Each local region of Cancer Council NSW planned their own event. Keeping these events local helped to build strong community support and brought dancers and celebrities together for a good cause.

Every year local celebrities and personalities strap on their dancing shoes for the annual dance gala event. Each celebrity was teamed up with a professional dance teacher for the pair to learn, perform and compete on the event night. By using a bit of competition these local legends become a champion for the cause, using their reach to help rally a team of supporters, raise funds and awareness in the leadup to the event.

Celebrities and dancers work on their routine for months, building up supporters on the way. Sharing updates from the months of training and rehearsals is the perfect way to build community excitement to join in on the big night. 

After all the rehearsals it’s finally time to perform on stage. The audience is filled with family, friends and community supporters that want to see their favourite local celebrity succeed. 

A great way Cancer Council NSW gets the audience involved is by having more than just a judge’s choice award. Instead they have 3 awards, judge’s choice, people’s choice, and highest fundraiser. 

On the night, as each pair of dancers wows the crowd with their performance behind them on a big screen is a text the [dancer’s name] to a phone number so the audience can donate and vote. 

With text-to-give and vote functionality the celebrity can continue to build up their donations as well as collect votes on the night. Plus anyone can get involved! There isn’t an app to download, just simply text the dancer’s name to the number, vote, donate and it’s all tracked live. 

The live data can then be used to give updates at the event to keep the audience motivated as well as announce the winner at the end of the night.