Students from Kemmy Business School (KBS) are inspiring the public to “fall back” with a new challenge they hope will go viral in support of Rape Crisis Midwest.
The second-year Executive MBA students came up with the idea last week, when presented with a real-life organisational dilemma, and were given 24 hours to develop a plausible solution and implementation plan to raise funds. The organisation was Rape Crisis Midwest and the struggle outlined to them was the continuous need for fundraising in order to keep the centre doors open.
The students created the Fall Back Challenge, similar to the viral Ice Bucket Challenge, which consists of two people taking part in, and recording, a trust fall.
As part of the challenge they must:
• Create their own Fallback video and nominate two people they know to do the Fallback challenge
• Share their video on social media using #Fallback
• Text Fallback to 50300 to donate €4
(Text costs €4. Rape Crisis Midwest will receive a minimum of €3.60. Service Provider: LIKECHARITY. Helpline: 076 6805278)
Students Katie Clair from County Clare, and Limerick’s Owen Bagnell and Stephen Ruschitzko initiated the campaign and are passionate about the challenge.
“Having listened to Verena Tarpey from Rape Crisis Midwest tell us about all of the great work they do in the local community, we all personally wanted to do more and help them in any way we could. We came up with the idea of #FallBack campaign, where you put your trust in someone else to catch you and ‘save you' so-to-speak, something that Rape Crisis Midwest does for its clients every day. We are launching the #Fallback campaign to ask people to support this worthy cause,” explained Stephen.
KBS Professor Lisa O'Malley said: “Rather than being content with making recommendations about what the organisation could do, Katie, Owen and Stephen are running with their idea #FallBack, getting the support they need and making it happen. This is an exciting and innovative campaign which has the capacity to go viral and KBS is thrilled to support it in every way possible”.
Dean of KBS, Dr Philip O'Regan outlined the background to the campaign.
“The Executive MBA students undertook a strategic analysis of fundraising opportunities for Rape Crisis Midwest as part of their module with Professor O’Malley. Although they have already completed their assessment, they have decided to put their ideas into practice and are now launching #FallBack in collaboration with UL Students Union. All funds arising from the campaign will go to Rape Crisis Midwest an extremely worthy cause. We are delighted to support this as part of our own corporate social responsibility objectives and our commitment to supporting our students do social good,” he said.
Executive Director of Rape Crisis Midwest, Miriam Duffy, said: “We are delighted to welcome this initiative which blends the corporate and charitable sector together. We are very excited about this campaign, which has been the brainchild of a group of students from the MBA programme”.
The class is confident that with the help and enthusiasm of the Student’s Union and UL’s large student population they can create a movement and make the #FallBack challenge go viral.
The challenge was officially launched by UL Student’s Union and KBS in early December.
