How can I improve my sponsorship?

andy 3654

I am really struggling to raise anything for the London to Brighton ride later in the year. I thought that with the extra challenge of cycling back home would encourage people to donate but I am no where near my intended target any suggestions would be useful.

I do already have a just giving page set up here is the link for people to look at and constructively comment on.
http://www.justgiving.com/andrew-reid7

nawty

Unless you are pitching at strangers you don't really need to worry about how good the Justgiving page is as it is just a tool to collect money.

Money doesn't just fall in, you have to actually ask people to sponsor - Facebook, emails etc and you can't beat getting an old fashioned sponsorship form out and going around everyone at work.

Ask some friends and family to get the ball rolling, I find I tend to give more to pages where others have donated first.

Also, I think it depends on your situation - if you were a fat slob and have just dropped 10kg in training people will be inclined to donate, if you're just looking for sponsorship for doing your hobby they might be less so inclined (this is why I stopped doing sponsored stuff).

If that doesn't work then it's probably time to get some more friends...

andy 3654

Oh no im not pitching here, just getting frustrated thats all.

zardoz

Develop persistence and a thick skin! You may find people are a little keener to sponsor as it gets nearer the time.

CiB

Maybe people are up to here with requests to sponsor someone to do something that they'd do anyway and don't fancy handing money over for someone else to live the dream doing a Sunday fun ride. Maybe.

simonhead

Getting sponsorship is tough for events. I have asked my work if they will match all sponsorship i get - something to do with a tax write off.

If you are asking for sponsorship by email you need to put a story behind it, you cant just say you are doing a bike ride, lay it on a little thick.

napoleond

Problem is the sheer quantity of people doing exactly the same. I'm asked everyday by numerous people to sponsor them via just giving for doing something they enjoy doing. The way I see it, rather than sponsor all of them to do something enjoyable, I'll stump up all the money for the charity myself and do it myself.

malonejames

Send out regular training update emails highlighting your progress. Ladle on thick how hard it is and how much pain you're in.

Anonymous

Why do you feel that you have to raise money?

Looking at your page would I be right in thinking that you have a charity place and that at the moment it is costing you £490 to do the event? I hope you pay up any difference yourself if that is the case and you do not just default on the charity :oops:

Your page is rubbish but I think the main problem is that you seem to want people to pay for your fun!
Sorry if I have got any of that wrong but it certainly looks that way lol
You were after getting us to sponsor you though, were'nt you

I had to get a charity place for the RideLondon100. I did it knowing I would probably have to pay most of the cost myself, but felt it was worth it to me.
The annoying thing is that I was going to raise some money for charity even if I got a ballot place, but now that it is a charity place I too feel like I am asking people to pay for me to do something I want to do!!!

craker

My wife's running the London Marathon in a couple of weeks and had been putting in a huge amount of work to raise sponsorship. She's running for MS, this is linked to a family bereavement = a good story. She's baked cakes and sold them at work, she's filled a big jar full of sweets and asked folks to guess how many there are, she's trawled our local high street asking for gifts for a raffle and done really well (most big companies have a charity fund I think). It's hard work, it's costing us money with the aim of raising 10 x that amount for charity.
* Put together a load of different ways of extracting money from people.
* Expect it to cost you money to generate funds

Anonymous

Well put craker
Hope your wife raises loads and has a great day.
My wife did the London Marathon a few years back. She got in on the ballot and was going to raise money for our usual heart charity (linked to family) but a child at our youngest's school had a bad illness so she switched to help out there.

The bottom line is that if you are asking people for money you have to have a damn good reason and/or be putting in some effort (not including the effort you would have put in anyway) even if it is for a good cause and the event is hard.
Not just setting up a justgiving page and holding your bowl out for an event a child could do!

Sick of people wanting a free trip to Paris, New York, or the Himalayas lol

Bring back the good old days where you did something like shave your hair off or sit in a bath of custard outside a supermarket for a day .

The whole concept of paying up before the event is a bit odd too.
A lot of people must sign up for stuff, get money off people and then pull out because they haven't had their 'ticket' paid for fully.

Wacky Racer

craker wrote:

My wife's running the London Marathon in a couple of weeks and had been putting in a huge amount of work to raise sponsorship. She's running for MS, this is linked to a family bereavement = a good story. She's baked cakes and sold them at work, she's filled a big jar full of sweets and asked folks to guess how many there are, she's trawled our local high street asking for gifts for a raffle and done really well (most big companies have a charity fund I think). It's hard work, it's costing us money with the aim of raising 10 x that amount for charity.
* Put together a load of different ways of extracting money from people.
* Expect it to cost you money to generate funds

This is exactly what people should be doing, if they want to raise money. I receive emails daily asking me to sponsor runs, rides, climbs, swims, and just occasionally I actually give if I feel the person has made a massive effort and it's a great cause.

