Where to start with Fundraising and what charity?

vsumouse

hi all,
me and a friend are looking into doing the mongol rally in 2009,

this is where you get a car under 1000cc and drive from hyde park london to mongolia with no set route.

the entry fee is £1000, £750 of that going to a mongolian childrens charity and the remaining £250 to a charity of our choice.

now i feel if we are to raise £1000 we should try and raise more and give the rest to the charity of our choice.

to cover the cost of our petrol and our visas we will try to get sponsors that can advertise on the car (say 1x1" square for 2.50).

we will pay our own way with food, drink and digs (if for some how we cant pitch up a tent).

what i require is some information on how we would give to charity, what charity to give to and if they will help publicise our adventure.
also has anyone else done a simmilar thing where they can help us raise money for the charitys as we have no previous knowledge of this.

cheers.

GiveItBack

well I'd say the starting point would be to think of a charity that might mean something to you. I'd happily suggest some, but then I could be biased.

Then you just contact the charity, and let them know what you're doing. They'll often help you out as much as they can with tips and hints, and make suggestions on how to improve the fundraising. Some are better than others at this kind of thing.

Have you got your car yet?

Feel free to pm me.

Savvy_Sue

GiveItBack wrote: »

I'd happily suggest some, but then I could be biased.

Me too, and likewise! :rotfl:

Think: do you want to support a local or national charity? A national might give you more help, but a local might give you a warmer glow ... and the local media might be more likely to pick it up and publicise it for a local charity.

Do you know anyone who's affected by a particular problem - eczema, asthma, cancer, diabetes, stroke ... (so the answer to that will be yes, even if it's not something on that list!) The personal touch might swing it for you (and the media).

do you like 'cuddly' things - children, animals, wildlife? Or will you go for something less 'popular' like AIDS or landmines.

And so on ...

Sallys_Savings

To raise the funds you could do a number of things,
also at any event make sure you have a large poster of a picture/photo of the car marked up with the segments you intend selling with the price clearly marked so people can buy that too. Make sure you have all the details to hand even for car boots/fetes etc.

A race night in your local pub?...really easy to organise, if you need help pm me and I'll tell you exactly how to organise it. (we've had these in halls too and have made £1,500 in a night) You do need to organise it where they are likely to have a tv or a big screen. We used our local rugby club for free (they gained by the drink profits) so think along different lines rather than just the town hall as social clubs etc may welcome you too.

A darts/snooker competition?...At your local pub/club or how about contacting your local league? (we did this and raised a few hundred pounds). They actually organised it all for us.

Normal raffles...contact busniesses/shops/beauty therapies/supermarkets/hair dressers/salons/swimming pools/gyms etc. I normally send a letter and then two weeks later if I havent heard follow up visiting or with a phone call. Have a raffle at any event you organise and also ask people if they would be able to hold one at their pub/club/work place. Search the grabbit board for anything that you could use for prizes.

Bag Packing in a supermarket (if you have enough friends and famly to help out)....lots of supermarkets will let you do this now. Where you turn up with people to help bag pack for customers and have a bucket at the till for donations. We did this for christmas...maybe easter would be a good time so get the letters out quick. (perhaps all wear t shirts ..you could buy white tesco value and print these yourself easy enough for £2 each)

Normal car boots/ebay sales.....ask around or print sheets and deliver in your area for donations..i.e. say that you will be home on sat for drop offs or you could collect etc.

Fetes..hold a games stall...i.e. tombola, higher and lower card game, crockery smash, hoopla etc. etc.

Hold a fun games night/karaoke (mix whatever you wish)...you can have the whiskey game (where you throw £1 coins at a whisky bottle and the nearest wins)
Higher and lower card game (the bruce forsyth card game)
Card races..cards in a row and you throw a dice to get to the end first
etc. etc.

Casino night...(more expensive to set up and a little more complicated than a race night but great fun)

Auction of Promises....You could add this to any night or make a night of it yourself...or just have it at your local pub/club. Where people bid for your "services" :eek: ..no not like that;) . Say that you'd do gardening for the day, two evenings computer tuition, a car service, late night taxi service, cook a meal for four, wash their car for the next four weeks, etc. Theres lots of ideas you can use. I have heard of this done with four fellas and they all dressed up as slaves with shakels (sp?) and stood on the stage/front. If you do it later in the evening people have relaxed with a few drinks and pay more..especially if you can get someone to head the auction who can banter it all up.
You could either do this just you two, or ask friends/relatives/businesses to volunteer to help out too....then you could add things relating to their skills....i.e. a mot, wash the windows of a semi house, an hour with a financial advisor, bake a birthday cake, a manicure, fresh veg from an allottment for the next month etc. etc.

