Charity running fundraising tips part two

More tips to help you maximize your fundraising running potential

When you've decided that running a race for charity could be for you, it's important to know how to go about fundraising. Running for a charity is a hugely rewarding experience but it's best to know how to go about getting good sponsors from the outset. Here's part two of our guide to running for charity.

Continuing with our charity fundraising tips, we’ve got some advice for those of you looking to maximize your fundraising potential. Here with part two we have more tips on how to reach your running sponsorship target including: ‘Creating your own website’, ‘Being creative’, ‘Collecting the money’ and ‘Helping your Charity’ during your run fundraising process.

Create your own running sponsorship website

Check out online running sponsorship
Take the hassle out of sponsorship by creating a free personalised online sponsorship page. It’s fast and easy to make, and it’s free! You can do this at www.justgiving.com. This allows supporters to donate by credit or debit card and the money goes direct to your chosen charity. Furthermore, it’s all tax-efficient – earning your charity even more and making your target easier to reach.

Tell your friends about your running goals
Email all your friends and colleagues with a link to your page. Don’t forget other groups of potential supporters like former colleagues, old school and college friends, fellow members of clubs. Encourage them all to pass on the message to anyone else who might support your chosen charity. The internet really widens the group of people you might immediately think of - for example friends, family and colleagues living in different parts of the UK who you rarely see. And don’t forget your friends abroad! Charities may not be able to reclaim tax on their donations but they can still support you. The internet is global – so make the most of it...

Send out a running sponsorship press release
Publicity in the local media can prove an invaluable fundraising tool. A few lines in the local paper, or an appeal for sponsorship on your local radio station, can yield amazing results. With your own webpage, attracting sponsorship couldn’t be easier - readers and listeners can simply log on to your page and sponsor you direct. The best way to get some publicity is by sending out a press release. Deliver it in person though, as you are much more likely to get coverage if you talk to someone about it.

Email updates on your running progress
Let supporters know how much you’ve raised so far and what a donation will buy for the charity. An update is interesting for those who’ve already supported you and a nudge for those who haven’t. You know what it’s like -people mean to donate, but sometimes they don’t quite get round to it on the first request.

Use your own email for sponsorship as well as the facility on the page
Because you are already familiar with your own email system, you can set up groups and you’ll be able to send more emails at once than you can via your sponsorship page. Also, some of your potential supporters may feel more comfortable opening an email that comes from you personally.

Change your email auto-signatures to running related ones
On your work and home email accounts, after your normal signature, add a line at the bottom including the address of your webpage. This will raise awareness of your efforts and ensure that every email you send out could prompt a possible donation.

Go poster mad when advertising your running
Put a notice up in your gym, church, college, children’s school and anywhere else where you may be able to get support. Tell people to go to the website you’ve created to donate.

Ask to be on your company’s website
See if your company would be prepared to add your site to its public website or private company intranet. Many companies like to promote the charitable and public-spirited efforts of their staff and you could get a lot of extra donations from this.

Being creative...

Think creatively when looking for running sponsors
Sponsorship isn’t the only way to raise money. Coffee mornings, quiz nights, collecting tins on reception desks are just a few ideas. Here are some more:

Pre-run dinner party
Host a pre-race party a and charge a small admission fee of say £10 as a donation.

Donuts for running money
Take donuts to work and leave a sign that reads, “Please take one – leave £10!”.

Car boot sale for sponsor money
Take unwanted items to a car boot sale – you can also ask friends, family and colleagues if they have unwanted goods they can contribute.

Party on while raising running money
Tell your friends, family, co-workers that you are planning a party … and it just happens to be to raising money for a worthy charity. For a “cover charge” of say £25 they get to drink free for three hours!

Sponsorship quiz nights
Organise a quiz night at your local pub/work’s canteen, charge team’s to enter (for example £20 a team of four, with either a small percentage of the takings as a money prize or donated items to the winning team).

Non-uniform or dress-down day
Hold a dress-down day at your place of work or at a local school and charge everyone for the privilege.

Slave for the day/promise day
Make a few sacrifices for your friends and colleagues - offer to do chores, make cups of tea, wash people’s cars in your lunch hour or even do your neighbour’s ironing for a month! In return ask that they pledge a donation towards your efforts as every little helps.

Have a barbecue or picnic to support your running targets
Ask as many friends, family and colleagues to come along and charge £10 a head.

Car wash for running sponsor money
Have a car washing session. Drop flyers round to all your neighbours or colleagues at work to let them know you are having a car washing session and will make their cars sparkly clean in return for a donation.

Collecting the money

Plan your run money collecting
A little bit of planning in readiness for collecting your sponsorship will save you a huge amount of time and effort after the event and will undoubtedly raise your fundraising total – the sooner you collect, the more you will collect!

Here are a few suggestions:

Gift Aid pledge
Ask your sponsors to tick the Gift Aid declaration box when they make their pledge. This will increase your total.

Collect running money as you go
Where possible, try collecting the money as you go along. You can collect cash or cheques.

Bank the money early
Sponsorship funds can usually be submitted to the charity before the race if you would prefer. The charity will bank any sponsorship money received and keep you advised of your running total.

Post dated cheques
These are acceptable to most of the charities and allow you to promise to sponsors that they won’t be cashed if disaster strikes and you can’t compete. (Although most people are usually happy to make their donation irrespective of whether you finish the race or not!)

Build-up a running mailing list as you collect pledges
You’ll want to write to all your supporters once you have completed the race to thank them – and they’ll want to know how you got on. If you have a computer it’s an easy task to create an email address list but if you don’t, you could write out address labels as you go along. You can then photocopy these sheets of labels to keep as a record.

Help your charity

Cheques to you
Cheques can be made payable to you, but you will need to issue a cheque made payable to your chosen charity. It may therefore be easier to ask for cheques to be made payable to the charity from the outset. (In some instances, sponsors prefer to make their cheques payable to the charity anyway).

Cheques are simplest for running sponsors
If you collect cash, it would be very helpful if you could issue your own cheque to the charity and keep the cash.

Simplify sponsor administration
If you do send donations in early to your chosen charity, it is important to mark them on your sponsorship form with the date you sent them in and to tell them who the sponsorship is from – particularly if you are forwarding your own personal cheque to them.

Keep your run sponsorship forms safe!
Your charity will need them all at the end of the day in order to make their Gift Aid claims.

And finally…

Be proud of your running efforts
In a cynical world you are actually doing something to make a difference. When you’ve finished your event, take a deep breath… and start collecting in the money.

Don’t give in...

Persistence really does bring results!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Always check with your chosen charity with regards to any of the above suggestions before going ahead. Each Charity will have their own fundraising policies governed within the laws of the Charity Commission.