This Sunday will see thousands of people take to the streets of London for the marathon. I'm very proud to say that I know several people pushing themselves to run 26.2 miles for charity this year and I sit here in absolute awe of them - I couldn't imagine ever being able to do so!
My lovely colleague and friend Emma Smith and her fiance Paul Hill are very passionate and creative fundraisers, as I have mentioned in this blog before, and Paul will be running the marathon to raise fund for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Paul has very kindly written a guest post for me with some handy hints and tips for fundraising. I hope you find it as interesting and informative as I have!
Thanks Paul!
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Fundraising Tips
On Sunday 21st April I will be
tackling my second London Marathon. I am
proud and honoured to be running for Macmillan Cancer Support and the last 6
months raising money for them.
A few years ago I took up running, mainly
as it was a cheap way of getting fit. As
my running developed, I began to enjoy pushing myself further and started to
enter some organised races. This
coincided with the start of my association with Macmillan Cancer Support. When I started entering races, it seemed only
right that I should use the opportunity to try and raise some much needed funds
for Macmillan. Initially, my targets,
like the distances I was running were rather modest. I quickly realised that sending begging
emails and shaking collecting tins was only going to take me so far. Then it dawned on me that if I was going to
take my fundraising to the next level, I was going to have to come up with
something a little bit different.
Below are a few of the ways I have raised
money over the last few years. I hope
you find them useful.
Darts Tournaments
Me and my mates are partial to a game of
darts. Over a few pints and a couple of
legs of darts me and my good friend Rich started to joke about putting on our
own tournament Once we had sobered up we
thought ‘why not – let’s give this a bash, what’s the worst that can happen?’
and so the Macmillan Darts Classic was born.
Despite our initial nerves, the MDC has
become a roaring success and is now a regular fixture on the fundraising
calendar, with the 16 places selling out in a matter of days, at a cost of £20
per team. Thanks to the generosity of my
friend Tom for providing the winners’ trophies and Richard, landlord of the
Horseshoe we do not have to pay a penny to put the event on and so it always
turns a healthy profit.
An Evening of Darts with
Steve Beaton
Once again thanks to the generosity of
Richard at the Horseshoe in Clerkenwell, we recently managed to pull off our
most spectacular event yet – a darts exhibition with former world champion
Steve “The Bronze Adonis” Beaton. For
£25 each, 18 darts fans each played a leg of 701 against the Adonis and also
had a picture with him, a special set of darts flights and a signed scorecard. Spectators paid £5 each to come along to take
in the atmosphere, including a hugely entertaining Q and A session with
Steve. Thanks in part to some marvellous
fundraising from Tom to cover the cost of hiring Beaton for the night, this
turned out to be the most lucrative event yet, with well over £1,000 raised on
the night.
Quiz Nights
My pal Matt has a history of running quiz
nights and mentioned how he would like to put one on for one of fundraising
efforts – his actual words were “I can’t run a marathon, or even run for a bus
for that matter, but I can put on a quiz!” – and so Paul and Matt’s quiz nights
were born. Matt works miracles to come
up with obscure questions and some stunning picture and music rounds. We charge £5 per person for teams of up to 6,
with a bottle of fizz for each member of the winning team. Ware very fortunate to be accommodated the
Leyton Orient Supporters Club at very little cost. We used Twitter, Facebook and forums to
attract as wide a range of participants as possible and hope to run the next
quiz soon.
Paulie’s Pontoon
A slight variation on the traditional
sweepstake. Players pay £5 to enter and
are assigned a team at random from the Premier League or Football League. The winner is the first team to score exactly
21 league goals and they win 25% of the pot.
Second place wins 10% and the remainder goes to Macmillan. This has been hugely popular among football
fans and non football fans alike and encourages lots of friendly competition!
Bottle Tombola
A traditional tombola with a twist! An ingenious idea that sadly I cannot claim
complete credit for! In trying to find a
way to squeeze some more money from those attending the darts tournaments we
simply collected a random assortment of bottles (water, vodka, gin, bubble
bath, vinegar, etc...) and asked everyone attending the tournament to bring a
bottle. For £1 you are able to pull 5
tickets out of the hat. If your number
matches that on any of the bottles then you are a winner. A simple, yet very effective
way of raising a few extra pounds!
Raffles
No fundraising event would be complete
without a raffle. Over the years we have
managed to attract some amazing prizes, from sports tickets and signed memorabilia
to free meals, haircuts and even juicers!
You name it we have managed to give it away in a raffle. I have been indebted to a lot of hard work
from my close friends and family and have been absolutely bowled over by the generosity
of people willing to donate prizes. It
would be impossible for me to mention everyone, but a special thank you must go
to Leyton Orient Football Club who has supported me magnificently over the
years with tickets (for football and darts), hospitality and signed shirts.
Top Tips
Fundraising doesn’t have to be one
dimensional – with a bit of creative thinking, anything is possible! My top
tips are:
· *Give your donors something for
their money
· *Put on events that appeal to
the widest possible audience – Don’t be afraid to invite anyone and everyone to
join in and don’t be offended when people don’t respond!
· *Think outside the box! The more imaginative the idea, the better
· *Use yours or friends’ contacts
to get prizes – Also don’t be afraid to speculatively email local business and
ask for support
· *Arrange your events around
payday and give people every opportunity to spend as much money as possible
once they arrive
· *Make full use of social media
to publicise your efforts – Twitter is a particularly effective way of
attracting new supporters
· *Above all else, enjoy it! It can become hard work, but remember why you
are doing it!
Finally, I must stress how fortunate and
grateful I am for the support I have had from friends, family and colleagues in
raising so much money over the years.
Without the tireless and ingenious efforts of a few very special people,
none of this would have been possible.
