Raising a large amount of money for charity

[MoominAnna]

I'm just wondering if anyone here has done this and has any tips for me.

I used to suffer from quite a serious medical condition and last year had some amazing surgery which has helped me hugely. It's a very underfunded condition and I'd now like to go on and raise money towards some research to help others. Initially I'd like to set myself a goal of raising 50k.

I have various ideas about what kind of things I'd like to do to raise the money (physical challenges mostly) but I'm still feeling so daunted. I'm worried I'll raise 5% and have a call it a day and that would be so disappointing and potentially embarrassing. I'm just pushing myself out of my comfort zone I suppose, after living with a lot of restrictions.

So if you've successfully fundraised before I'd be so grateful to hear how you pushed through those feelings and went for it and what particularly worked for you in terms of motivating people to support you. Ideas are always welcome.

Thank you.

Don’t set a target of 50k for starters - go for something achievable like 1-5k. Putting your target up is a great thing and very motivating and at the same time if you get to 1k and want to call it a day that’s fine.

Contact the charity, they’re likely to have fundraisers or someone who can advise you on what does and doesn’t work. If you go to them saying you want to raise 50k but don’t know how they’re likely to try to lower your expectations.

You could do a year of fundraising - bake sales at work/church/playgroups etc. A challenging event (id avoid overseas trips as the trip costs absorbs a lot of the funds raised) and things people will want to do for fun - like a ceilidh or pub quiz.

Be realistic with your fundraising - if you’re constantky pumping the same people for money it will feel really tough and can also lead to resentment.

Well done for wanting to get started! It’s the hardest bit - good luck!

Also, avoid only doing things requiring sponsorship - you’ll be approaching the same people again and again. So as above, some things people “get” something in return will work too.

Have you identified a charity which funds research into the condition?

I know someone who was very successful fundraising by doing car boot sales, word got out and people were happy to donate great things they no longer wanted. It did take over their garage though and requires quite a time commitment sorting.

I was part of a group of new parents - mostly mothers - who fund raised for a hospital when we were on mat leave, to buy a particular piece of equipment for their SCBU. Our target was £15K.

The biggest single fundraiser was a ball with an auction. We were fortunate to hace a lot of local contacts between us. The got a very cheap venue, as the manager had catered a couple’s wedding and they were sympathetic to our cause. We were donated some terrific auction prizes - paintings and sculptures from local artists, a case of wine from a restaurant, a Porsche for a day from a car dealership, several cut n colours from local salons, several PT sessions from gyms. I was very surprised what businesses donated when asked. A local agricultural auctioneer did the auction for us! It took a lot of work, but raised around £7000.

We also did a pie and pea quiz night, which was a lot easier to organise and still raised a few £100.

Thank you. It's great to get some feedback.

I could definitely lower my target but my surgery and recovery have been a bit unusual (I had to pay privately as the NHS won't fund it right now) and the improvements in my health have been really pretty dramatic and so I was hoping I have something of a story which would get press attention, even if only locally. But maybe it's better to start smaller and keep bumping it up as I go. I appreciate loads of people are also fundraising and have their own stories.

Yes I've been in touch with a great charity and it does look like they'll be very supportive. I think they just made an assumptiom that I'd like to raise c.£1k wheras more than anything I'd like to cover the costs of an actual trial if I can get the money.

Will grab a notebook so I can start writing down ideas. The car boot sale idea is fantastic and I knit to quite an advanced level so could make some items to raffle off later this year. I could definitely rope some designer friends into giving me items for an auction too.

Just wanted to bump this in case other people have ideas

I should have said, im a professional fundraiser and have been doing this for 7 years. The people who succeed in raising high amounts tend to start smaller and be surprised by their success or just keep increasing the limit.

Do you have a lot of social circles? The charity will be able to help you with the press and writing press releases to go out.

When sitting down with a trekker for the first time I tend to get a calendar and mark up what to do each month. So a bake sale in January, car boot March, leading up to a big event like a ladies lunch. If you’re going to do a ball or big event be really clear on who your contacts are and who is going to help you.

