Using a sportive to raise money for charity?

rhysyd

Ive been wanting to raise abit of money for a particular charity for while and having just taking up cycling, im keen on doing the 185km Cavendish sportive in Aug.

Isit somthing people do, whilst riding a sportive? Isit a good idea? Can anybody give me an advice on how to get up and running in terms of raising money?

Thanks

ugo.santalucia

Sign up on one of those online services like "just giving". Find a good cause and put together a good case

sloppyschleckonds

rhysyd wrote:

Isit a good idea?

Thanks

Why not just donate a regular sum of money to said charity?

rhysyd

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

rhysyd wrote:

Isit a good idea?

Thanks

Why not just donate a regular sum of money to said charity?

Missing the whole point mate

londoncommuter

rhysyd wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

rhysyd wrote:

Isit a good idea?

Thanks

Why not just donate a regular sum of money to said charity?

Missing the whole point mate

Yes and no, sometimes take the Mick a little when people want sponsoring for a) doing their hobby b) to get a nice holiday e.g. trekking in Nepal. But if that Sportive will genuinely be a challenge for you and you're paying for it 100% yourself then go for it.

Have a shop round for fundraising websites though as JustGiving used to skim off 5% + VAT (may have changed) where others don't.

meanredspider

Yes - I think it's fine so long as its a proper challenge for you. I've done a few events like this. The trouble is that the challenge element gets harder and harder to meet.

t4tomo

A sportive is fine, it's when people want sponsoring for a "major challenge" - read holiday - that is funded out of the sponsorship, I.e it's free to the participant if they raise over £xk in sponsorship. If the event is participant paid then it's different matter and is a pure decision about whether it's a good cause any your friends and family want to support.

I'm doing a meandering C2C in the summer ( 275 miles over 2.5 days which takes in a good chunk of stage 2 of last years TdF) I'm paying £450 for the privilege which covers all the costs, and I have a minimum fundraising commitment of £150, which all goes to the charity, which is slightly odd cause for people to get their heads around, but makes sense to me.

But then not all fundraising has to be about dying starving people children etc, hence if I don't raise it from a targeted selection of people I know who would have an interest in donating to the cause, then I'll gladly pay the £150 myself.

t4tomo

So good I said it twice

Anonymous

Its nearly a great idea if its a challenge, a worthy cause and you can get people to cough up.

Did you want to do the sportive first and then think it would be great to raise some money, or look for an event after deciding that you wanted to raise money for a cause?
People are probably going to think its the first and be reluctant to donate or just make a small donation to save embarrassment.

You will have no option to sponsor back anyone that sponsors you, so you are kind of sponsoring yourself in the long run anyway.

You said SloppySchleckonds was missing the point by saying to make a regular donation yourself, but he wasn't.
If you felt strongly about the cause you would be doing so. If you don't feel that strongly about it, why do you think anyone else would care?

My advice would be to just do the sportive if you think you will enjoy it and save playing the sponsorship card for something bigger and more worthwhile.

If you do go ahead with it, don't just set up a page and expect people to give. You need to make some real effort with fundraising.

If you decide to give it a miss this time and do not care enough about the cause to make a regular donation yourself, how about giving up some of your time for the charity. They would appreciate that.

dodgy

Years ago, my colleagues would ask if I am raising money for charity on this weekend's ride (they know I'm a keen cyclist). It took several no's before it sunk in. That and asking if they were seeking sponsorship for walking the dog on Saturday.

A more practical answer, Ugo has already mentioned JustGiving, that's how most seem to manage it.

Agent57

To me, a key aspect others have touched on is whether it's a challenge. I've done some 60 mile rides (e.g. Manchester to Blackpool) and some 10k "obstacle courses" (Total Warrior), but have never asked for sponsorship. I know I can ride 60 miles, and the obstacle course didn't seem a challenging enough to ask for sponsorship.

On the other hand, I asked for sponsorship for a 24-hour indoor rowing event, and if I got into the London Marathon, I'd feel OK about that being enough of a challenge to ask people to sponsor my run.

If you've never ridden more than 20 miles, go for it.

de_sisti

rhysyd wrote:

Ive been wanting to raise abit of money for a particular charity

What charity?

d_o_g

rhysyd wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

rhysyd wrote:

Isit a good idea?

Thanks

Why not just donate a regular sum of money to said charity?

