A colleague of mine pointed out that in my excitement I hadn’t clearly detailed what actually happens with the money other than that we use it to buy a mystery rust bucket of a car to go gallivanting around the country side. DON’T STOP READING THERE! That is not exactly what happens!

I will give you a quick number crunch. To participate in the Mystery Box Rally, The Fuzzbox needs to raise $3,000 as a team. The organisers of the Mystery Box aim to pass on 80% of this amount to the Cancer Council. If we hit that target it means a good $2,400 should go straight into funding the Cancer Council in it’s endeavors. The remaining 20% is used to cover the costs associated with running the rally. In the worst case scenario, a minimum of 51% will be passed on. Regardless, this ends up benefiting the Cancer Council given that without maintaining and expanding the rally, the fundraiser wouldn’t exist!

Allow me to explain why supporting the rally and us is so good for the Cancer Council;

You could say, “Well, I’ll just donate $3,000 straight to the Cancer Council. That way they’ll get 100% of my donation as opposed to just a portion”.

I would say, “Great! Do that! That’s more money for the council!”

I would then follow up with, “In just three years the rally has raised over 2.4 million dollars for the Cancer Council and has become a high profile event attracting plenty of media attention, exposure and funds for cancer research.”

I would then let you sit on that thought until you (hopefully) came to the conclusion that supporting the rally in turn leads to greater things in the long run. By all means, donate directly to the Council. Before you do though, consider for a second what this rally is able to (and does) achieve. We see it and I hope you are able to as well.

To re-assure everyone, we pay our own registration, food, accommodation, transport, fuel and insurance costs. None of this comes out of the money we raise.

Also, when it comes to “purchasing” a car, $850 is deducted from any amount we raise to cover the costs of the Mystery Box having sourced the vehicle. That means if we raised $5,000, we would have $4,150 left to bid with. This $4,150 still goes to the Cancer Council, it just encourages us to raise more money so that we can outbid other teams on the car we want. At the end of the rally the cars go back to the auctioneers who do their business, any money raised through the sales of the vehicle goes back towards reducing the $850 cost of the car. So, drawing on the previous example, if the car sells for $600 we will have raised $4,750 for the cancer council.

I hope this explains the matter of donations clearer for everyone and gives you a good understanding on where the money goes and what it does. Remember that this is for a great cause and we want to raise as much money as we can, so please… if you can, donate below.

DONATE HERE

So I’ve been getting a few questions from friends and family asking about the Mystery Box Rally and what it actually is. Which isn’t too surprising since it’s practically all I’ve been talking about since our registration was accepted.

Even though I’ve explained it countless times and no doubt will continue to do so, I wanted to give everyone that visits here an idea of what the rally is all about. That way you can understand a bit more about my excitement and enthusiasm for this event, in turn I hope that you also will be able to share the same feelings I do towards this great (and ridiculously ludicrous) cause.

To understand the Mystery Box you really need to know about it’s big brother, the Shitbox Rally.

The Shitbox Rally

The Shitbox is the brainchild of James Freeman who unfortunately lost both his parents to cancer. In the time following the death of his father he sought a way to do something proactive that could bring enjoyment to people and do something positive, he knew that whatever he did it would have to be big. So became the Shitbox Rally

James explains the Shitbox quite well in the above video but if you skipped over it (you should watch it) then I’ll fill you in. Basically the premise is that if you do something fun, people will happily get involved with you. To many Australian’s, the idea of spending a week in the outback in a rusty old bomb worth less than a thousand dollars sounds like a fantastic idea. Throw in that any money you raise for the rally goes to cancer and you’ve got a great cause for people to get behind and a great activity for them to participate in.

Based on the key element of  people getting together, sourcing a $1,000 (or cheaper) car, doing it up all crazy like and driving it most inappropriately through some of the most arduous terrain Australia has to be thrown at. The Shitbox is the crazy person’s version of a great idea, guess I’m crazy then!

The first rally launched in 2010 with 17 teams driving their shitboxes from Sydney to Alice Springs via the Oodnadatta Track. That year James and his fellow shitboxers raised $104,000 for the Cancer Council. Based on this success the Shitbox Rally became an annual event, to date it has raised over $2.4 million for the Cancer Council. Talk about from little things do big things grow!

As you can see the rally is about having fun, challenging yourself, making friends and most of all… helping to raise money for cancer research.

The Mysterybox Rally

So! That was a lot about the Shitbox but what about the Mystery Box?

Well, what the rally stands for is still the same. It’s still about having a great time, challenging yourself and raising money for the Cancer Council. The key difference is in the execution of the rally.

The first key difference (i.e. element of mystery) is that you don’t get to find and purchase your car before you turn up for the rally. Instead, you rock up on the night prior with whatever cash you’ve raised (above $3,000). One by one they bring out cars that they have sourced and you have never seen before for you to bid on with your raised money. When you finally win a car (you have no idea what’s on the “menu”) you have that night to get acquainted with it and work out what the hell was wrong with it to be worth less than $1,000 (approx).

The second key difference is that unlike the Shitbox, where you know where you’re going to be driving to months in advance. You have absolutely no idea where this rally will take you. This year we know it starts and finishes in Melbourne but for the 2,500km (estimated) and 5 days in-between that, it’s going to be one big teaser ad for Master Chef (i.e. we know we’ll be going somewhere crazy, but where the hell will it be!).

The third difference is that only 50 teams will be going. That’s right, 50 teams… and we’re one of them! Yay!

50 teams means a tighter, closer knit group and (hopefully) a rocking pace.

A key point I’ll briefly mention here is that the top 10 fundraisers from the Mystery Box will automatically be offered a place into the Shitbox Rally for 2014. I’ll tell you right now, I am intent on smashing that goal and I hope that everyone who visits can help us to achieve that. To foster that, I’m taking on James’ words in that if you give people something fun to do, they will gladly help you. I will look at doing everything I can to arrange events that will be fun for large groups and benefit those involved.

To the Mystery Box Rally!

Visit:

Mystery Box Rally

Shitbox Rally

Shitbox Event Videos

E-mail from the Mystery Box organisers.

Wooo!

We did it! The Fuzzbox is now an ACTUAL rally team!

Ok, ok… so there’s still a fair way to go but this is a huge milestone for us and means we actually have a place in the Mystery Box Rally, superb!

But as I said, it’s not over yet. We still have to raise the $3,000 necessary for us to actually be allowed to participate so here’s the good bit, time for some FUNDRAISING!

We need $3, 000 to get to rally but if we don’t reach that goal, what we do raise still goes towards the Cancer Council which is what it’s all about. But! Lets not think so negatively! We not only want to raise the $3,000 but absolutely SMASH IT. That’s why The Fuzzbox will be arranging a number of fundraising initiatives to get people involved, spread awareness and most importantly, get those all important funds needed by the Cancer Council.Of course, if you want to help us out you don’t have to wait for one of our fundraising events. We will gladly accept donations which can be made by clicking the donation link below;

DONATE HERE

Donations can be made in any amount, big or small and the Cancer Council accepts various payment mechanisms including Credit Card, BPAY and Paypal. Both organisations and individuals are invited to contribute, you will receive a tax receipt at the conclusion of the transaction which you can use come tax time. Companies wishing to pursue a corporate sponsorship should contact us directly so we can talk with you about your offer.

It’s going to be an interesting year ahead and we can’t wait to see what it brings!

Regards,

The Fuzzbox