Ah ok, fabulous thank you. I think I'll go with that then. It's hard to know what's best - I had wondered if a really ambitious target would prompt people to give more but maybe I just need to accept it will take lots of different events and ideas.

I think through my parents and a few friends I have access to lots of different people, yes. A good number of them would be very supportive financially on a one off basis as I know they'll be pleased for me that I'm doing so much better.

I have a blank calendar I can use, so will do that. I think I'll officially start doing things in late March so there's still a while to plan the first few things.

Thank you again for the advice. It's so great that there's always a MNer with the knowledge you need.

Sounds like a good plan! Feel free to pm if you need any advice I'm sure you'll smash the 50k though! Also good you're doing better

Try also approaching Asda/Tesco for their token schemes. It was surprisingly easy when I approached them for our Scout Group.

Waitrose do the token scheme too.

Sign up for easyfundraising, and encourage your friends to do the same. It doesn't cost you anything, but you get a contribution every time you shop online with a participating retailer, eg Amazon, booking.com, M&S etc. Loads of sellers take part.

Thank you very much Ucango

Token schemes, good idea!

The token schemes tend to be for registered charities or community groups.

You could try doing a can collection? Lots of supermarkets only let recognised community groups or charities in but they're worth a try. They mostly specify no fundraising for personal challenges so it would need to be stand alone.

Make sure you speak to the charity before you make any approaches like those mentioned. Things like token schemes/can collections are great for unrestricted funds which the charity can spend on what they need most (ie core costs) so may already be making these approaches themselves.

Could you sell your story and would it be interesting enough to generate sympathy for an online fundraiser?

The max ive ever known a group raise was 10k and a lot of that was matched funding from a business (bank i think)

I can think of a few who went past the ten thousand mark. I have grouped them into categories.

1)Fund raising in memorium of a child, to raise a fund to help children/families in a similar place in the future. Always been the extended family and community, not just an individual parent. Totally heart rending stories that would make a complete stranger cry. Usually people can see how that could be them/their child. Tends to be partially going towards local hospital, so makes a connection.

2)Fund raising in gratitude for the near-miraculous survival of a child, who needed very high levels of medical input. Again, always the extended family, community, and in the most successful instance I can think of the family business. Again, totally heart rending "there but for the grace of god" stories. Again, raising towards health services that people could imagine using.

3)Next example is on a national level. Raised over 100,000. But started as awareness campaign, that turned into money raising. Personable lead dealing amazingly with impending death. Started out raising awareness of a generic issue to fellow doctors, really online media savvy, generated national campaign, and awards, and blogs/twitters/books. Made everyone think "wow they're awesome" and "that would help everyone" and "gosh, you made me think".

4)Instead of fundraising went back to work and did overtime, then donated any spare money she'd earned. Some colleagues chipped in, without being asked, when they realised what she was doing.

The problem you're up against is that you're not a cute kid. You're not (I sincerely hope!) valiantly facing an early death. You're probably not talking about a condition that everyone is going to think "shit, that could be me". Most people have a relatively small circle of friends/colleagues/associates. Most people will be prepared to donate once. More than that gets trickier.

Raffles are a nightmare and more work than it's worth. My biggest success was a bucket collection. Find a decent sized local venue and get permission to collect when they have an event such as band on. If you hit it just right people are slightly tipsy and happy but they still know what you're on about and have money left. Get someone to do an announcement so you don't explain why it's about 200 times too! I took over £100 in around half an hour this way. A collection every few weeks taking in different venues and acts so you don't target the same people too much is an easy boost to your fundraising. You can theme it sometimes as well with fancy dress to get a bit of attention.

Facebook fundraisers- just put a bit of a blurb about your charity, why you want to support them and what the money could do and off it goes.
I did this expecting to raise a few quid it raised over £1000 in a few weeks.

People are happy to donate to a good cause.

People don’t like sponsoring any more. Dry January- why should I sponsor you do detox and be sensible.