Fundraising... a marathon not a sprint!

In early 2022, I received a phone call from Sam at Walk the Walk, I had been successful in applying for the one Walk the Walk charity place for the London Marathon 2022. After whooping with delight and being in disbelief for the rest of the day, I thought about the task ahead. 26.2 miles in a decent time wasn’t my problem but fundraising was.

I needed to raise £2,000 and I have never found fundraising easy. I don’t work for a company that offers matched funding, I don’t live in a village where everyone would turn out for one massive fundraising event and I couldn’t rely on friends and family to donate such a large amount. Instead of thinking about what I couldn’t do, I needed to concentrate on what I could do.

I decided to come up with a list of eight smaller ideas and if each one raised £250 then my target would be achieved. I knew they wouldn’t all raise £250 but I hoped some might raise a bit more.

• My first idea was a birthday fundraiser on Facebook. It was really easy to set-up, I said I didn’t want birthday cards or presents but I would love a donation. It coincided with my 60^th birthday, which did help. Family and close friends still wanted to give me a physical present but I did raise £200. 10% of my target was already achieved.

• I was already using the pink collection tubs but due to the pandemic, I hadn’t emptied them for a while. I have two pots at a cathedral gift shop, I collected the takings twice; people are incredibly generous, and throughout the year I banked £211.

• Quiz nights are always popular and a good way of giving something back to your donors. With a bit of persuasion, my son agreed to be the quizmaster. He devised the whole quiz. I contacted a local pub with an upstairs function room, they also owned the local pizza takeaway (literally called ‘The Pizza Place’). I sold 46 tickets at £10 each. Each team of 6 were given interval refreshments of 2 pizzas. I also did a raffle. The pub donated the function room for free and gave a 20% discount on the pizzas. The total profit raised that night was £468. Walk the Walk does have the question-and-answer sheet my son wrote so if you can’t devise your own quiz you can use that one.

• The theme of the Moonwalk was ‘your hero’. I had the idea of decorating my bra with different coloured poppies, hopefully, people would sponsor them for a minimum donation of £1. This didn’t go as well as I hoped but I still ended up with £36 and a very colourful bra.

• I have never done a bucket collection outside a supermarket but I thought it might be worth a go. I wrote (yes, snail mail!!) to 6 supermarkets. Only two contacted me, the Co-Op and Morrisons. My first bucket collection was outside my local co-op. I was nervous and not sure what to expect but once I got into the swing of it everything was OK. I borrowed two collection buckets from Walk the Walk and I stood outside the Co-op from 9:00am – 3pm. A friend and my husband joined me for 30 minutes or so to allow for lunch and a loo break. My technique? - When there was a group of people I just loudly said ‘Help Fight Breast Cancer’ and shook the bucket, I was wearing a WTW t-shirt and the two together did the trick. I never looked anyone in the eye as I think that is intimidating. I was uneasy for the first few minutes but soon got into the swing of it. Be aware that some people may want to tell you their experiences so be ready with empathy. Total raised £616.

• A few weeks later, I did the same outside Morrisons. Once again, my friend and her husband joined me. Total raised £557. I think I was lucky with the supermarkets chosen but I would have been pleased with half that amount.

By now I had raised over £2,000 but I signed up for the New York Marathon, adding another £650 to my target

• My next idea was postcards. My family and friends had already donated but there was a small core who I had not asked. These were people I hadn’t seen in ages and were not on Facebook. We exchange Christmas cards and letters but always after the event, so I created a postcard; my photo on the front, a QR code linked to my fundraising page on the back and a quick note about what I was doing. I posted 16 cards and received sponsorship from 9 people, a total of £277.

• I signed up for easyfundraising, some online retailers will donate a small percentage of your spend to the charity of your choice. Often it is only pennies, but to quote a well-known supermarket ‘every little helps’. I raised £19 by doing this but if you can get friends and family to sign up as well you could get a lot more and it is really easy to do. Especially useful if you are doing a large DIY project.

• Earlier I mentioned QR codes, you can make a QR code linking to your fundraising page using a QR Code Generator (or you can ask Jan at Walk the Walk). I printed a page of codes and laminated them. This meant that if someone unexpectedly asked for my online sponsorship page I could give them a QR code. A really good example of this was when I was in The Queue for the Queen’s lying-in-state. I talked to the man behind me, and told him I was doing the London Marathon for a breast cancer charity. He said he had lost friends due to breast cancer and did I have a Just Giving page. I gave him my QR code and he gave £25.

I also received unsolicited donations and contributions from friends and family. On the day of the London Marathon, I re-posted my fundraising page on Facebook and picked up some last-minute donations.

To date, my fundraising for the year stands at £2,880. I am delighted and amazed. All of this was achieved by aiming for lots of small fundraisers, this approach suited me best.

My final tip would be to SPEAK TO JAN.  She was helping me every step of the way, providing the fundraising materials (banners, buckets and pots) as well as phone support, which was invaluable.

GOOD LUCK xx - Elizabeth

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