Making the most of your contacts
Family and friends
This should be the easiest group of people to get involved in your fundraising.
One Kilimanjaro trekker, Kim Kennedy involved her family by visiting car boot sales and buying goods that they then sold on eBay for a profit! "My 11-year-old daughter kept financial records, which helped with her maths!"
Other ideas include:
- Socialise! Arrange a themed dinner or party and ask friends to attend for a small entrance fee.
- Forgo birthday, Christmas or anniversary presents and ask for a donation towards your Challenge instead. And if you’ve got any kind family members who have a milestone occasion coming up – ask them to do the same for you.
- Organise a sponsored event, a group leg wax or beard growing competition (for the lads) or crazy hair dye or run (for the ladies). Offer the person who raises the most amount of money a prize.
- Hold an auction of talents or promises and utilise your friends skills (e.g. hairdresser, yoga teacher, life coach)
- Hold a pub quiz and invite all your friends and family
Workplace
Fundraising in the workplace is a great way to share a common goal, team build and boost morale. You will obviously be trekking with some of your colleagues, so fundraising with some of them is a great way to get to know each other better.
Organising events is a great way to utilise the Accenture matched funding for colleagues who have helped out. Accenture's 'partner giving' policy is also another thing you should make the most of - although you may need to be quick off the mark as there are a lot of requests for this pot of cash! (Please see Accenture do’s and don’ts)
One previous fundraiser had a stepper in the main reception for a sponsored event. Another group organised a five-a-side football tournament.
To fundraise successfully at work:
- Make sure you utilise matched funding where possible
- Promote your fundraising for VSO
- Throw an office party, run a raffle or agree a dress-down day
- Hold a team raffle for the coveted prize of Friday afternoon off work. Ask corporate contacts to do the same at their work places
Read more about fundraising within Accenture:
Local Community
There are many ways to involve your local community in your fundraising activities.
Utilise any contacts in local media, church groups, clubs, gyms, shops, pubs, Rotary clubs and local companies. Contact them, and tell them about your work with VSO. Anything from a car boot sale or a cake sale, sponsored swim or some media coverage will boost your funds and raise awareness.
Schools
With global issues a regular feature in the media, many students now have a good awareness of their part in an international community and want to know more. There are a number of ways you can use this to your fundraising advantage:
- Ask your old school, college or university for a donation and give a talk about VSO in return.
- Arrange a sponsored run or bike ride at a local school or a dress down day
- Forward emails to alumni
- Put up posters and flyers in University halls and notice boards.
- Write to University RAG societies and ask for their support
- Engage school social clubs and ask them to help you with your fundraising.
One previous trekker contacted her old school and the kids took part in a climbing wall event, another school had an assault course.
5. Online fundraising
One of the main ways in which you can reach your fundraising target is through donations from others. The easiest way for you to receive these donations will be by setting up an online fundraising page on justgiving.com insert link
Online fundraising has many benefits:
- It’s incredible easy to set up, use and monitor.
- It’s easy for people to donate – they just visit your page.
- The money raised comes straight to VSO so you don’t have the hassle of having to chase people for it.
- You can see how much giftaid VSO is claiming on donations.
It’s important that you make the most out of your justgiving page, so follow our top tips for successful online fundraising:
- Title your page appropriately
Use the title of the event and your name as the title of your page, so for example:
http://www.justgiving.com/vsofundraising/Kilimanajaro2008/your name
Make your page as compelling as possible by adding your own photograph and text. Make sure your page communicates the reason you have chosen to raise money, and why you believe VSO deserves support. Be creative!
Email all your family, 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 church/clubs/PTA. Encourage them all to pass on the message to anyone else who might support VSO.
The Internet really widens the group of people you might not immediately think of - for example friends, family and colleagues living in different parts of the UK who you might not see in person. And don’t forget your friends abroad. The Internet is global – so make the most of it!
- Use Facebook to publicise your page
When setting up your Justgiving page all you have to do is enter your Facebook address when prompted. You’ll see a running total on your profile and your friends will be able to sponsor you from there. You can promote your friends’ page as well as your own.
Encourage people to re-visit your page by continually updating it. Change your picture, post updates on your progress or keep a training diary. Make your page as interesting as possible so your fundraising efforts remain at the forefront of people’s minds.
- Email updates on your progress
Let supporters know how much you’ve raised so far. An email 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. Don’t be afraid to ask for a second donation from people – they may have had another pay cheque since they last donated!
“Do not hesitate to remind people over and over, all hesitations you might feel become ridiculous once you see the reality in East Africa”
- Use your own email 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. Some of your potential supporters may feel more comfortable opening an email that comes from you personally.
- Change your email signature at work and/or at home
After your name and title etc, add a line at the bottom including the address of your Justgiving page. This will raise awareness of your challenge and ensure every email you send has the potential to prompt a donation.
- Communicate what a donation will buy
Let your supporters know what their donation will buy.
- Put a notice up in your gym, church, college, children's school, etc.
Don’t just rely on email. A simple poster asking people to visit your Justgiving page can reach people who would like to support you but whose email address you don’t have. You might also consider printing some flyers to hand out to people when you see them.
- Ask to be on your company's website
See if your company would be prepared to add your web address 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. Please let us know if you think your company might do this or if you would like our help in promoting this idea to your company. Some companies may even offer a "matched giving" scheme where they offer to match any amounts you raise, so this action could help you reach your target even faster.
- Personalise your thank you email
When you create your Justgiving page, you have the opportunity to personalise the thank you message each donor automatically receives. In addition to expressing your thanks, use this opportunity to ask supporters to pass on your web address to anyone else who might be interested in sponsoring you.
If you have already created your page, you can log in to your account to personalise the thank you message at any time.
- Keep fundraising after your event
Some 20 per cent of all donations through Justgiving come in after event completion. So don’t stop fundraising once you’ve crossed the finish line. Update your page and email your supporters with news of your success. Remind those who haven’t yet donated to do so, and ask others to donate again in recognition of your achievement.
- Use justgiving’s local rate telephone number – 0845 021 2110
Add this to any email or press release you send out, just in case people have difficulties donating. You can also use this number for any problems or questions you may have yourself.
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