Please help my DH -- he wants to know how hard is it to raise £1200 by running the London Marathon?

[frogs]

Just that, really.

Dh is desperate to run the Marathon, and is waiting to hear back from the Flora people to see if he's got a place via the ballot.

If he doesn't, he'd like to apply for a charity place, but we're not sure how much of a burden raising £1000+ actually is. Do people start crossing the road to avoid you, or is it relatively painless?

All experiences welcomed.

I think it's easier if you work somewhere that people are comparatively well-paid.

My dh raised just under 2k but I did get some 'match-funding' from my then employer. Does his workplace do anything similar?

I don't think it's too hard - my DB I think got sponsored (got a place by ballot - sponsored to attend one of the World Scout Jamborees) - he wasn't well paid (worked for the post office as a postie at the time!) and doesn't have a massive group of friends, and certainly not ones that are well paid...

So if you set up a Justgiving page, and email everybody in your address list, and all your work colleagues, what kind of hit-rate is it reasonable to assume, and how much do people tend to give?

Dh works in a very large institution, but in the public sector, so no matched funding and people are reasonably but not lavishly paid.

i dont think it is that hard. but youdo have tobe really cheeky and ask everyone you know. and i mean everyone.

if he gets a charity place you can always contact your local paper - the ones round our way often do little bits about people doing stuff for charity - along with a way to contact the sponsoree(?) if people want to sponsore them.

Probably depends on the charity too. Some have more pulling power than others. Local newspaper coverage would help and a decent first donation on your site/form so that people feel oblidge to follow suit

ok here is what my brother has to say (have to say I'm mightily impressed with his swift reply!)

"getting the sponsors is the easy bit actually getting all the money in is another thing all together. A lot depends on what you are rasing the money for AND how likely your friends think you are of finishing. Can't really remember how much I've raised in the past I know the one I did both of us was the one I raised the most. The last one I did sponsored I only got a few hundred but that was all I needed."

(I'm not sure what he means by "I know the one I did both of us" - you'll have to guess).

Ah, you guys are great. Keep them coming...

Sounds like it might be feasible then. Do we think Oxfam sounds like a better bet than Merlin (uk-based version of MSF)? He would really like to run for MSF (medicins sans frontieres), but because they're a non-UK based charity, they don't seem to have places. Shucks.

hopeful bump.

i'll sponsor him

I've run a few races for charity and found using the justgiving website really helpful - and much easier than going round collecting money afterwards! It tends to be best to get a couple of big sponsors on there first so people follow suit and sponsor a bit more, otherwise if the first few people only sponsor £2 each then the next person may copy IYSWIM.

And you just have to ask EVERYONE you know - his workmates, his friends, his friends workmates, friends families, etc. I found that a couple of people I didn't even know sponsored larger amounts because they wanted to support the charity.

Good luck!

Don't forget to make sure your lo's school knows about it. They may be able to do something special to help.

We had a couple of parents from our school that ran last year and the school organised a competition for the children to guess his time. IIRC, there was a small prize, paid for by PTA, for each class and everyone was encouraged to sponsor him too. Even if people only managed to raise a couple of quid, in a school of 400 pupils, thats £800!

Justgiving is a great idea, e-mail everyone you know. And ask them to e-mail everyone they know too.

Use MN!! Post a 'please sponsor my DH' thread and I bet lots of people will.

Get DH to send an e-mail round at work, and you can send one too.

I went round and bothered all my neighbours - didn't do too badly off them but it was a bother going back afterwards to collect the money. Pretty much everyone paid up though.

It's not something I'd do again, but definitely do-able.

my brother has re-iterated (again!) that the getting people to sponsor you is really very easy - but getting the money out of people once you've completed the event is the hard part.

It's possible but you would be well advised to set aside a couple of hours a week to keep on top of it. In addition to the 8-12 hours a week for the training.

Helpful things to do:

1. Yes, use justgiving. It makes the paperwork so much easier
2. Make a list of all of your networks: friends, work, church, clubs, pubs, family's clubs etc etc. That's your starting point for emailing/contacting people for donations
3. If you know anyone who can help you set up a basic website/blog, then do that and keep it up to date week by week.
4. Use that as an excuse to send periodic emails around to give people updates on training and sponsorship. It's really helpful to tell people what your sponsorship will raise: a new hospice nurse, a teacher's salary, 40 goats, etc etc. And keep bumping the total so people feel that progress is being made.
5. Sometimes a little face to face schmoozing along the way can smooth things over - try something like a barbeque or quiz night a couple of weeks before the event for all those who have been resisting your blandishments. You can organise something similar afterwards to sweeten the collection of funds
6. It's wise to allow for a drop out rate of around 10-20% that you just won't be able to collect for one reason or another.

That does look like a lot of work but it can be done little and often and you can raise a lot of money this way.