Top tips for successful fundraising

You may well have set yourself a personal goal for the event – but remember to set a goal for your fundraising too.

This will then allow you to work out how many people you’ll need to ask to sponsor you or how many activities you’ll need to do. Be brave and think big!

If you have a personal reason for supporting and raising funds for us or if you are doing it simply for the challenge, share the reason with potential supporters and the local press as it will help bring your appeal to life. This will then help you reach your fundraising target much more easily and quicker.

Make sure everyone you know - and their friends and families - know exactly what you are doing.

Give them full details of what you are taking part in, why you are raising money for the us and how important their support is.

Whether you use the paper form or the online web page, ask your closest friends and family to sponsor you first. If you get the first few people to give generously you’ll probably find that others will follow suit.

For example, start with a £20 donation and people will be unlikely to put £2, but start with a £2 donation and people will follow by putting smaller amounts too. Following this advice will help you build your fundraising total more quickly and reach your target faster.

Family and friends can also be great at getting support from their contacts

Just go for it and have fun. Don’t worry about feeling silly or asking for donations as many people will be impressed you are raising money and will want to support you.

Raising sponsorship doesn’t have to be tiresome and just involve asking people to sponsor you. Be creative and think about all the different groups of people you know and choose an activity that would appeal to them all.

You may find that people can be very generous if you make the activity/event fun or offer them something in return, such as a prize.

Organise fun events that your family and friends, work colleagues and sports/social club mates will want to come to. You could raise a lot this way.

Below can be found some ideas to help inspire you:

• ‘Auction of Promises’ – everyone has a hobby or hidden skill – why not sell it to the highest bidder?!
• Barbeque
• ‘Car boot’ or ‘Bring and buy sale’.
• Coffee/tea break to sell healthy cakes and biscuits.
• Events such as ‘Wear Red’, ‘Bad Hair’, ‘Wrong Tie’ or ‘Fancy Dress’ day at work.
• ‘Guess the Baby’ photo or ‘Hidden Past’ competition.
• Losing weight or giving up smoking.
• Playing virtual ‘Office Olympics’ and challenging friends and work colleagues - see our online games on the yheart website.
• Quiz
• Sponsored ‘Marathon’ aerobics, cycling in the gym, golf or table tennis events.
• Sports matches involving management vs shop floor, or teachers vs students. Or organising football, cricket or other sporting tournaments.
• Swear box in the office.
• Sweepstake at work on events like the Grand National, Wimbledon, ‘I’m a celebrity....get me out of here!’ winner, or guessing the total time to complete your event.

Make the most of the time you have for fundraising by thinking of ways you can haul in big chunks of your fundraising target.

This could be in the form of organising one or two big events or getting your employer to support you.

Many companies have budgets for matching their employees' fundraising efforts, so find out if your employer does this. In return, you could offer a story for the in-house newsletter, and acknowledgment in press releases to local newspapers (we'll help you with that).

Make the most of all your work contacts, such as suppliers and clients. If you have a relationship with them, they may well sponsor you personally, as well as through their company.

You may also be able to hold a fundraising social event at work, and if you belong to a sports or social club, ask them to get behind you too.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to fundraise is to set up an online sponsorship page with Virgin Money Giving or JustGiving. 

As the money is taken from the donors account as soon as they sponsor you you won't need to chase sponsors after the event. And by going online you can reach all those friends, family and colleagues you don’t see every day.

Please remember to always ask your sponsors to Gift Aid their donation, if they are UK tax payers. This means that we can receive an extra 25p for every £1 donated. It doesn’t cost your sponsors any extra and we won’t put their details onto a database – but we will need their full name, home address and postcode to be able to claim the Gift Aid on their donation.

Gift Aid can be claimed on voluntary donations from individuals but not payments (such as tickets) or the proceeds of general collections.

Enjoy your fundraising and you’ll not only raise more but your supporters/sponsors will enjoy the event as well. And sponsors will also have the added great feeling that comes from knowing that they’re helping save lives too.

You may get turned down by some, but overall you're likely to be overwhelmed by the generosity of the people you ask.

We're here to help you every step of the way. Contact us if you need any help raising funds.