The City Of Sydney has been looking for new charity partners as part of an Expression Of Interest (EOI) process for the next edition of Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE), Sydney Lunar Festival & Sydney Christmas with the option of the following edition after that too.
Charity partners use the respective events to promote and raise funds for their cause including through the event’s media & marketing campaigns. For Sydney Lunar Festival, they will also get speech & networking opportunities while for Sydney Christmas, they will get a merchandise stall.
The EOI revealed Sydney Christmas this year will have at their concerts interactive paid activations.
Aside from charities applying, throughout the EOI process, the City Of Sydney may also approach potential candidates.
The EOI process opened in late April & closed in early May. An evaluation panel will review applications with the successful charities:
- being an official registered charity or public benevolent institution,
- not being associated with religion,
- undertaking work which produces significant community benefits,
- aligned with the City of Sydney’s values,
- values’ being important for the respective event &,
- holding reasonably required insurances.
- demonstrated previous experience in successful online fundraising (does not apply to Sydney Christmas)
- providing & managing a minimum of 2 employees or volunteers to operate an interactive paid activation at each concert (Sydney Christmas only)
A recommendation will be sent to Council & once Council approves the recommendation, which should be by September 2023, the City Of Sydney will prepare letters of agreement.
For the 1st time, charity partners are not promised exclusivity with the City Of Sydney stating that in the event of a humanitarian crisis they “may also support an additional specified charity”. This follows the Red Cross becoming a last-minute co-charity partner for NYE2019 during the devastating Black Summer bushfires. In conjunction with the City Of Sydney, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) turned their Sydney NYE concert into a charity concert for the Red Cross to help bushfire victims. It ended up raising around $26 million (that’s about 90c per Australian) including $13 million from NYE alone. The original charity partner for NYE2019 was the Refugee Council Of Australia.
The ABC unilaterally (that is, not in conjunction with the City Of Sydney) tried to repeat the success of the NYE2019 charity concert for NYE2020 by replacing the Red Cross with Lifeline & Kids Helpline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it was not as great a success as NYE2019 despite the massive effects of the pandemic on mental health though it did raise about $700,000 on NYE alone (that’s about 5 cents per Australian).
Also interesting, the City Of Sydney specifically mentioned for the EOi that they reserve the right to not choose a charity partner, which is a very rare thing to do, and also to not hold the events, which is understandable, as we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, it is good to see the City Of Sydney being proactive rather than reactive after the massive pressure they faced in the lead-up to NYE2019.
Sydney Spectaculars 