Missing the whole point mate

*EDIT - Rude post deleted as per Ugo's comments below*

ugo.santalucia

Not a big fan of all this charity palaver myself, however the OP question is legitimate and if he wants to raise money for charity by doing a sportive, that's his business, so refrain from posting just to add some pointless bitter comments. We have a rule about that, go and read it... and I mean it :evil:

rhysyd

I suppose a supportive isn't particular challenging compared to John o'grotes etc, I'll have a rethink and come up with an idea which is on the tough side.

craker

When my wife ran the London Marathon for an MS charity she had a back story - terminally ill relative - she put in a lot of work knocking on the doors of local businesses (many have money / goods put aside for a good cause and the advertising it brings) getting raffles together, baking and selling cakes. It cost us a lot of money too - in the end she raised over £2000 which was a fantastic effort, to top it all she ran her first (and only) marathon, an amazing achievement. We haven't tried tapping up relatives or colleagues since; it is a big ask.

By all means try and raise money for a good cause, but it's hard work and expensive. If you can tack on an experience to make it seem worthwhile then great, as far as the people sponsoring you go it's the cause that's most important.

Dorset_Boy

rhysyd wrote:

I suppose a supportive isn't particular challenging compared to John o'grotes etc, I'll have a rethink and come up with an idea which is on the tough side.

I'd say riding a 185 km sportive is a challenge for most people - how many people have ridden 100 miles in one go, let alone 115? Unless of course you are a serious audax rider in which case that distance is a short stroll!

Sure it's not a LEJOG, but so what? As others have said, the key is paying for the event yourself and then getting all the sponsorship to your chosen charity.

BrandonA

t4tomo wrote:

So good I said it twice

And that was a lot of typing to do twice )

I don't know the Cavendish event. If it raises money for a particular charity then I'd feel a little strange piggybacking their event to raise money for an alternative charity.

timben83

How about having a jersey printed and "selling" the advertising space to local business. Obviously you take the hit on the jersey and the advertising proceeds go to said charity.

They get exposure and you do something for charity. Ideally you'd also mentioned the charity on the jersey.

t4tomo

BrandonA wrote:

t4tomo wrote:

So good I said it twice

And that was a lot of typing to do twice )
.

Yeah like I really typed the same thing twice rather than hit submit twice on a slow internet connection,

rhysyd

De Sisti wrote:

rhysyd wrote:

Ive been wanting to raise abit of money for a particular charity

What charity?

MS Trust/MS Soceity

craker wrote:

When my wife ran the London Marathon for an MS charity she had a back story - terminally ill relative - she put in a lot of work knocking on the doors of local businesses (many have money / goods put aside for a good cause and the advertising it brings) getting raffles together, baking and selling cakes. It cost us a lot of money too - in the end she raised over £2000 which was a fantastic effort, to top it all she ran her first (and only) marathon, an amazing achievement. We haven't tried tapping up relatives or colleagues since; it is a big ask.

By all means try and raise money for a good cause, but it's hard work and expensive. If you can tack on an experience to make it seem worthwhile then great, as far as the people sponsoring you go it's the cause that's most important.

They are exactly the same reasons/circumstances i wanted to do something. Perhaps a particular sportive isnt be best idea but coming up with my own idea, thanks for the advice

js14

A local cycling club runs a sportive and raises money for charity at the same time. It works this way...
The club has teamed up with a Lions Club. The Lions Club finds many of the 100 to 150 volunteers that are needed for an event with 600 riders taking part. A lot of the volunteers act as marshals protecting the riders at junctions along 100 miles of roads. In return for the volunteers giving up 6 hours or more of their Sunday and in all weathers, the cycle club adds around £5 to the entrance fee. The money goes to the Lions chosen charity, which is Handisport. This arrangement creates a Win-Win situation: the cyclists have their fun but all have to donate a modest sum which encourages handisport; the volunteers have the satisfaction of raising around £3000 for a worthwhile charity.

thomasmorris

I think raising money for charity can work in two ways. Firstly, like post above when people pay for a service, carried out by volunteers of which some or all of the proceed go to charity. Another example of this would be a cake bake.

The second is where an individual carries out an impressive task, the feat of which is enough to inspire others to donate to charity of said individuals choice.

