Following a challenging year for both charities and the events industry, the Hospitality Industry Trust (HIT) in Scotland are bouncing back.
Established by Peter Lederer CBE, then managing director of The Gleneagles Hotel and Fergus Chambers, then deputy director at Strathclyde Regional Council and industry leaders in 1994, charity HIT has gone from strength to strength supporting people working and studying in the hospitality industry in Scotland. Their goal, to use tailored learning experiences to broaden their skills and experience.
With hospitality being hit particularly hard throughout the pandemic, as a charity designed to help struggling employees of the industry with grants, housing and other assistance had an even bigger demand on its services.
With events back up and running they have planned a schedule of five dinners across Scotland, and kicking off in the Grampians last month, to one in the Highlands and then to Edinburgh.
Partnering with SliderStock to run online auctions at the events, will maximise potential fundraising at these events. Director at SliderStock, Will Ferguson explains, “HIT have taken our unlimited partner package, which enables them to run as many auctions as they want every month. We supported them initially with a trial at their Grampian dinner, but the process is so straightforward they can now run the auctions themselves with minimal support. It has opened additional income streams for them from their events, without escalating costs, just a set monthly fee.”
Over the last 25yrs HIT Scotland has raised in excess of £4 million and has provided more than 3,000 scholarships and 14,000 bursaries. Hosting an average of 24 events each year supported by 80 plus volunteers from all sectors of the hospitality industry who participate on the event committees.
Kirsty Mcleod from the charity added, “George and the team at SliderStock have been a pleasure to work with. Initially, we trialled the SliderStock platform for a dinner in September and it proved to be an efficient system for processing silent auction bids. The team assisted with setting up the page, uploading and amending items, creating QR codes and the final touches so we were ready to go live. The platform is user friendly, and guests simply have to scan a QR code and register, in order to bid.
The one-off fee for unlimited use is very cost-effective and, as the system runs on Stripe, all the money comes straight to our account avoiding the need to chase payments. SliderStock is a quality platform supported by a highly professional team.”
