Soccer for a Cause

Group 5: Nasser Al Alawi (group Project Manager) – Abdulla Rawanbakhsh – Ali Al Ansari – Manaf Al Musawi – Mariam Al Mannai – Noor Hilal

Brief description of the project:

“Soccer for a cause” revolves around the concept of a soccer tournament that brings people together to raise funds for charity or a good cause.  Our intended competition was to organize a 4 team – league format – event that would require us to register the teams by paying a small entry fee as a source of income to cover our initial costs. Proceeds from the event along with partial sales from various vendors would go towards our charity of choice. At the same time, we had initiated a Plan B to mitigate potential risks by putting in place a game day involving board games and mini events indoors at the same venue with a group of Orphans from one of the local orphanages.

Given the vast amount of sponsorships and donations as detailed below, and considering both plans were moving swiftly, we felt we did not require to rely on the team registration revenue stream and instead could now amalgamate both plans.

We decided to invite the orphans to form 4 teams and have an eventful soccer tournament which could now be catered for by the various sponsors, who were very responsive to providing the orphans with the opportunity for a fun day out. Based on this development we contacted the local orphanage and updated them on the development to which they gladly agreed. We therefore amended the event by bringing together our two plans. The event scope had now changed however we had the infrastructure in place to meet these proposed changes. Minor changes such as providing lunch for the children and organizing the teams were done without much hassle – which was evident by the fact that we had stayed within the time constraints we had initially put in place. We even managed to organize a mini shoot out after the tournament and award ceremony to give away some games we had intended for our plan B for all our goal scorers and even gave one lucky shooter our own Cohort 12.5 inspired game “Chicken Nuggets”.

 

Brief description of the charity

Dream society is a unique and active local society in Bahrain, their main goal is to bring joy to children who want to make their dreams come true. They focus on children with illness “not limited to the following” cancer, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. The second charity of choice who also agreed to be part of our fun event is Al Kawther Society for Social Care, their main focus is to empower and educate children who are orphans through specialized programs along with providing them with the required treatments.

 

Factual analysis of success in terms of project objectives

The main goal for our project was to raise funds for charity. Hence, one of our initial steps was to obtain sponsorship to try to cover some mismatches in the costs related to hosting of the event and were surprised by the overwhelming interest we garnered from various local sponsors. We had achieved almost 900% of our original budgeted estimations from sponsors totaling BD1,770/- (BD 1485.18 net of expenses) which alleviated any concerns in terms of our budgets and the focus then fell on ensuring the time and resources were in place to make the event successful. The below table illustrates the KPIs we set as success metrics:

Note: BHD 62.18 were donated to Dream Society in cash.

 

Two or three lessons learned about managing projects

  1. Projects can be completed successfully within any given timeframe if the targeted project outcomes are realistic and well planned for;
  2. Last minute changes can happen and we must find ways to incorporate the change, we should understand that last minute changes can sometimes lead to a better result; and
  3. Communication is a key factor in the success of projects, and by communication we mean the information exchange whether it is in face to face meetings or through a WhatsApp group, project teams should agree on a convenient way to communicate to ensure that all stakeholders are up to date with the progress of the project.

 

Advice for future teams doing similar projects

  1. Even the best plans can fail, hence contingency plans are a must, we strongly recommend having more than one contingency plan;
  2. Always think of the approvals required for your project, even the simplest activities might require the consent of the parties involved, so be proactive and seek the required clearances from day 0 of your project in order to get it on time.
  3. Last but not least, always remember that the purpose of your projects are either charity or increasing awareness, so please have the willpower to face all the challenges that will arise and have fun doing so.

 

Photos related to the project. Examples could be event photos, website, team members, etc.:

Special thanks to our sponsors: