Seriously thinking of..

Have entered through the ballot, but they don't give places to 'crap for age people' so I am SERIOUSLY tempted to go for a gold bond place.
£1500 quid to raise tho......
Whadyareckon????????????????????????

Comments

  • It's do-able if you really are committed to the charity.

    As I've said before divide the amount into more reasonable sized chunks and really target those groups accordingly - £200 from friends, £200 from family, £200 from work colleagues, £400 from a car boot sale, £200 from an auction or selling raffle tickets, £100 from local publicity etc etc

    Perhaps your company might operate a match giving scheme & offer to match whatever you raise.

    It really helps if you have an affinity for the people you are running for and therefore your friends and family may be more likely to part with cash if they know you've been affected someway by the charity or have a really good story to tell.

    If you've suddenly developed a passion for saving the rhinos for example - it might not wash ;-)

    Don't forget to build one of our free webpages though if your charity is signed up with us or you can help persuade them to sign up with us. It helps you to automatically reclaim 28% extra Gift Aid Tax too.

    Also there's other online fundraising hints and tips here.

    Most charities will ask you to enter the ballot anyway before they consider you for a Golden Bond place.

    Good luck and the ballot is a ballot it's the luck of the draw!!
  • Don't focus on the money to be raised but, ...... on the party afterwards!
  • Can be done, Barkles, and if your chosen charity is one that your captive population can connect with and think, yeah, I know someone who is in the situation that the charity is trying to address, the fundraising is a lot easier.

    Perhaps choose a charity that is relevant to one of the kids in your school? You've got the newsletter for publicity and the buildings for fundraising events.

    Good luck!
  • I did the NYC marathon with a charity and started the FLM with one this year. On both occassions I decided never to go with a charity again. First was with a v. big charity whose whole attitude really p1ssed me off (won't post their name) and second just added so much stress to the training.

    Also, on both occassions I felt that the "I'm running the xxx marathon for charity" pitch was just not true. I was running it for myself. I never really felt very comfortable with that.

    However, on the NYC trip there were runners who did have links to the charity - e.g. they or family members had suffered with the problem - and for them linking their sport/hobby with a good cause was fine.

    But then once that old ballot rejection arrives....

    Anyway, can't you steal the kids' dinner money?

    Neil
  • Oh by the way, with both marathons I did hit my fundraising targets, so getting the money together is doable.
  • If you have the nerve to leave it late enough you'll find some charities are stuck with places and will let you in for whatever you can manage to raise for them. Best to run for one you can identify with tho'. I've found people will sponsor me quite readily (I've got them all trained now) in support of Crisis (homeless charity) but make scathing comments about people running for sick cats etc.
    Everything Mecca from justgiving says above is true, although he doesn't mention the deductions from the extra 28% representing JG's costs, card handling, vat etc but the charity still gets more than the amount pledged.
  • Karen's right we do charge the charities a transaction cost which they are all happy with though - because basically for a £10 donation made by a UK tax payer if you take off our costs, VAT and bank charges the charity still receives virtually twelve quid - (£11.92 or £11.82 - depending on whether people sponsors you by credit or debit card) - you can see our fees here.

    PS.....I'm a chick - common mistake until you see me or hear me on the phone ;-)
  • If you find people being a bit mean in dipping into their pocket, add some of your training races in too. Rather than "I'm running the London Marathon for XXX charity" you could say "I'm running the XX 10k on such and such a date, the YY Half Marathon on another date, and then the FLM on 13th April. Will you give me £10 for XX charity because I'm obviously insane and money is the only cure................." or something like that.

    Non-runners will never know that you would have been doing the 10k and half anyway, and will be so amazed at your dedication to the charity that they will be happy to shell out lots of cash.
  • from other replies it sounds like you could be a teacher? i am teacher and ran for a charity in 2000, having to raise £1500. worried me slightly that i didn't have the benefit of well paid colleagues' contributions (!) and the hope of pressganging my company to contribute/match my fundraising. but, i did manage to get donations from school by having some of the kids participate in a sponsored run and by dividing any funds raised from this equally between my charity and buying new PE equipment for the school. just an idea, hope it helps (if i've misunderstood and you're not a teacher, maybe you could get your children's school to consider it!)
  • Thanks guys.
    Did FLM last year and need another medal so the kids don't fight when I die.
    Yes I am a teacher, and I think I could do it.

    Seriously tempted. Also need to prove I'm fit after spinal damage earlier this year ( well publicised on another thread).
  • In that case, why not apply to Spinal Research - Nicolette Thomas is your woman or the Brain and Spine Foundation - Veronica McCaulsky - phone numbers are on the links above and see if they will let you take a Golden bond place. I know they are both charities with Golden Bond places.

