Advice - Need freebies for huge student charity hitchhike event!

sjhulme

Alright guys! I'm basically just looking to see if anyone has any clever ideas or experience in how to raise some freebies for a goodie bag for a charity event. Every year Sheffield University students do a big charity hitchhike from Sheffield around eastern europe. It takes about 7 days and there's usually about 300 of us. As you can imagine we raise quite a lot for charity (last year about £150,000) but there's always a bit of a stumbling block when it comes to finding businesses that can/ are willing to provide 300+ units of something to put into our goodie bags. I know a lot of people come on this forum so I thought I'd test my luck to see if anyone had any particularly good ideas. If you're interested there's loads more about what we're actually doing if you google "bummit sheffield university" (I'm a new user so the forum won't let me post links)

Thanks in advance!

martindow

Good luck with your venture but I can't see why you need to provide goody bags. If I were hitching around Europe I would want to choose what I wanted to carry around and would not be thrilled to have a goody bag as well.

texranger

yes if i was hiking i would want less in my bag i would not want a goodie bag of rubbish a local business cannot get rid of as this is what a business would give you as they wont give you their main sellers also with the way the economy is today businesses cant afford to give freebies away.

Mistral001

I think some people are bit suspicious about such charity fundraising events as they are not always sure that all money raised will be going to the charity and suspect that some of the money will be going into providing for the students expenses such as accommodation, food and travel.

If you are able to assure firms that all moneys will be going to the charity you might get a better response.

Edit: It is not just the risk of possibly paying for a "free holiday" it is the fact that hitch-hiking can be dangerous and perhaps some businesses are afraid of something happening.

I know when I was a student I hitched hiked all over the place. The continent, USA UK etc. That was thirty years ago. Would I recommend it now? I am not so sure. I would certainly not encourage someone to do it.

sjhulme

We usually try to put things in that will be useful for about the time they leave, or during the hitch not big things they have to carry around with them. In the past we've managed to get red bulls, cereal bars, apples and the like, but I think the stuff we could put in there is pretty broad, for instance I was thinking about cheap facepaints or something to be able to attract attention to themselves as a charity event.

texranger

sjhulme wrote: »

We usually try to put things in that will be useful for about the time they leave, or during the hitch not big things they have to carry around with them. In the past we've managed to get red bulls, cereal bars, apples and the like, but I think the stuff we could put in there is pretty broad, for instance I was thinking about cheap facepaints or something to be able to attract attention to themselves as a charity event.

so you want to approach businesses and tell them what they have to donate to you. this is why you dont get much response

sjhulme

Mistral001 wrote: »

Edit: It is not just the risk of possibly paying for a "free holiday" it is the fact that hitch-hiking can be dangerous and perhaps some businesses are afraid of something happening.

I know when I was a student I hitched hiked all over the place. The continent, USA UK etc. That was thirty years ago. Would I recommend it now? I am not so sure. I would certainly not encourage someone to do it.

Yeah we do get this a lot, but I tend to refer to it as "we have pledged to raise amount X for Sheffield RAG for our charity hitchhike" none of the money actually goes to us, people tend to be happier to give their money over justgiving too. We've done it for 10 years and never had any real problems *touch wood*.

texranger

sjhulme wrote: »

We've done it for 10 years and never had any real problems

well what are you on here for then, you are having a problem getting businesses to give you items you want them to donate to you.

Mistral001

sjhulme wrote: »

Yeah we do get this a lot, but I tend to refer to it as "we have pledged to raise amount X for Sheffield RAG for our charity hitchhike" none of the money actually goes to us, people tend to be happier to give their money over justgiving too. We've done it for 10 years and never had any real problems *touch wood*.

Most people think that when they give money to such events that all the money goes to charity, but there have been cases where it has not and quite a large chunk has gone on expenses. Maybe you should make that more clear to these businesses that it is not one of those type of events and everything goes to the charity. Also perhaps offer some sort of publicity to the firms such as promising to wear their logo on their rucksack.

pitkin2020

your issue is the quantity, whilst businesses sometimes like to be charitable giving away 10 or 20 units is fine but giving away 300 units they would sort of expect some publicity in return and will a student hike give them the coverage they would really need.

A local business would have no real need for publicity in europe for example, joe bloggs plumbing wouldn't benefit in anyway but if you could get a global company on board and turn it into some sort of publicity stunt you may find them more forthcoming when giving away large amounts of units.

texranger

pitkin2020 wrote: »

your issue is the quantity, whilst businesses sometimes like to be charitable giving away 10 or 20 units is fine but giving away 300 units they would sort of expect some publicity in return and will a student hike give them the coverage they would really need.

A local business would have no real need for publicity in europe for example, joe bloggs plumbing wouldn't benefit in anyway but if you could get a global company on board and turn it into some sort of publicity stunt you may find them more forthcoming when giving away large amounts of units.

this is all too true, no good joes plumbing from sheffield donating for a logo on your back packs and then he gets a call from a little french lady in Paris wanting some plumbing work done, but if someone like the virgin group donated cash for a logo and then with the cash you could get what you need then having you logo in france would benefit them.

we had an event on a heritage railway i was involved in and the virgin group was one who donated to us with an experience day for 2 in a hot air balloon, which we raffled and got £500 from.