Since RAG was re-launched in 2008, it has more than doubled the amount it gives to charity (from £26,000 in year one to nearly £70,000 last year). This term alone RAG has raised £29,000 after costs. On top of this total, RAG has sold over 600 tickets to RAG’s Enchanted Ball in 7th Week, having to release 100 extra tickets, which have now all sold out! Gerald Bates, ex-Karni President at Nottingham University (the Nottingham equivalent of RAG), commented that “generating £70,000 within their first two years is an outstanding achievement” and that the RAG executive in Oxford was doing “an amazing job”.
Ten years ago, thirty years after it was set up, Karni was where Oxford RAG is now, raising £70,000 per annum. It has now successfully created the sort of vibrant culture where charity features in every single student’s everyday life and is now raising over £1 million per annum. Karni has 40 years worth of infrastructure and experience to work with, and it is these institutions that Oxford RAG should work on building now. We should use this as an inspiration, not as a benchmark from which to criticize the progress we’ve made. Oxford has so much potential to give even more to charity and RAG constantly works hard to enhance such a culture.
We should also remember that Oxford is a very different place to universities such as Nottingham and Loughborough. Working with very different time constraints, due to our term length and academic demands, presents challenges for Oxford RAG that are not faced by other RAGs. Unlike many RAGs, including Loughborough and Cambridge, RAG is run entirely by students – the role of VP C+C, who spends just 10% of his time on RAG-related things, is to only oversee RAG. As Oxford RAG continues to grow, the case for a RAG sabbatical officer who would work full time, strengthens.
Furthermore, Oxford’s infrastructure, where strong JCRs overshadow a relatively weaker Student Union, represents a challenge universities such as Loughborough don’t have to deal with, with their vibrant, central and prominent SU. But this is something that we can use to our advantage. By creating stronger links with JCRs, and creating an environment where RAG is very much part of every College’s daily life, RAG will continue to grow – and this is something we are already working hard on.
RAG is also working hard to create more clarity in what it does and how it does it. Our new website, which will launch in the New Year, will allow us to publish exactly how much money we make through our events and where that money goes. RAG’s university wide events predominantly raise money for the four charities that are elected by students each year (currently these are Shelter, Helen and Douglas House, Pathways Workshop and Emerge Global). The money RAG raises really does make a difference to these charities. Alia Whitney-Johnson, founder of Emerge Global, and an Oxford student, thanked RAG for everything they had done so far and commented that the money given at the end of last term had made a “HUGE difference”. Our street collections have raised money for numerous charities over the last year including Everyman, Link Ethiopia, Whizz Kids and the British Legion.
The money raised in colleges predominantly goes towards charities elected by that college. RAG also provides invaluable support, resources and advice to students behind-the-scenes, enabling charity reps and other student fundraising groups to share their experience in a weekly forum. Recently, RAG helped a current student organize a paintballing challenge, raised money for VSO and advertised the UNICEF Comedy Night.
Perhaps most importantly RAG is the chance to do something completely different with your University experience. It fosters an environment that encourages giving and volunteering, an environment that you can’t put a price on. It is there to provide fun ways for people to give money to a good cause, partly by encouraging students who might not otherwise engage with charity. As one ex-RAG President once commented “it is the gift that keeps on giving”.
So why not get involved in RAG? Let us know what fundraising you’re doing and how you would like us to help; see if you can create a strong charity culture in your College; or just come and have a good time at one of RAG’s events. With such support RAG will only continue to go from strength to strength and who knows, 10 years down the line, we could be raising in excess of £1 million too.
If you’re interested in finding out more about RAG and what it does pop along to its weekly meetings in OUSU at 5pm on Mondays, email Fluff, RAG President,[email protected] or join our mail list and check out our website by going to www.oxfordrag.co.uk.