    At least then people will understand why you are running for them - also they might be more likely to give you a place.
  • Do any of you have any good ideas for fundraising EVENTS that are a bit off the coffee-morning-and-boot-sale track but are effective in getting people parted from the contents of their wallets in a good cause? I scrounged like mad last year and would prefer to look as if I'm working for the money next time. And from past experience of fundraising events, you make less from selling cakes and jam and suchlike than it costs to make the things so you might as well save yourself the bother and make a cash donation.

    I'm particularly looking for things an 11-year-old could take an active part in organising and running.
  • V-rap,

    One thing I did last year that worked very well was a sweepstake. I don't know whether it is particularly novel or not, but I did get money off one person in particular who does not - on principle - give money to charity.

    Basically, I did as follows:

    1/ bought a bag of toffees from M&S
    2/ bought some little stickers
    3/ picked my expected finish time and wrote that on one of the stickers
    4/ on the other stickers wrote times up to 30 mins ahead of target (I wish!) and 30 mins slower.
    5/ put all the sweets in the bag
    6/ the offer to punters: put ten quid in the bag and you can take one sweet out. if the time on your sweet is nearest to my finish time, i will deliver, to your door, a case of wine.

    If you sell all the sweets, you get 600 quid minus the cost of the wine, sweets and stickers. I found people loved the fact that they got a sweet straight away. Also, I needed to take their address for delivery in case they won, so that meant I could claim gift aid. Finally, they all became really interested in how my training was going and what time I thought I could do.

    10 quid a ticket and wine as the prize might not be suitable for your kiddies, but the joy is that you can do your adult sweepstake and they can do their own one - maybe one pound a ticket with a CD voucher as a prize?

    I took my bags of sweets with me everywhere!

    Neil
  • Brill idea Neilruns

    A lot of our runners actually managed to get prizes donated from local companies in return for a mention when you are doing the raffle/sweepstake/auction.

    If you are having problems getting hold of things for auctions MSC sports provide a whole collection of signed goodies. Signed sporting memorabilia is very popular and always goes down well at auctions. All profits go to charity, and anything that fails to reach the reserve price is taken back free of charge.

    Your kids might not be able to do the auction that well - although the idea of them dressed up in Victorian garb with a hammer could be fun - but they can certainly drum up support by putting up posters, designing programmes and flyers, getting people to their seats, handing out programmes etc etc.

    He's not a runner but Mike Leatherbarrow has raised money in all sorts of ways and with the help of his kids in fancy dress has collected money from fayres and local shops. Click on the events calender section of his website for how he's done this.

    Another thing that kids in particular love doing is a sponsored silence. You'd have to get your 11 year old to get the approval of their teacher - but I should think any teacher would pay good money themselves to have a room of 11 year old kids quiet for a morning or afternoon.

    Good luck.
  • barkles
    excellent excuse - i love the idea that you have to run again so that you can leave your kids a medal each!!!(although i do realise this is a joke......i think!)

    would love to dream that my family would be fighting for mine, however, i am just deluding myself - i'd have one buried with me, my mum would probably keep one (she's SO proud of me!), my husband would probably say it's the running that killed me, and the others would end up at the bottom of a landfill site!!!

    cep
  • Neilruns, that is SUCH a fantastic idea! I am definitely going to give it an outing at work, where I suspect it might capture a fair number of people who are not culturally familiar with the idea of sponsoring people to do things but whose kids will pester them to part with money for one of my special sweets (would have to be less than a tenner a shot as it's one of the least affluent areas in the country, although I don't see why they shouldn't give the odd charity donation as plenty of them buy Lotto tickets). I'll have to think of a prize that's not alcohol, though...vouchers, probably.

    My kids don't want my medals. Three of them want to run their own races and get their own medals. The other one would only be interested if the medal had a steam engine on it.
  • Like the sweet idea a lot! Like many in their first year of fund-raising, my antics were fairly uninspired and was substantially requesting cash from others(though it should be remembered that, even though we love running, we are putting our bodies through over three/four hours of pounding concrete - checking the injury threads, that carries it's own particular sacrifice and risks).

    This year will be different and in return for stealing the sweets idea, I had a wine based thought when I was telling National Blind Childrens' Society that, without a shadow of a doubt, I'd run for them again...

    Invite ten or so friends round for the evening.
    Host does the food (probably buffet style best bet)
    Invited ones bring - one bottle wine (set limit on value - mine will be less than ten pounds I expect), basic information about the wine (grape, source, what it might taste like if it wasn't off) one ten (or more if you're feeling adventurous) pound note for the charity.

    ...wine tasting/social event ensues. Can be spiced up with tasting competition of sorts for prizes (in which case, increase donation to cover prize costs).

    My guess is that on a social night out, gatherings of friends would spend the 15-20 pounds and this is an alternative way to do it - so general enthusiasm to participate should be decent to high (hopefully...)

    ...probably obvious that I shall not be abstaining from alcohol completely in the run-up to FLM 2003...!
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