Why raise money for OneGirl?
Most girls in Sierra Leone, West Africa don't have the privilege of getting an education. In fact, a girl in Sierra Leone is more likely to be sexually assaulted than she is to attend high school.

But, when a girl is educated, she is three times less likely to contract HIV / AIDS. She'll marry later and have fewer, healthier children. For every extra year of schooling, her income will increase by 10-25%. And, she'll reinvest 90% of the money she earns back into her family.

Educating a girl has a 'multiplier effect'. When you educate a girl, you educate a nation.

For more info about the stats, go here: http://www.onegirl.org.au/

_Where do you start?
Maybe you could think about having a dress up day at work. Definitely throw in a raffle for good measure. You could even do a bake off or why not go Surfing In A Dress? The choice is yours :)

Once you've decided what you want to do, register your name and create a team at doitinadress.com. Alternatively, you could join the SurfersInADress team. Up to you.

Then what?
Use the items in the toolkit http://www.doitinadress.com/toolkit to promote your event and pledge your support to the cause.

Raising money and matching dollar for dollar?
You have a couple of options here. You can either encourage people to donate to your page on doitinadress.com or bank whatever you raise on the day and donate it to your page yourself.

However, if a company is willing to match dollar for dollar, it is likely they will only do so if they can claim in as tax deduction. Now, unfortunately OneGirl does not have DGR status, which allows for donations to be tax deductable. They are certainly a registered charity and they have applied for DGR status, but the ridiculous process is longer than most can imagine. Here's why.

BUT, all is not lost. OneGirl have partnered with World Relief who does have DGR status, so you can donate what you raise through them here https://www.wra.org.au/1414-6onegirl. The only minor downside of donating this was is that your profile page won't show what you've raised. From any donations through World Relief, they will take between 6-10% of the donation to cover their costs and probably to fund their cause, which still ain't bad.

Does that help?
I hope this helps you get started with getting on board with Do It In A Dress. But if not, feel free to contact me personally on Facebook or in the comments below.

Cheers
Greg