Foundation's first Takeover Day raises almost £5,000

Northampton Saints’ game against London Irish on Friday 16 April not only ended with a superb win for the team, but also saw the Club’s Foundation take centre stage for its first annual Takeover Day. 

The purpose of the Takeover Day was to raise awareness for the Foundation and recuperate some of the lost fundraising income which had been severely impacted by ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, with just under £5,000 in total being raised during the event! 

• £1,885.50 was raised from the auction of the playing squad’s matchday warm-up t-shirts 
• £1,690.00 was raised from the auction of items donated by Saints players
• £185 was raised from our raffle to win a rugby ball 
• £109 came from Facebook donations 
• Three new supporters pledged to donate monthly as a Friend of the Foundation 
• £1013.95 came from direct donations through Virgin Money Giving

Sharing information about our important work and programmes was an extremely important part of our plan for the week, so our marketing team shared a number of key statistics about our work and case studies from our students. We were privileged to have the support of Tom Wood, Lewis Ludlum and Dan Biggar, who all filmed promotional videos on our behalf.

We were also delighted that a number of the players donated items for us to auction, as well as the whole 23 man squad warming up in Foundation t-shirts, which were later signed by the players and also auctioned to raise much-needed funds. 

To help with publicity, matchday stewards wore red Foundation hats, coaches wore branded face masks, and our logo took pride of place on all matchday graphics.

We would like to thank everyone involved for their support; including Mathew Stewart from Workwear Northampton, Claire Jones from Red Hat Photography, Jack Miller, Tom Kwah, Liz Tyler, and Roberto Payne from Northampton Saints’ Marketing and Comms team, James Fitchew, Andy Tresias and Kristy Coates for keeping everything in line with health and safety, team manager Maurice Hartery, kit manager Kevin Buckby, plus all the Saints players, coaches and stewards. 

Your continued support is vital to ensure we make a difference and so we can continue to Inspire, Support and Educate young people and their communities. Planning for 2022 has already begun and we look forward to seeing the return of fans to Franklin’s Gardens.