FAQs

Simply, it is a Fun Run held at your home. Use your backyard, inside your house, or both. Create an awesome obstacle course with your kids and have fun running it. Don’t worry, we’ll help out with some ideas, but you can do ANYTHING you want to… just make it SAFE & FUN.

Aside from being an awesome day for your household, this also helps families in need! With the pending digital revolution and possible economic down-turn post COVID-19, more families than ever need this support to connect with technology and this campaign will empower The Smith Family to do two important things: 

1.     Make sure no Australian Child is left behind by connecting families below the poverty line to remote learning through The Smith Family’s Learning For Life Program. 

2.     Brighten Christmas for Australian Children by providing toys for The Smith Family’s Toy & Book Appeal.

Essentially, we’re asking you to have an amazing day, while helping other Australians in need!

1.     Go to athomefunrun.com.au and register your family now

2.     Share your fundraising link with your friends and family – everyone that donates over $2 will receive a tax-deductible receipt immediately!

3.     Create your @Home Fun Run course – We will provide ideas if you need them!

4.     Have a special day with your family on or around June 12. Enjoy the knowledge that thousands of other Australians will be doing the same!

1. All fundraising is completed online, so please DO NOT COLLECT CASH. Once you have created your page, the page URL in your address bar is your fundraising link. This link can be shared through: 

• Text message - which is the most effective
• Public Social Media Pages - which is the most common
• Group Chats (such as Zoom, Skype etc)
• Email

People will click the link you have shared and make a credit card donation online. You can share your link by clicking on the icons under the ‘Share Page’ heading, or by copying your URL in your address bar and sharing it to potential donors.

2.  Before sharing your page URL, consider donating to yourself. This has proven to raise you the most money as it encourages others to support your efforts!

3. Remember to thank your donors publicly, which will create more good will and encourage others to donate to you.

4. Before sharing your link for the first time, personalise a message to at least 5 people you think will donate. This could either be a call, a text message or an email. Getting these donations through early will encourage others to donate.

5. Share your link every two days

1.     70% of the Fundraising will be given to The Smith Family for their Learning for Life program

2.     30% to be donated in the form of toys to The Smith Family for their Christmas Toy and Book Appeal

We truly hope all families will make their goal $150 which will support the education of an Australian child for two months, while donating a STEAM Kitchen Experiments Kit to an Australian child at Christmas.

We do want to make it clear that all donations help immensely, so thank you for anything you can do. If $150 is either too high or too low for your family, here are some great other amounts you can raise:

• $892 can support the education of an Australian child for a full year, and also donate quality Christmas presents to The Smith Family Toy & Book Appeal!
• $75 will help a child who is struggling with reading, by pairing them with a reading buddy who gives advice and encouragement through the student2student program.
• $30 will provide a family with a reading resource pack to help develop a child’s literacy skills

On top of providing great learning resources, a Christmas present will be donated to an Australian child. Prizes will be based off how much money is raised:

Truly, you are only limited by your imagination. We encourage you to sit down with your family and come up with your ultimate course together, however if you do want some ideas, have a look here.

Register your family at www.athomefunrun.com.au and let’s help Australian families together!

Please either call 1800 FUN RUN (386 786) or email info@schoolfundraising.com.au

• Click here to like our Facebook page and be part of the Community Hub! Stay engaged with the @Home Fun Run, with information posted for you, while you will also be able to interact with other members of the @Home Fun Run community.
• You will be supported with emails, giving you hints and tips on how to organise your course and how to best share your fundraising link.
• We would love to see pictures and videos of your @Home Fun Run. You will be able to upload them to the Facebook page.
• All participants will run at their own risk, so please keep your course safe.

@Home Fun Run is a collaboration between School Fun Run, The Smith Family, 4040 Creative, Ruby Communications and Everydayhero. Each member has played an important part in bringing this collaboration together and we are all thankful to have created something special in this time of need!

The initiative has been created by School Fun Run, a long standing fundraising idea that helped Australian schools raise over $9,000,000 in 2019. Here is School Fun Run Director Brendan Hopp:

“We’ve seen the hardship Australians have endured during this trying time and it got me wondering, what could we do that would help those most in need?” Hopp said.

“After talking to The Smith Family, I was saddened to learn how significantly children experiencing poverty are affected by COVID-19 and how great is the need to support their education through remote learning opportunities. The funds raised from Home Fun Run will help children experiencing hardship overcome the obstacles of poverty during this global pandemic, and long after.”

