Telcos Band Together for Melbourne Marathon Fundraiser

Melbourne – Tuesday October 15th, 2012; Telco Together members hit the streets of Melbourne for the 2012 Medibank Melbourne Marathon Festival on Sunday 14^th October, and raised over $25,000 in a united effort to support disadvantaged communities.

This significant fundraising initiative resulted in the Telco Together team becoming the ‘Top Fundraising Team’ for the entire event, a remarkable achievement for what was the first ever member fundraising activity for the Foundation, recently launched in July 2012.

The team, (comprising 28 telecommunications employees and stakeholders), included runners and walkers spread across every event category in the Melbourne Marathon Festival, (including the full marathon).

Renee Bowker, CEO of the Telco Together Foundation was thrilled with the team’s fundraising achievement.

“ This fundraising initiative was a phenomenal success, and proved to be a healthy indicator for the potential of the telco industry to band together to give back and expand charitable giving in Australia,” she said.

All funds raised will go towards programs that support Indigenous communities, the homeless, mental health and refugees, through the Foundation’s partner charities.

Over the coming weeks, the Foundation will announce its partner charities, and a new resource network, that will provide numerous charitable organisations with access to telecommunications resources and expertise.

Launched in July 2012, the Telco Together Foundation is a telecommunications industry initiative supporting disadvantaged communities through fundraising, volunteering and promoting the use of technology to create solutions to social problems.

Members of the Foundation include Optus, Vodafone, NBN Co, Dodo, M2, AAPT, Community Telco, Eftel, Telcoinabox, Vocus Communications, Smart Business Telco and Globe Telecom. 

About Telco Together Foundation
The Telco Together Foundation is a registered charity that brings together the telecommunications industry in support of disadvantaged communities.

As an industry with annual revenues of $40 billion and over 25 million bills being distributed monthly, telcos are in a unique position of having direct communication with almost every business and consumer in Australia every month. By taking advantage of these characteristics, as well as the 70,000+ staff employed by the industry, we have the opportunity to create a massive vehicle for social change.

For more information, please visit our website www.telcotogether.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter