What have you done to raise charity funds?

[Frazzlerock]

Hi, this isn't a begging charity post I promise!

I just would like to know what you have done to raise charity funds in the past?
DP and I are doing a few races next year and need to raise £2500

I'm awful at raising money. I have tried several times before, and failed miserably. Yet some people manage to do it so easily.

I'm thinking pub quizzes which DP is really good at organising - but then worrying about getting enough people interested...

Maybe a raffle if we can get our hands on anything worthy enough?

How do people generally do it?

dont understand - you need to fundraise for the race? why not just hold.an event directly for the charity?

saves all the overheads of the race.

I did a 24 hour fast for Oxfam when I was at college. Fasting is best done at home away from food, I find.

Why don’t you just buy race entires? Or pay the minimum sponsorship yourself?

I've absailed down a cathedral, jumped out of a plane and in more recent years organised a race night, that raised lots of money. If people feel they are getting something back they tend to give more. Good luck with the fundraising. Who are you fundraising for?

Presuming it’s the London marathon?
Cake sales
Car wash
Grand national/World Cup sweepstakes
Packing bags in supermarkets
Dress down day at work

@specialsubject I understand what you mean but we both love running and generally just run races without raising money.
We figured that we might as well do it for a good cause - it's a charity that we are both passionate about and have raised money for before (just not terribly well, which is why I was looking for ideas).

@PhilomenaButterfly I'd be terrible at that. I'm a hangry bastard at the best of times!

Pay for it yourself.

Or if it is charity that you genuinely care about then try to help publicise it. But don't just pester friends and family repeatedly for money just to help you do a race.

If you are trying to raise the money for your entry fee, I would get an evening or weekend part time job. One pub shift a week, or a morning serving in a cafe type of thing.

@lastqueenofscotland not the London Marathon, DP does it every year but didn't get in for next year, sadly.

It is a mixture of several half marathons between DP and me.

@anothermansmother thank you for your suggestions! Your efforts are impressive! I don't think MN allow us to promote fundraising so I won't say on here, but thank you for asking

@lastqueenofscotland Fab ideas. Maybe I could get the DC to help with packing bags in the local supermarket. It is dress down day everyday at work for both of us (tech industry)

If running, you could get people to donate a mile, so someone pays say £10, and mile 1 is in their name etc..
Sweepstake on your total time to finish
Other people I know have organised a virtual run, where they get a medal, and the proceeds go to your charity.

@Leeds2 no we run races anyway, we just wanted to do our runs next year for charity, especially given the closeness we feel toward them.

Thank you for the ideas so far

Would your employers match donations?
I’ve done car boot sales, odd jobs, pamper days, car wash, raffle, bag pack, bucket collections and just plain asking local businesses for sponsership in return for acknowledgment on my website and when I put it in the local newspaper...)
I’m not really understanding why you are running the races and holding events... Are you raising money at the event and saying it’s sponsership money?

@EdHelpPls ooh car boot sale is something we were thinking of!

I’m not really understanding why you are running the races and holding events - because I don't think the race alone will be enough, I've tried to raise money before for running and didn't raise much at all. I hate pestering people so I am reluctant to keep going on about raising money. So I was thinking if we do other things it may help, rather than just asking for sponsorship for running a races that we'd have done anyway.

I just want to help this charity as much as we can, because their sole purpose is helping people ho have been through what we have - sorry for being vague, I just don't want anyone on here to think I'm trying to hint to our charity of choice and gain sponsorship that way. It's just ideas I'm looking for on here

Would you be able to bake cakes and sell them at work, so that people get "something" for their money, rather than just sponsoring someone? I don't think it would raise very much, but might help.
I used to sell Phoenix Cards, and all the profits I raised from that went to my favourite charity. I think they have been replaced by Flamingo Cards (or something similar). You could have a look at that - doesn't necessarily require you to sell at, say, school fairs at the weekend but I think you would need to be confident that you had enough friends/family/colleagues to support you throughout the year. I guess you could do similar with Avon.
Make sure you have signed up to Easy Fundraising, with your charity as your chosen charity. Then, each time you shop online from participating retailers (eg Amazon, Trainline, booking.com, Marks & Spencer etc), the charity gets a (small) percentage of your spend. This doesn't cost you anything.