Firstly, no disrespect, but London to Brighton on a pushbike isn't exactly a really tough challenge, so you'll likely only get family to commit their hard earned cash. I raised £500 at work by getting people to stump up raffle prizes, damn good ones too, such as meals out, I got a car dealer to provide a Mercedes SLK convertible fully expensed for a weekend, which I raffled off. I asked work if I could organise a dress down day for which I split the funds between my works preferred charity and mine. I got our works canteen to make cakes which we split the proceeds, I paid in £100 of my own dosh to get the fund moving, my school teacher wife got kids to clean cars for me, and I raised in excess of £3K in total. I started all of this 3 months before the event and generated alot of interest by working very hard at it. money won't just roll in, you need to be innovative.

smoggysteve

If you want to raise a substantial amount, forget asking the man in the street as he has enough to worry about right now. If you really want to get a decent sponsor, ask local businesses if they can sponsor you with the promise of a bit of free advertising thrown in for when you get the local rag to put your story in the paper.

I had done sponsored events in the forces and the best way to get money is to get a company of business to give you cash for their name on your shirt.

Hoopdriver

Why not just do the rude because you want to do the ride, and then if you really want to do something for charity make a donation yourself?

VTech

The guy is doing an event for charity, calling his site rubbish is a horrid thing to say, why not give constructive criticism instead of attack.
I hope you do well, I sponsor quite a few events and as some have said above, people do get asked often so when you think people dont care, it may be that they cant help and sometimes people get embarrassed when they would like to help but cant. Have you spoken to local companies to offer advertising for sponsorship if thats allowed ?

CambsNewbie

You could die.. Worked wonders for that woman in the marathon last year....

That is a joke! That is a joke! That is a joke!

Seriously though.. I donated to her charity last year because I felt an empathy with her story. And there was a fella on her last year who cycled round Denmark I think for a charity which had supported his ill child. Again I donated to a stranger because I felt touched by his story.

You need to personalise your page. Do you know anyone with heart disease? Has this charity helped anyone in your family. Maybe explain what the heart foundation do. You may think its obvious but others may not know.

Anonymous

VTech wrote:

The guy is doing an event for charity, calling his site rubbish is a horrid thing to say, why not give constructive criticism instead of attack.

I think he is doing charity for the event, rather than the event for charity!

The site/effort is rubbish. It could hardly be worse. I am not a mean person so I guess I am being cruel to be kind

If it is a charity place then the first paragraph is a lie and most of it is just the justgiving text/photos.
I cannot really be bothered to give detailed constructive advice if the OP is doing something I disagree with.

VTech

He may be trying it on but is it not better to try and help ?
The advice by CambsNewbie is all thats needed, obviously he isnt doing a good job but help is better than hindrance ?
Im not knocking your comments as they are valid and effort to post here should have been married to effort to gain sponsorship but not everyone is up to scratch with online publicity.

Anonymous

I think my comments are helpful

pease

I think a personal reason for doing the ride for the nominated charity helps. If in doubt bring it up in every conversation imaginable and people will catch on eventually.

Graham K

I did a charity bike ride in 2010 for MCCC, had to raise £3k for it, round these parts thats alot of money to find.

Firstly i made a schoolboy error, thinking 'oh yeh, everyone on my FB friends list will wang in a 10er and job done', Nah, never.
So I mithered everyone I knew, known and wanted to get to know with a flyer of what I was doing, why I was doing it and a progress report of my training, Organised a race night and Emailed every man and his dog for prizes for a raffle and auction at the event, from the local beauty salon to Richard Branson and Bernie Ecclestone (yes they donated prizes), we had a sweep at work for the world cup, had a bowling day at the parents bowling club.

If I wasnt working (I drive for a living so couldnt send email etc in workhours) I was training or mithering, even using the bike to visit people to mither.


I raised my amount, and abit more, it was a great feeling to do that for the charity, then complete the cycle challenge I had signed up for, but it showed me and learnt me that to do something like that is very very hard work, people wont just give you money, they want you to work for it.

Good luck and enjoy.

andy 3654

Right to defend my corner a little
1st, I had to pay to enter and have also bought a branded item of clothing to mark the event which anything over cost goes to the charity so its not like it has not cost me anything to do it so in answer to the doing charity to ride the answer is I am doing this to raise money FOR the charity.

