Fundraising but not for a Charity .....

renowen

Hi there, wonder if anyone can help?

I'm looking for a site like Just Giving where people can donate towards a sponsered event, however the monies won't be going to a particular charity.

A good friend of mine is a registered nurse and is off to Kenya next November to volunteer with a Healthcare Outreach Programme, but to be able to do this she needs to raise about £2000 - the money will go towards nursing care, medication, medical supplies etc and any extra money will go towards toys for the children.

I would love to do a sponsered event to help her raise the funds but is there some way I can raise money online despite it not being for a charity as such?

All help greatly appreciated x

Savvy_Sue

I'm not aware of anything like that: the difficulty is that online fundraising sites will check that a charity is properly set up and legitimate.

kiss_me_now9

My housemates are doing a trip to Peru next year and have set up a website, I'll try and get the name of it for you - I'm fairly certain there is one.

ETA - This is the one they're using. http://www.gofundme.com/

Savvy_Sue

OK, that looks helpful to the OP. However, it does warn people only to donate to people they know and trust ...

paddyrg

Problem is a lot of 'doing xyz for an overseas charity' is actually big business for travel and events companies, so someone raising say a 'minimum donation' of £3000 will actually get a £2500 holiday with the charity benefiting marginally for the use of their name. I suspect a lot of people are wary of this, whereas if the person just raised the £3000 obviously the charity would be massively better off. Most villages don't need gangs of inexperienced and patronising white middle class kids to build a school, they need money for materials and a local drive to do the job as a community and not look for handouts which are disempowering.

Now your friend going to Kenya might be different if she is a trained nurse going to teach skills as opposed to people who go for a charity bike ride through the hotels of southeast Asia, but without a specific framework it is hard to convince people. Perhaps she can pay for her own flight and costs, all money raised going to save the children, etc.

As for a sponsored event, how much will you raise and what are the costs? People often raise less for a charity with sponsored events than good old fashioned tin rattling as they have never organised an event before and underestimate the costs.