Help raising money for a Charity Event I am doing

CDaniels1987

I want to do the bike ride from London to Paris in July to raise money for a Cancer charity with http://www.londonparisbikeride.co.uk/ however it says you have to raise a minimum of £1400, I am struggling to think how I am going to raise that kind of money!

Is there any tips anyone could give me on how to raise this kind of money? I really want to do it as I lost my Grandad to Cancer last October and I have wanted to do something like this since then!

Thanks in advance.

vax2002

Before you do, do some research in to how much they pay the executives on this charity.
£1400 wont even buy them lunch.

building_with_lego

When I did the Inca Trail there was a chap who asked lots of companies for a raffle prize; he then gave one ticket in exchange for £10 sponsorship. He had the right number of tickets printed to reach the £1800 target and people felt they were getting something (or the chance of something) in return for their donation. He got some great prizes- a holiday, train tickets on Eurostar, TVs....

I went into the local pub mid- afternoon on payday and found a lot of people in generous mood

CDaniels1987

Thanks for the advice, I really want to do something like this as it would be a personal goal for myself and also raise money for charity, I have found quite a few websites who do a charity event like this, but is there any official event for this?

Thanks in advance.

pinkclouds

Tbh, you'd be better off raising £1.4k and handing it straight over to your chosen cancer charity e.g. local Cancer Research branch or a local hospice. Plus, you could let your local paper know about it and gain your chosen charity a little extra local publicity when you hand the funds over.

The donation you raise from this proposed bike trip will be over and above the amount required to fund the excursion i.e. possibly negligible in comparison.

I applaud your intentions but don't agree with your plans.

CDaniels1987

I understand what your saying, however I would not be able to raise anywhere near that kind of money without doing something. The whole point people are willing to sponsor me is because I would be doing something quite extraordinary.

pinkclouds

CDaniels1987 wrote: »

I understand what your saying, however I would not be able to raise anywhere near that kind of money without doing something. The whole point people are willing to sponsor me is because I would be doing something quite extraordinary.

Unless I've missed the point entirely, you have to raise that £1.4k or you won't be doing the "extraordinary" trip anyway. If you can't raise anywhere near that sum, how will you raise sponsorship on top?

While I cannot speak for everyone, I can say that I wouldn't "sponsor" you to go on vacation (as I view it). And I personally know that one of the big companies in my hometown refuse to sponsor overseas events, although they are happy to sponsor equivalent "local" versions e.g. "cycle through the local countryside, A to B".

As you are clearly keen to raise a significant sum, then I'm suggesting you seek a local angle instead of funding an overseas trip. You could ask local businesses and individuals to sponsor you for a local fundraiser with *all* of the money going to charity. Raising funds in memory of your Grandad is obviously important to you and I'm asking that you consider an alternative avenue as you are, in your own words, "struggling" with the one you have in mind. I lost an aunt to cancer. It's an unkind illness, to say the least.

mishkanorman

I have to agree, whilst it sounds like a big sacrifice and an extraordinary effort to to make, fundraising for charity (imho) should be about just that first and foremost. if you are well connected and are able to get a lot of commercial sponsorship from businesses then its worth a punt but if not thats a hell of a lot of £10/£20 donations to collect !

Something Ive seen work first hand is charity evenings, hire a hall, get donations of prizes from local businesses who wont mind giving a 'prize' they obtained at cost rather than hard cash, get a local band to play and sell tickets for the evening. If you price it correctly you should raise funds from the door as well as the prizes (which you can either auction or raffle off) see if you can get a local celebrity (mayor or local business person) to do the auction/raffle as a bit of a publicity and to get your local papers interested.

The last one local to me raised just over £1200 - with an attendance of around 70 people and lasted just over 3 hours. Much better use of your time and funds, make a bi-annual event of it and your chosen charity can have a nice little boost of funds on a regular basis rather than a tiny cut of what you would pass on after doing the bike ride.

good luck whatever you decide OP,

pearl123

OP - I don't kmow whether the link bellow would be any interest to you. It's about fundraising for cancer research uk.

http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/fundraise

With them there is no maxim one has to raise. Worth a look maybe. It is lovely by the way that you wish to raise some money.

kaz0705

I know people can be quite split about charity events like this but I'm setting my foot firmly on the otherside. I work for a charity (a small one who would really appreciate £1400!) and challenge events like this are great.

Having to raise that amount of money essentially commits you to hosting events that will raise awareness of the charity and its issues- this is key for lots of charities.

In terms of fundraising events £1400 is totally doable if you give yourself enough time!

For a challenge I did (Kilimanjaro- which, by the way, as with the cycle ride is anything but a vacation. Two members of my team were stretchered off the mountain! I repeat, not a vacation!), I did all the usual things: pub quiz with a raffle (ask local business to donate prizes; dinner for two at a restaurant etc), cake sale (specifically at a large corporate company that my friend worked at- raised £250!), garden tea party (held on Will & Kate's wedding day. Got friends to donate a cake each and borrowed loads of mismatch cups and saucers).

But also did sweepstakes- people like to get money! Wimbledon was the big winner. I think I charged £4 for 3 names, that the person would pull out of a hat (well, bag). As there are so many players, 3 names per go was totally do-able. Of the £4, half went to fundraising and half in the pot.

Did similar things for the rugby world cup too and, at her suggestion, the weight of a pregnant friend's baby!

Also use everyone you can - I was amaze at the generosity of friend's with their time and talents. For example, the cake sale was possible due to a talented baker friend 'donating' the ingredients and then baking all the cakes- about 175 of various cupcakes/ cake pops etc.

My partner is a brewer so did a home brew and gave a bottle to anyone who donated £5...

Be optimistic and persistent.

And watch out for your knees- a friend of mine did it a couple of years ago and still has a limp every now and again :-)

JodyBPM

Can I just ask, is this about doing the trip or about raising money for a cancer charity? I wonder what percentage of the £1400 that you need to raise would actually go to charity?

I would say that you could raise a much smaller amount to give directly to a cancer charity, and they would benefit as much as if you gained £1400 via sponsership for this trip once the costs of you doing the trip have been deducted.

It may not seem as big a gesture, but if you are serious about giving money to a cancer charity, then smaller scale fundraising (selling things on ebay, cake sale at work, hosting coffee mornings etc) would be just as good. It would be hard work, and less enjoyable than the bike ride, but very rewarding.

I never sponsor people for these big trips/events, as I just feel I am paying for people to have an expensive holiday for free, rather than actually giving to charity. I'd be much more likely to put in some money for a collection that went straight to the charity, or small scale fundraising etc.