A toast to AIDS Trust
It’s a classic success story of modern cause-related marketing. Montana Wines and the AIDS Trust of Australia clocked up five years of fundraising partnership this week, and celebrated in style on Monday night at the swanky Savage restaurant in Darlinghurst.
Every year for the past five years, Montana Wines has donated 50 cents from every bottle of its Deutz and Lindauer sparkling wine ranges (sold between October and March) to the AIDS Trust.
The deal has netted over $460,000 for the Trust so far -“ which makes Montana one of the biggest corporate contributors to the fight against HIV/AIDS in this country, said the executive officer of the AIDS Trust, Terry Trethowan.
Monday night’s celebration saw the presentation of a cheque for the latest instalment of this donation -“ $124,800.
The cheque was presented by Kevin Mapson of Montana Wines, and gratefully received by Trethowan and actor Alex Dimitriades, who is the patron of the campaign. As a sign of the Trust’s appreciation, Dimitriades then presented Mapson with a signed photographic portrait.
Trethowan told Sydney Star Observer that the Montana campaign raised $60,000 in its first year, and sales have gone up markedly every year since then.
There was no precedent for this sort of campaign, Treth-owan said. This could have potentially harmed their sales -“ but it’s become a classic example of modern fundraising.
