Your fundraising ideas

There is an art to fundraising without a doubt. My wife and I have found over the past 6 + years that if you involve the people you are trying to get to donate they are much more willing to part with their hard earned money. We have had success in many ways. We organised a 12 mile canel walk with friends (stopping at the odd watering hole) this meant they all came along and got their friends and family to Sponsor them and some of their friends friends came along - so making the opportunity to create funds came from a wider net.

We run a ball every two years that always generates money (1st one raised £9K +) we try and make sure the ticket price covers the meal / transport / band / disco etc etc + a bit for the pot. This year we are charging £25 a ticket + optional transport which include a 4 cousre meal / disco / auction and the chance to drees up !. With a ball you need to approach the wives and girlfriends - they love dressing up - try and sell tabels as then they bring their friends and you are not asking the same people all the time - this year we have sold out of 320 tickets 8 weeks before the event ! If you make the pople coming aware that you are looking for auction prizes you will be surpised who knows Frank Lampards brother etc etc !!

As a couple we now leave the individual sponsorhip events to our very very kind friends and their friends friends (unless we ourselves get caught up in the moment) - we have people do events in memory of our Son Ethan who we have never even met - yet through people they know how important rasining funds is and being associated to the memory of another is a great driving force to achieve there goal. Some of these events include running half / full marathons / head shaves / parachute jumps / no presents at Bithdays just donations / coffe mornings / naked calendar / weight loss / car wash etc etc - all of these events have raaised £53K+.

We never dismiss an idea - and at times we have to offer guidance as to the 'better' way to progress and people are always willing to adapt if needs be.

My wife does all the hard work and I do all the talking - it seems to work for us.

Craig

I have been raising funds over the last couple of years and there is no doubt that the last 12 months has been tough for many people, so cash donations have naturally dropped. Instead I have looked to ways of continuing to raise funds without actually asking for cash donations.

I have come up with 3 good ways to do this.

1. Collect in old mobile phones from your office or workplace, a lot of people have these hanging around in a drawer somewhere. Even old phones are worth a few quid and no one misses them. MRF even provide FREEPOST envelopes to send these off.

2. Ebay other peoples junk. I asked people in my office to bring in anything they didn't want, ie old DVDs, CDs and anything else that could easily be posted. The response was amazing and I have sold over £800 of unwanted items. I still have a 1903 Singer sewing machine looking for a home !! There is an art to selling on ebay and I would be very happy to discuss this with anyone who would like some advice.

3. Foreign currency collection. This is an easy one, espically at this holiday time of year. Most people end up with some odd currency at the end of their holiday. Just collect this in at your office or workplace and then send it on the MRF who are able to combine this with collections from others and change it up for good ol' English Pounds. I am combining this idea with a quiz night that I am holding at my office by giving away bonus points for the largest amount of foreign currency collected ! This competitive edge has got everyone scrambling around for all the eurocents they can find

I ran the London Marathon a couple of years ago. Although people were generous because I'm the last person you would imagine running that far it was still hard to raise the money. But I know some people in a band and asked them if they'd do a gig towards my fundraising. Between us we sold 200 tickets for £5 each. Then one of the band got their work to match the money they raised, meaning they raised £2000!!! That was much better than asking them to sponsor me so sometimes it's better to ask for favours than sponsors.

Eliot