Why does the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School get donations from a cleaning business?

I’ve always thought of myself as a reasonable sort of bloke and one thing I’ve admired among some very successful business owners is how they spread the love around.

We have all heard about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their plan to eradicate malaria (among a pile of other goals and targets).  This is all good, but my programming career finished in Year11.  The closest I’ve ever gotten since is fudging around with WordPress, so I’m not going to rake in billions selling software.

But the simple idea of giving has been with me since before I started my self employment journey.  One of those things was giving my children the opportunity for a safe and comfortable future, but there was a slightly bigger itch to scratch.

When I first started working for myself, I was keeping my head down, hoping I wouldn’t be asked for a donation because I really couldn’t afford them.  But as time went on and there was a little more cash around, I decided to do something formal.

Part of this motivation to do something was the regular podcasts from Kerwin Rae and Tim Reid.  They regularly speak to people that “give back” and I’m sure it was a Tim Reid podcast where I heard the phrase:

The best thing about having money is giving it away.

The other part of my reasoning was the ongoing cold calls from all sorts of organisations, all of which I had no connection with.

But there was one organisation that didn’t call me, I had a strong bond with and they were local.

My daughter attended the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School right through her secondary school years.  She first started at the Sunbury Campus and then onto the Bullengarook Campus, occasionally referred to as the Bullengarook Secondary Campus.  Going to school was her thing.  She never complained about the bus trip and was always dressed and ready (well, most of the time).

By the way, It’s not the Sunbury Special School.  As Amy has pointed out to me (more than once), “Dad, its the Specialist School!”.  Both Special and Specialist Schools exist, but SMRSS is a Specialist School.  

She honestly enjoyed her time and she did a few things that I wouldn’t have expected, like her debut (the only one in the house that has), a couple of biking camps, and a school trip to the Gold Coast.

So, here was a local community-based organisation that I knew would value anything that I could muster.  So my New Year’s Resolution for 2019 was to start.  Business was good enough to fund a decent amount.  January 2019 I started a weekly donation program.

My process was simple.  I would add up the cash that was deposited in my account during the prior week and donate a percentage.  As you can see from the graph, there are some bumps and jumps.  Those variations go up and down with my cashflow.

Then, on the 18th of December 2019, I went along to the school’s Christmas breakup.  It was a scorching 40 degrees and the hall they were packed in was a hotbox.  But, despite everybody wanting to go home, I did receive a warm (pardon the pun) round of applause when the big cheque was unveiled.

Some eagle-eyed readers may be able to see a couple of flat spots in the graph around July-August.

This is when I direct the fundraising of my business to my own efforts in the Melbourne Fire Fighters Stair Climb