, Airservices, Aerosure, Byron Bay Coffee Company, Smartsalary, QBE, Hantomeli Foundation, BTAS, Mitsubishi Motors, Carmans and Deloitte.
Our website and creatvie partner:
Agency.sc
Our Tour support crew:
Simon Noakes, Neville Hedge, David Creecy, Franco Ivancich, Charles Kilby, Sean Ross and
Jordan OReilly.

Ph: 02 9905 0415

W: www.fightingchance.org.au
E: sean@fightingchance.org.au