Non stop rides

Swarhouse

Last August I decided that I would test myself and cycled Lancaster to Birmingham nonstop. I thoroughly enjoyed it looking back, and wanted to move on my ambitions this year. Lancaster to London is the route I have in mind. I didn’t do it for charity last year, mainly because I wasn’t sure I could do it! This year I’m going to commit and pop myself down to support Cancer Care in Lancashire.

My question is this; if I’m riding for the charity (I hope they would accept me!) would it be reasonable to ask them to pay for a cycling top? I want all the monies I raise to go to the charity and won’t be ‘dipping’ into it for expenses etc.

Secondly, does anyone have any experience of raising monies for a charity on a larger scale than my friends and family? I kind of thought about asking Asda to let me put buckets at the end of the tills, and corporate sponsorship, am I missing a trick?

gsk82

i have zero experience of charity work but i reckon a good place to start would be to set up a just giving page and try get your local rag to do a write up on you (with the webpage at the bottom)

Biffz0id

Just giving's a good site to use it makes it really easy for people to donate. They also have lots of tips on their site about effective ways to reach people.

Cancer Research gave me a running top. But that was generic one they probably make in their thousands. A cycling jersey on the other hand is different. But you could alwasy ask. I would doubt a smaller charity would be able to help you though.

What I found effective was a facebook group. I invited all my friends and then sent them reasonably regular blogs to let them know how I'm getting on.

Finally, I would say timing's important to get the most out of people in terms of how much you raise. If you get it all set up too soon people will loose interest. Too late and you're not reaching as many people as you might of. It's a hard balance to find.

Good luck!