Walk the Walker Gynette shares fundraising tips and experience

I am now about to start my 8th year of Fundraising for my favourite charity.

When I did my very first MoonWalk in 2012, it was easy to get support as it was all new and everyone was amazed that I was going to walk 26.2 miles at night in a bra to raise awareness and money for Breast Cancer. As the years have gone on I have had to think of more unusual and novel ways to fundraise, with only missing 2015 due to surgery I didn't feel I could continually ask my friends and family.

I have done Cake Sales, Easter Egg Raffles, Bucket Shaking (well standing in the rain holding a bucket because its not PC anymore to shake it), continual online auctions of goods I no longer need or people have donated. Last year saw my biggest event ever - organising an afternoon tea - another blog is well overdue for that one, watch this space.

Years ticking by, the Walking Events have got bigger, so have the fundraising targets. I have walked several London and Scotland, Completed 3 Land Challenge, Disney Twice, Nijmegen Marches... I am now into 2020 fundraising and have Camino 100 spring, London Full Moon and Disney to raise for, meaning a minimum of £1350, but I may still add more events?

Last Weekend I was very lucky to be allocated a stall at our local Charities Christmas Fayre along with 64 other very worthy charities.

I needed to think differently to attract people in. I had already decided on a Tombola at 50p per ticket and have been collecting prizes off friends and also buying things (no more than £1 each) for a couple of months. I decided to add a Jar Tombola which would attract the best audience - Children! This is when my Dining Room took on a whole new job of Storage, I collected jars from wherever I could luckily I have a great dishwasher and a very understanding husband!

Lucky Dip was also added so after filling 70 Jars with sweets and small toys, wrapping over 100 lucky dip prizes, and dabbing black ink on some of the lolly in my Pick a Lolly game, all adding to the 70 plus tom bola prizes I was nearly ready to go. Chuck in a gorgeous hamper for a £1 a strip raffle and my gorgeous Name the Elf which was kindly donated by one of my amazing walking friends Pat Hipkiss I was set.

Nerves kicked in the night before - Do I have everything, what if nobody visits my stall, what if I have to bring it all home again...

The day arrived and my lovely friend Lyndsey was at the venue to help me set up and stay to help for the morning on the stall, the queues were that big to get in they opened the doors 20 mins early - it was now or never, make or break! I waited for my first visitors proudly wearing my bright pink "Men Get Breast Cancer Too" t-shirt, the main reason I started supporting the charity was due to my Hero, my Dad having Breast Cancer, I was asked by several people about the Men and am glad it got the message across! Another one of my great supporters Jan came along to help me for the afternoon - which as usual with Jan ended with lots of giggles.

I am pleased to say I didn't stop for the whole 6 hours, but at 2.30 there were still quite a lot of jars to be won so I reduced the price to 2 tickets for 50p, then at 3.30 I reduced them to 4 for 50p - Bargain! By the time I had finished I came home with just 10 Tombola prizes (which I have added to my auction page and they are going well) and 7 jars! WOW - what a day, but what an amazing dent in my fundraising.

Expenses... 

As I have to pay for return flights to UK and often an overnight hotel on top of all normal entry fees for events I have learnt that I have to actually take some expenses for things I have purchased, I didn't used to but after checking with the very supportive Fundraising team at WTW I knew this was possible. There can often be a need to speculate to accumulate, and not everyone can afford to donate their own cash. But, you can borrow your own cash to buy, for example, flour, butter and sugar, which you then turn into cakes which you sell for 4 times the cost of the basic ingredients. So, if you spend £50 and sell your cakes for £200, your net total is £150, which is your fundraising.

There is no reason at all that people cannot take back what they have put in. Obviously, if you were to take more than the basic cost, you are not being fair to your customers who think they are supporting a charity. Even large lotteries with big prizes etc can take the cost of the prizes out, up to the value (I think) of 20% of the total income! And that’s in the law!

I banked my takings by tipping it in the magic counting machine in my local branch, feeding all the £1 notes (yes we still have notes) into the other machine - it all came out at a total of £515 - WOW, I was blown away. After taking my £35 float out I have added £480 to my fundraising page.

I have learnt that sometimes I have to get out of my comfort zone to raise the funds and I have also learnt to ask for help - I am very independent and my friends support me by giving money and making cakes etc, but I am now not too proud to ask if anyone would like to donate an hour of time instead.

Don't be afraid to try something different - it could bring the £££ in. Most of all remember enjoy it, its meant to be FUNdraising.

Gyn xx