Set up an online fundraising page
Setting up an online fundraising page with JustGiving is one of the quickest and easiest ways to both share what you're doing, and collect donations from friends and family.
Simply set a fundraising target, add your story and details about your event, and share your page on your social media channels. Remember to add regular updates so that supporters can follow your progress.
For more information, read our guide on how to set up a great JustGiving page.
Word of mouth
A quick way to create excitement around your fundraiser is through good old-fashioned word of mouth. Telling people about your fundraiser face-to-face can help build more empathy and connection towards your cause.
Reach out to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and business owners in your community. Think about other social activities you do regularly and who else you could tell. This could include gym buddies, other parents on the school run, fellow pub-goers, people at your place of worship or your book club.
Consider the best way to spread your message. It could be through a short chat, sticking up posters, handing out leaflets, sharing your fundraiser on your work’s intranet channel, or by setting up a WhatsApp group.
Social media is all about engaging with people and sharing information, making it one of the best promotional tools for your fundraiser. These platforms make it quick and easy to share fundraising stories, news and successes for free.
Here are some top tips for promoting your fundraiser on social media:
- Choose the right platform(s): consider which channel is the best match for your event and target audience. For example, you can set up an events page on Facebook to share and generate interest in your fundraiser with your personal network. LinkedIn can help you reach professional audiences, while Instagram and TikTok work well for younger audiences and more visual content. Instagram also has a handy fundraising feature that allows you to add a donate button to your profile.
- Research best practices: what works on one platform might not work on another, so look up tried and tested strategies for your chosen channel. This could mean learning how hashtags are used differently on each platform, adapting your tone of voice or mastering special features like reels, stories and video shorts.
- Share your event: whatever the platform, you’ll want to set up an effective page or post explaining what you’re doing. Sharing any personal reasons for organising your fundraiser can also help people to connect, and lead to more sign ups and donations. Include key event details, inspiring images and a link to your fundraising page. When you’re set up, encourage others to share your event widely.
- Post regularly: in the run up to your event, try to post updates at least weekly. This helps to build anticipation for your event and keep it top of mind. Change your profile picture regularly and mix up your posts with different visuals and other content about your event.
Along with these tips, we also have a range of social media resources you can download for free, including fundraising badges and promotional banners.
Publicising your event in the local media is a great way to attract support, while raising awareness of our lifesaving research. Press releases can also help you reach people who might not see your event online.
Here are some top tips on submitting a press release to the local media:
- Make it impactful: start with a strong opening sentence to grab people’s attention. Be concise and include key details such as the date, venue and purpose of your fundraiser. For inspiration, download our free pre-event press release template (we also have a post-event press release template). To personalise your press release, simply fill in the sections in red and format the document to your liking.
- Take a great photo: the photos you send can make or break whether your story gets coverage. Send up to 3 photos, such as action shots or posed group shots, in both portrait and landscape. It's always good to have pictures of people as these tend to get more social media likes and engagement (for example, comments and shares). Make sure your photos are crisp, clear and with a high resolution.
- Follow up: when ready, send your press release and photos to your local newspaper. You can find their contact details in the newspaper itself or on their website. If you don’t hear back right away, it’s always worth following up with a phone call to check whether they received it.
For more guidance, contact your local Fundraising Manager for tailored support on putting together a winning press release.
Email newsletters (e-newsletters) are another great way to tell a large number of people about your fundraiser. They allow you to go into more detail, with more space for you to share images, personal insights and announcements throughout your fundraising journey. This can help your audience feel more engaged and connected with your cause than through social media posts.
With e-newsletters, you can also build a focused mailing list of people, including friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and local businesses. This is great for keeping everyone engaged with your plans and progress before, during and after your fundraiser.
There are lots of free tools you can use to create and send your e-newsletter, including:
Here are some top tips for creating your e-newsletter:
- Make your subject line catchy and attention-grabbing: it’s the first thing people will see in their inbox - make sure it’s short, snappy and creates curiosity.
- Follow a structure: there’s no ‘right’ way to structure an e-newsletter, but you might want to consider using these elements:
- a short, punchy subject line
- an inspiring heading that captures what you’re doing
- a high quality photo
- 2 or 3 short paragraphs about your fundraiser
- a call to action (see our ‘include a call to action’ bullet point).
- Plan your content: your e-newsletter should have a clear purpose or theme. What’s yours? Is it to persuade people to donate, or simply update your supporters on your progress? You could do this by sharing some fun highlights or any interesting things you’ve learned along the way. We have some heart statistics you could also use in your newsletters, to help your supporters understand the cause a bit more.
- Make it visual: pictures can be powerful for capturing people’s attention. Use an eye-catching picture or visual that’s relevant to your e-newsletter theme. Even better if it features people – these tend to increase reader interest too.
- Include a call to action: what do you want your supporters to do after they’ve read your e-newsletter? The likely answer is asking them to donate to your online fundraising page. That’s where your call to action (or CTA) comes in. A CTA is a way to prompt your supporters to take an action, like ‘donate now’. Most e-newsletter-building tools allow you to easily add CTAs to your email.
Let us know about your event
We love hearing about our fundraisers’ efforts and achievements - whether that’s through social media or by you contacting us directly. Be sure to tag us in your social media posts (@the_BHF for Instagram and LinkedIn, and #theBHF on X (Twitter) and TikTok).
If you have any questions about your fundraiser, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with our fundraising team at [email protected]
You can also register your event and get expert guidance on event promotion from our team.
Register your fundraising event