2nd, If you also read it correctly you would of noticed the little bit of riding back too so as to make it more of a challenge.

3rd, I am not very good at writing or creating anything on computers/internet so hence the asking for help and advise.

I do give to charity quite a lot mainly in other donations other than money and the last point I would like to make is that I am also giving up my spare time to do this so I am giving quite a lot to this charity/event.

Now the record straight and thank you to the people for their advice.

Anonymous

Good to see you back on the thread and defending your honour ;-)

Just to clear things up. Is it a charity place? i.e. you have a minimum of £500 to raise?

andy 3654

Yeah well I did have to go to work, no its not a charity place its an individual and the target of £500 is what I thought I could raise.

Anonymous

OK. Guess I owe you an apology then as even though I used the word 'if' a lot, I was pretty much accusing you of stuff. Sorry.
I hope you can see why it looks that way.

Firstly I would say drop the target amount. £500 just screams 'PAY FOR MY RIDE' to everyone, and if you have a more realistic goal it might not feel like such an uphill struggle. You can still go on to raise £500 .

Secondly get rid of all the generic text and write everything yourself. Put why you are doing the ride and why for BHF.
If its not a charity place, put that too. Tell people that you have paid for your entry out of your own money and do not have a minimum to raise.

The cycling back thing just sounds like you cannot get a lift, rather than that you are doing it as some sort of extra reason to be sponsored.
If anything it makes the 54 mile event look all the more puny and unworthy of sponsoring in the first place.

andy 3654

Apology accepted and thank you for the advise.

andy 3654

well updated the page so hope that is better.

NITR8s

This post reminds me of what happened at my work recently. I sent an email around asking people to sponser me to do the 24 hour solo silverstone challenge (aiming for at min 250 miles) and the following day someone sent an email asking people to sponsor her to ride 54 miles.

I think you can get the picture about who got the most sponsors. With all the charity events now a days, If your doing something to raise money for charity, its got to be something hard. This is why run for life events dont raise than much money.

I

Anonymous

*Crossed post with above*

Better Andy, but It's still not great if its an honest opinion you are after

Thinking about it I am not sure BHF even do any minimum donation type places for their own event :oops: so sorry again!
Think it was worth you knowing that people might still feel the sponsorship is paying for your entry though.

You could try changing the font/colour of your text (it looks a bit boring). I do not think you can do it on the site, but you can do it elsewhere (I did mine on ebay for some reason) and then cut and paste it in ;-) I tend to use Comic Sans MS as it looks fun.

To get cash I think you either have to have a real personal link to the charity, or be doing something really hard (so hard that it is only the fact people have committed that gets you across the line!), ideally both. Unfortunately you are doing neither.

The other thing to remember is that any of your friends that sponsor you will be knocking on your door the second they ever want sponsoring for something, so you might end up paying it all yourself anyway.
I feel, like as has already been said on here, unless it is a truly epic task and you are doing it for truly noble reasons, just do the event and pay to the cause yourself.

I have given up drinking for 6 months for my event. It shows commitment and hardship, and even if I get no support at all, and I would normally spend £20 a week on alcohol, thats my £500 charity payment sorted.
As it is I have both the personal link to charity and a high effort factor in my pitch, so I should get at least half in donations.

Have you thought of cycling it dressed as a fairy etc? Would that type of thing encourage your friends to cough up?

Fund raising events are the only other thing I can think of. People like to get something for their support.
Someone suggested a curry for large group of friends* (£X per head), with a raffle or something.
Maybe you could do a deal with a restaurant (if the numbers are high) and get a shop or business you know well to donate a prize.
Your friends get a good time and support you painlessly, the restaurant gets some trade (maybe at a normally quite time), the business gets some PR and you could get the majority of your pledge in one hit.

*Do tickets and payment in advance so no one pulls out and messes up the deal ;-)

Its hassle but thats the kind of thing you have to do.

Dont worry if you do not get much raised, at least you are making some effort which is more than a lot of people do.
Just enjoy the day and be better for the experience.

Dandelionclock30

I think that people get fed up of being asked for money all the time that's what the problem is.At work your constantly asked for donations for births,retirements, leaving etc.Then its red nose day/children in need.Then the phones ringing with people from India wanting money off you. Cold callers come to the door and ask you to sponsor their organization.
When you walk down the street in town, its the same and I think frankly a lot of people are sick of it.
I think if people want to give they will,you only need to mention it once, and if the person raising the money feels so strongly about it then why not make a big donation themselves? Thats the way to go in my opinion.