Fundraising for charity. Tips?

*max*

Hi all!

I am doing a sponsored hair donation - having my very long hair cut on Friday for the Little Princess Trust (they provide free wigs to children affected by cancer). I have set up a fundraising page on justgiving.com and shared it on my Facebook and Twitter. I will also share it at work on Monday.

Anything else I should be doing? It's the first time I've done something like this.

DigForVictory

Where & when is this happening & might a local paper send a photographer? Have you drafted a press release in case? (Give them the details you Want to get into the papers.)
Have you sent this, plus a high resolution photo to assorted women's mags (chat, take a break etc) that pay for stories?
Not knowing your age, can you get your school, college or workplace involved? Easy pool of people and their families to fish in...
Any hobby groups? Scouts, sports, knitting ? Include them!
A bit of bare faced cheek with the phone, calling local businesses asking for donations, or gifts for you to raffle at the haircut, will boost both your profile & more things to bring in money.
How much do you honestly hope to make? As if you can open with "I'm aiming to raise a thousand pounds" sounds so much more impressive (& sets the tone for the scale of donation from businesses!)
Have statistics on Little Princess' work & their website handy as well as yours - it isn't just your hair you are "selling" but the charity too.
All the best!

*max*

That's brilliant, thank you! I'm 36, so no school...lol But I'm going to share my page at work with a company-wide email (got permission from big boss). I'm a little nervous about contacting the press really..I don't have much confidence in my image, so not keen on having my photo in the paper! An amateur photographer friend of mine is coming along to the hairdresser's to take before/after pictures though, to share on FB.

I will ask my local shops, that's a good idea!

Oh, and I had set my target at £100...a little naive probably, since I only created a couple hours ago and I'm at £70 already! I will raise the target in the next few days I think.

mountainofdebt

what about getting the hairdresser to put a notice in the shop window?

*max*

It's a massive place, so my little flyer won't do much good. But I'll definitely ask them if they want to donate in exchange for a little social media PR!

ellay864

Well done you...great thing to do, a colleague where I work did it a few years ago.
If you're using Twitter make sure you hashtag as many relevant names as you can to draw attention. Send to celebs and ask for re-tweets - I know that David Walliams, John Bisjop and Russell Brand (just a few off top of my head that I follow) will retweet charity fundraisers quite often.
Does your company buy into the GAYE scheme? At our place a lot of people have an account that lets them use cheques that give the gift-aid. Even if not, you should be able to get a sponsorship form allowing people to opt for Gift Aid so the money they pledge is worth more to the charity.
Good luck

meritaten

well, don't forget to ask the hairdresser to donate the money from your hair to the charity. wigmakers pay for real hair - that is why real hair wigs cost so much!
good on you - and don't be shy, you can ask the photographers to show back views showing your hair in all its lengthy glory! then the rear view shots of you 'shorn'.

*max*

Excellent advice! Re: the Twitter thing. I'm a complete noob on there, I've never even used a hashtag before, so thanks for the advice!

ellay864

I'm not sure if you're allowed to give out twitter or FB details on here (suspect not even though it's a good cause) but if you PM me your twitter name, name of your JG site, I'll try to retweet and send to some celbs and ask for a retweet

*max*

Thank you! I didn't think though, and used my full name when setting up the page, so I have to wait until they change it to use the link on forums ( I emailed them to change it). On FB I don't mind, but on forums I'd prefer to keep my name hidden (no nefarious reason, I'm just a private-ish kind of person!). I'll pm you as soon as!

ellay864

No worries - I don't blame you for keeping details private. If your JG page doesn't reveal your name just PM that if you want...can then just send the link out via twitter. I know of somebody who sent a link to her JG via twitter and she had total strangers visit and donate

Sorry - brain not engaged, was thinking you meant your twitter. can see now you meant JG has full name