Any crafts/skills you could sell?

Make sure you contact your local media, papers and radio... it will really help. We've had cheques donated, contacts made through this so well worth it. Contact them now, then just before an event, and before you go.

vsumouse

hi, thanks for all the great ideas, im sure we have a good laugh raising the money.

as for the car, we have not got one yet as the rally is not untill june 2009, so we will find out if we have got a place in november and then purchase as soon as we have got the place.

is there a somewhere online where we can set up a website that we could maybe update as we get to major towns/citys along the way (like a blog i suppose), and also the website could show progress of the dontations?
i am very new to all the website sides of things so pelase excuse my ignorance.
Also would the website be able to take donations?
would we require a special bank account for the dontations?

Piggybanker

Hi

For online donations you could use www.justgiving.com and then publicise the page on your emails/posters in pub etc. This allows people to pay by card and the amount goes automatically to your chosen charity.

Not sure about the blog aspect tho - but I guess once you have that set up you could do a link to your justgiving page.

Good luck with it - sounds like fun
Piggy

Savvy_Sue

the justgiving site is brilliant IF your intended charity is registered with them. There are costs involved in doing this, BUT IMO even a smaller charity would find it worthwhile for something like this. It is possible to cancel your registration with JustGiving after a while if it doesn't seem to be worthwhile. But we've never regretted registering: it is superb for things like marathons and half-marathons and 'special' things where everyone from the postman to the milkman may be persuaded to sponsor you, and it beats trawling round afterwards trying to persuade people to part with their cash!

GiveItBack

Agree with savvysue again. Justgving is a great way to give - and I think that MSRF focus their fundraising on being through justgiving and find people who use it raise more than people who don't. They raised something like £800,000 through it last year - not bad fundraising for a small charity, never mind not bad online fundraising.

For a blog, or website, some of or supporters have used blogger.com - I use it for my own, and I think you can now update from a phone.

Bob63

The most fundamental question that needs to be answered here is "Which charity?". If you have a nominated charity and a very good reason for raising money for it then you will be more motivated to succeed IMHO.

For example, I am a supporter of Freewheelers EVS - http://www.freewheelers.org.uk - which is a charity based in the South West of England. It uses a fleet of motorcycles fitted with lights/sirens and volunteer riders to provide an out-of-hours emergency courier service to local hospitals. I support them because shortly after my dad started his chemotherapy he needed an emergency blood transfusion - trouble is he was in Bristol Oncology Centre and his notes were in Weston-super-Mare. No problem, Freewheelers to the rescue... Since then I have been an avid supported of the charity and that personal link helps me through dark moments such as when I'm riding one of their bikes at 3:00am on a cold wet January morning!

My point is - pick a charity that means something to you or to a close family member or friend. That will focus your mind on your fundraising activities and give your trip a real point.

Savvy_Sue

An excellent point from mike, and one I hadn't managed to put very well myself.

But I will also add some personal experience to my previous recommendation of JustGiving. DS1 has decided to have his head shaved - he has nearly waist length hair ATM! The first I found out about this is when JustGiving emailed me to say that someone had set up a Personal Fundraising Page on behalf of the charity I work for. However, I was able to email the link for his page to all our staff and Trustees (fewer than 20 in total), and within half an hour he had his first sponsor - £20, which with Gift Aid is more than £25. This evening, he has another sponsor - after 2 minutes work on my part.

yes, there's a small monthly charge to our charity, and yes, there's a small admin charge on each donation, BUT if these people sent the money direct to us we'd have to write a receipt and post it out with a thank you letter - which is a lot more than 2 minutes work!

So, pick a charity, talk to them, and if they're not already registered with JustGiving, suggest they seriously consider it! We've not long been registered, but it is DEFINITELY value for money!

debtfreeoneday

I'm raising money at the moment for a charity ending with a trip to the Arctic with a team of husky dogs!

Justgiving.com has been great for people to donate online. We've also shaken tins in local towns - write to the councils who need to give permission, sold tons of stuff on ebay and also written to local companies asking for sponsorship.

Justigiving also has a handy tips section on fundraising which may be helpful for you??