At work I regularly donate to cake sales... yummy cake. However, I'm more skeptical about impressive 'feats'. If it was something that I believe the person could have already done, or took little effort, I won't donate to their charity (I only have so much money). An example of this is the 'race for life'. Undoubtedly a great cause, which is personal to many of the participants, however, they're just going for a walk / jogg with mates at the weekend? This doesn't inspire me to donate to the charity, I too have my own personal causes that I donate too and I don't see what is so exceptional about a fun run to make me divert my funds.

However, if someone is doing something that I find incredible, or I know will take much more commitment from then than just turning up on the day and carrying out the challenge then I'll be likely to donate to their cause.

Incidentally I'm currently raising money for Hampshire and IoW Air Ambulance by riding the South Downs Way Double (200 miles off road). I've rode the route one way several times and never asked for sponsorship, as quite frankly I didn't specifically train it but was reasonably confident of completing it. The double, I am not confident of completing, and I am am putting in an exceptional amount of training. Hopefully this will be enough to inspire (through my blog) people to donate to my chosen cause.

Thread here for those interested

surrey_commuter

raising money for cycling challenges is difficult as people think that they used to cycle everywhere when they were kids. This means that they are not impressed by 100 miles. As an example people are far more impressed that I commute 20 miles each way.

Saying that when got a place on Ride 100 last year so many people asked if I was raising money that I chose one and set up a page.

richk

The first time I rode the Little Moutain Time Trial, several people at work were surprised that I wasn't raising money for charity!

Schoie81

I would echo what thomasmorris said above - if you feel the sportive will be a challenge for you, then why not try and raise some money for charity? Ignore the people who say its no big deal (unless you ride 100+miles every weekend anyway...). Your friends and family are the main people you're likely to get sponsorship from so they'll know you and know whether what you're doing is a challenge worthy of donating for or not.

Whether something is a 'challenge' or not is entirely dependant on the individual - a few years ago I ran a 10km and asked for sponsorship and raised over £1,000 for Sheffield Children's Hospital. For many runners, 10km isn't that far, for me, in 2015, 10km isn't a big challenge, but when I signed up to it in 2011 I was 4 stone over 'normal' weight and hadn't run more than 100metres in over 15years nor done any regular physical activity - running 10km WAS a big deal for me. Since then, I run and cycle regularly and would not expect people to sponsor me to that extent to do a 10km now. I do still do the odd run for charity but I just set up a JustGiving page, stick the link on Facebook and if anyone sponsors me, great, if they don't, they don't - I don't push it like I did that first 10km run (and as others have said, I fund the entry fees myself - the charity cause isn't a way of getting free entry into something I want to do anyway). I hope to run a half marathon for the first time this year, and I'll run that for charity. I also add a donation of my own to the cause - I sponsor myself if you like... Some have suggested just regularly donating to the charity yourself but there's no way I could afford to donate £1,000 to charity, even over several years.

So basically, if your sportive is a challenge for you, then see if you can get sponsored and raise a bit of money for charity - if no-one donates you've lost nothing. I'd rather sponsor someone for cycling 100+ miles than such things as this 'Movember' thing where people ask for sponsorship for not having a shave for a month??

And just a point about those who've mentioned JustGiving take a cut of the money - that is true, but when I discovered they do this, I discussed it with the charities I've raised money for and the amount JustGiving etc.. saves them in administration etc.. far outweighs the fee that these sites take and they told me that they would PREFER me to use sites such as these to raise money. Obviously if there are sites who do a similar job to JustGiving, but don't charge, or charge less, then that's worth looking at.

londoncommuter

Schoie81 wrote:

And just a point about those who've mentioned JustGiving take a cut of the money - that is true, but when I discovered they do this, I discussed it with the charities I've raised money for and the amount JustGiving etc.. saves them in administration etc.. far outweighs the fee that these sites take and they told me that they would PREFER me to use sites such as these to raise money. Obviously if there are sites who do a similar job to JustGiving, but don't charge, or charge less, then that's worth looking at.

Free ones are thankfully quite common now, even BT are now in on the act:

http://www.btplc.com/mydonate/findoutmore/

southdownswolf

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/

take a small fee, but it is not for profit. Easy to donate to 2 charities at the same time, you can choose what percentage each charity gets of the money raised.

Schoie81

I, for one, am grateful to londoncommuter and southdownswolf - for highlighting these! I had (perhaps wrongly) assumed all these sites worked under similar terms, but if some don't charge, I'll definitely 'shop around' if I set up a sponsorship page in the future!