Virtual races seem to go down well, especially if you’ve got friends who are also keen on running.

You just have to make sure you make a ‘profit’ on the medals, obviously with the ‘profit’ being your fundraising.

I'm confused about virtual races so looked it up.
From what I understand, you run a certain distance in your own time as and when you can. So do you mean, sign up for virtual races and accumulate KM while training for the actual races?

Easy Fundraising is a nice idea, although we use this for DS's primary school so feel like I'd be almost taking money from them!

Yes, you organise an race and give it a name - Run for Charity Name or something.

People then sign up, pay for the race and run a distance in their own time. They then submit proof of distance (screenshot of Strava, Garmin etc) and you send out a medal.

Their entry fee covers the cost of postage and the medal plus a bit extra for your fundraising pot.

How do you know he's not in for London marathon next year?

I raised 2500 from Oct 2017 to April 2018. It did the London marathon so that in itself was motivation enough to sponsor me and I had a few hundred donated across many family members.

I did a pub style quiz at Xmas with a big raffle (open to anyone not just quiz goers) and I phoned loads of companies for prizes eg pot painting place, nail technician, usborne books, masseuse, crocheted gifts. I called in lots of favours and asked for donations from friends so eg one of my colleagues gave me some gift wrapped homemade preserves, a few people donated wine and chocolate, my mum donated a homemade quilt. I used the Hall for the organisation I was fundraising for so my outgoings were low!! I managed to get about 10 teams and asked for a donation. I raised over £500

I also had a jumble sale and made £360....that was hard work and it was cold!! I did a children's raffle separately for local youth groups. I did online (fb) games eg lucky squares in association with people I know who do usborne books and body shop at home. I had a "penny wars" at work, I work in a school so tutor groups competed to get the most money in pennies and 2ps and I bought the winners breakfast!
My tutor group did a xmascake sale for me too!!

I raised a good few hundred on the week of the actual marathon....people forget to sponsor you, you really do have to nag!!

It helps if it's a popular charity... mine was for Girlguiding.....not everyone got why they need money. Definitely not popular on MN ATM

I think it depends on your social circle. I’m not a fan of sponsoring running for people who love running but I feel the same about any charity trek where most of the money gets eaten up in entrance fees. Events can be good, avoid balls unless you have a lot of rich friends as it’s hard to sell tickets. I would be clear where the money is going to, nothing annoys me more than when I’ve donated or attended an event thinking if I give £10 that £10 or £9.90 will reach the charity only to find out I’m just lining the pockets of companies who run experiences. In our local Waitrose one of their featured charities was our lovely local hospice so it got lots of votes, only the money was going to a group of boys who were doing a trek on the other side of the world which would of cost thousands and thousands before it made any profit for the charity. Sorry I don’t mean to sound grouchy, raising money is fantastic but just be clear how much will go on entry fees and how much will go to the actual charity

And for those that don't get the idea....these are to stop you pestering people so much. You can say "I'm raising money for ....I'm doing this huge race but if that doesn't interest you why don't you come to my quiz??"

I got an allocated place for London directly through the charity and the fundraising REQUIREMENT was £1900. I didn't get in on the ballot.

Don't do something that's a bit boring and you already do. Either do something that really pushes you outside of your comfort zone and your friends will be so gobsmacked that they can't help but support you, or do something that lots of people can get involved with and then again, they have to support the charity.

I would advise emailing people, don’t just rely on social media because not everyone checks social media and it’s easier to miss something. A bake sale is a good idea plus somebody I know did carol singing to raise funds. Do you sponsor people? Most people would (hopefully) reciprocate. What sector do you work in? People in the financial sector tend to be generous with their sponsorship.

the overheads of large race events are enormous. Do something you enjoy, yes,.but it is a grossly inefficient way to fundraise.

I agree. pay your entry fee, do the race and do something completely different directly for charity. Litter pick, community work or event.