Organising a Running Event

Poodlecrazy

Hi!

I am part of a supporter group for an African charity and also a keen runner. I am thinking of organising a 5KM 'race' / fun run to raise money and profile and was wondering if anyone has done this, if anyone has any tips / hints or alternatively whether anyone has any other fundraising ideas that are linked to running etc. I have already ran several races and collected sponsorship but people are getting a little fed up of it as they all know I race regularly anyway!!!

Thanks!

P
x

Savvy_Sue

You could contact the charity and ask if someone has done this in another part of the country - you should get the charity's permission before organising an event in their name anyway.

As well as identifying a suitable course, you need to get permission to use it on your planned date, and arrange insurance - again the charity may be able to help with this. Oh, and the wording of sponsorship forms - you can have a tick box for Gift Aid if the form is correctly worded.

then you need First Aid (and be aware St John's and / or Red Cross may need several months notice of your request and may then give you very little notice that they can't attend!), refreshments, prizes ... You may be able to get refreshments via a friendly supermarket.

On the day, you need people to mark out the course, starters, marshalls, prize awarders ... you may be able to get local radio out too. And local paper / radio may publicise in advance to get more runners.

And you need fine weather. Or those space blanket things they were giving out at Glastonbury ...

Ianna

Contact the charity you want to do it for and ask for their events or fundraising team (any decent sized charity will have one). They'll be able to walk you through it.

Contact companies to see about sponsorship. How much will they pay or donate to have their name and logo everywhere? To help encourage them give big invite the local media to attend and do pieces on you and your charity. A soundbite like "we just couldn't do it without X companies generosity!" is a great incentive.

Speak to your local council about getting a permit to collect donations on the day as well. Run everything that you do past the council and make sure they're OK with everything. Get their OK in writing if possible.

Crispy_Ambulance

Get in touch with your local running club as they are likely to have organised races before and may have some contact details for police etc

Poodlecrazy

Thanks all - will be trying out many of your ideas.

I am part of the fundraising team at teh charity so I certainly have permission and this will be the first event of it's type as I am a new recruit and the only sporty one!!!

Savvy_Sue

Poodlecrazy wrote: »

I am part of the fundraising team at teh charity so I certainly have permission and this will be the first event of it's type as I am a new recruit and the only sporty one!!!

That's good, but you may still need to formally seek permission from the Trustees. I k now it sounds daft, does the charity want the money or not etc, and maybe you have a trustee on the fundraising group already who you could rely on to notify / liaise etc. But the point is that charity trustees are liable for ALL activities organised in the charity's name, and need to know what is going on in their name.

It's something our charity is becoming more conscious of these days: although we're very glad when people organise events for us, we have to make sure that if they're seeking press coverage for it that they keep to OUR press guidelines.

It does also avoid the situation you got on a recent episode of Hustle, where someone was organising charity events, but pocketing most of the proceeds and making a very good living from it!

oldtoolie

Check out the Institute of Fundraising page on 'Fundraising and Events' at

www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/bestpractice/thecodes/codesoffundraisingpractice/fundraisingandevents/

Larry Boyd
Tools for Self Reliance
www.tfsr.org

---

Thanks to MSE for making TFSR one of your charities of the year

point3

Organising a running event is no small task...even the organisers of Oxford's annual Abingdon Marathon decided to give it a miss this year!

As savvy sue has said you'll first need to raise the idea at your charity's next committee meeting (have a rough plan of costs ready). You'll need to organise public liability insurance (often the prohibitive factor), police if the event is to be a road race, permission from the landowner/council if an offroad event, St John's Ambulance first aid, refreshment and cloakroom facilities, promotional materials, entry forms and race numbers.

If you do follow it through, why not submit a short article to say Runner's World magazine to let us all know how you got on? Good luck!

Savvy_Sue

Insurance wasn't a major problem: we contacted our regular insurers and paid a small premium on top of our 'normal' annual fee. I'm sure getting standalone insurance would be a lot more expensive, which is why using the charity's services is important!

Also, poodle, think about where similar events are held in your area. I was surprised that it wasn't harder to get permission to hold our Fun Run where we did - council land. Our start and finish point was by the public toilets (and a cafe, but we did supply our own refreshments, with lots of goodies from a local supermarket) so that made toilets straightforward. We didn't cross any roads, which definitely made life easier.

First Aid WAS difficult: one of the main organisations took a LONG time to come back and say "sorry we can't help", by which time it was too late to approach the other. So my advice would be to approach both, in plenty of time, using any personal contacts you've got, AND also milk your local contacts like Scout groups. You wouldn't expect hypothermia to be a problem in May, but TBH that was our biggest worry on the finish line ...

Ours was a fun run, so we didn't give numbers out, just ticked people off at the start and finish lines and relied on them being who they said they were and not having cheated.

Sponsor forms - get a Gift Aid declaration on the form with a tick box!

I'd give more tips but I wasn't the main organiser of our event (and she's on holiday!), just in the background.