“The Home Fun Run encourages families to get creative with a fun obstacle course in their backyard to raise some much-needed funds for The Smith Family, and promote some healthy activity while kids are at home.”

“We understand times are tough and not everyone is in a position to donate but we know that if those that can band together, we can achieve incredible outcomes and change the trajectory of lives,” he said. 

The Smith Family CEO Dr Lisa O’Brien adds:

“This initiative with Home Fun Run comes at a crucial time for the thousands of disadvantaged students The Smith Family supports.

“The funds raised by the Home Fun Run will go directly towards our Learning for Life program, which provides vital educational support for disadvantaged children. With education the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, we are delighted that four in five students participating in our program at the completion of high school, are working and/or studying 12 months after leaving. So we thank all those families who will get involved with Home Fun Run for their help enabling our life-changing work for the children we support.”

Fundraising will start May 12 and finish June 12

Hold your @Home Fun Run event between June 8 and June 12

Upload your event video to www.facebook.com/homefunrun straight after your @Home Fun Run so we can all share the joy. Remember to tag all your supporters and family too!

The Smith Family is the leading children’s education charity helping young Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed at school, so they can create better futures for themselves. 

 Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the 1.2 million young Australians already living in poverty* faced huge challenges with their learning. Now, with many of those children facing further disruption, those challenges have become even greater. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many schools have moved to remote teaching, and the impact on learning is significant. Children may not have the books, internet access and learning materials they need to keep up, or have anyone at home who can support them with remote learning. 

Without ongoing and targeted learning support, during this crisis and beyond, the poverty children face at home will prevent them from getting the most out of their education. This could have a devastating long-term impact on their lives. 

Our flagship Learning for Life program currently supports the education of more than 50,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This holistic program provides each child with vital educational support, including: 

1. Financial support for educational essentials, such as textbooks, stationery, digital equipment and internet access; 

2. Personal support from a dedicated coach at The Smith Family, who works closely with each family to support their children’s education, including through this crisis. 

3. Access to additional learning programs to relieve the pressure on family members to support their child’s learning and help deliver structure at home. 

 *ACOSS/UNSW Poverty Overview Report, 2020. 

Your donation will enable The Smith Family to: 

 Provide vital and extra educational support, delivered online in the home to help keep disadvantaged children connected to their learning and to ensure they don’t fall behind during this time. This includes additional literacy, numeracy and online mentoring programs, which support their learning at home. 

 Accelerate the digitisation of our programs that are well suited to remote learning. 

 Expand the delivery of our existing online learning and mentoring programs, such as our student2student reading program and iTrack mentoring program to reach more children in need. 

 Keep families connected to educational services and other supports available for parents and carers at this time. 

We also expect there will be more families pushed into extremely difficult financial situations because of this pandemic, and that many families will need our support for a long time to come. 2 

We don’t want to turn these children away, but we can’t provide this help without additional support. With your help, we can provide these children with our targeted support as well. 

The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating, especially on children and their families who are already experiencing poverty. 

23% of students on our Learning for Life program are without reliable access to computers, devices and internet at home. Additionally, many of our student’s families are unable to help their children with their schoolwork, due to low educational attainment themselves, a lack of technical skills or having English as a second language. 

Without the vital support The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program provides, children living in poverty are now at a higher risk than ever of falling behind. 

Let’s stand beside Australian children in this time of great need. 

$20 can provide a family with a reading resource pack, so parents can help their children develop literacy skills. 

$40 can provide a Let’s Count pack to help parents develop their child’s numeracy skills. 

$50 can help a child who is struggling with reading, by pairing them with a reading buddy who gives advice and encouragement through our student2student program. 

$104 is enough to support the education of a child in need for two months. 

$624 is enough to support the education of a child in need for 12 months. 

Young Australians in need through our Learning for Life program. 

The Smith Family was founded in 1922 by five businessman in Sydney who donated gifts to a local orphanage on Christmas Eve. 

Almost 100 years later, we revisit our heritage every year by delivering toys and books to children on our flagship Learning for Life program, who may otherwise go without a gift on Christmas morning, simply because their families can’t afford it. 

Supporting education involves more than just what happens in the classroom – it’s also about enabling positive experiences both in the home and in the wider community, to help young people feel included. This is why we distribute toys and books at Christmas time. 

Our Toy and Book Appeal helps to bring smiles to the faces of the children and families in Australia who need it most. This year, with your help, we are aiming to deliver new toys and books to over 30,000 children living in disadvantage in Australia.