Festive Fundraising

Great fundraising tips for the festive period

Fundraising always needs a focus. Running an event for a charity gives you the ultimate focus, but adding a festive element makes it more time sensitive and might be just what you need to ramp up the urgency. Festive doesn't just mean Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter, it can mean any holiday or celebration that is 'special, colourful or exciting'. Here we'll focus on the all important period around December and January if you're running a marathon in the Spring, like London, Boston, Manchester or Brighton for charity.

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If you're fundraising for a distance event, like a marathon, it's really important that you start your fundraising early and you operate it in tandem with your training. You wouldn't leave your training until the last month, so why would you do that for your fundraising? However it's a great idea to have periods where you give it bursts of activity and one of these should be around a festive period. For a Spring Marathon, the ideal time is around Christmas and the New Year. This post looks at why this festive period work well and how you can use it to drive up your fundraising.

Why?

• Get ahead of the competition

The sooner that you can start fundraising in a meaningful way the better. Remember that a few weeks before your event there will be a lot of people like you asking friends and family for donations and those potential donors will often get more than one request. Make sure you're the first to ask. Donor fatigue can be a real issue the closer you get to a major fundraising event, like the London Marathon, so get in early and make sure your request isn't greeted with a 'not again' response.

• Take the pressure off

A boost in fundraising over the festive period can really take the pressure off, especially if you're tasked with raising £1500-£2000 for your London Marathon entry. Over six months that is a very achievable target, but it can play on your mind if you don't start early and if you hear stories of how well others in your position are doing. If you have a productive festive period you could potential raise £500 or more, and that will make such a difference.

• Raise the bar!

If you're running an event on a charity entry then you'll have a fundraising target. If you have your own entry and using that as the basis of your fundraising then you are unlikely to have a specific target, it's all a bonus for your chosen charity.

However just because you have a target doesn't mean you shouldn't try to beat it. The earlier you start your fundraising, combined with a boost during the festive season, gives you a real chance to go above and beyond and how good would that be for the charity? £1500 could easily become £2000, with a real effort over a short period.

• Gaining momentum

Fundraising is all about gaining momentum and a really good festive period will certainly give you that. It will give you an early boost, that will encourage and inspire you as you get started. If you're new to fundraising it can all feel a bit daunting at the start, but a big boost early can make all the difference and give you the all important motivation you need..

How?

Chances are you'll be entertaining at some point over the festive period so try and incorporate some food and drink from the destination of your event.

• Maximise party season

You're very likely to see far more people during this two week period than at any time of year, so make the most of it. Fundraising has become increasingly digital, but you still can't beat the value of face to face contact. Don't be scared to ask people to donate to your page there and then. It's way harder to say no to someone stood right in front of you than it is to ignore a post or an email. Go on, what's the worst that can happen?

One thing you can guarantee during any festive period, especially Christmas and New Year is that there will be plenty of food and drink. Why not add some elements of your destination into your plans if you're entertaining. Check out this fundraising guide to London that we've put together. There are lots of ideas on how to use London themed food and drink and plenty more ideas on how to theme your plans.

With all these people in one place and with lots of time to fill it makes sense to both entertain and fundraise by including some events into your functions, like a quiz, charades or karaoke. Get some prizes, charge a small fee and you'll be surprised how much you can raise. The more effort you out into it the better the outcome. If you're running London how about this for a themed quiz. If there are some guests coming to your festive parties who you don't know that well than what better icebreakers than charades, quizzes and karaoke!

• Donations for presents

How many times do you hear the expressions, 'I have no idea what to buy for them' or 'what do you buy for the person who has everything?'. Now it's easy. Just get your fundraising page link into the hands of anyone that you think might be going to buy you a present and ask them to make a donation instead. Chances are they will donate more than they would have spent on a present. And will you miss the presents? Can you remember what you got for Christmas last year from most people?

If you do end up getting presents you're not loving then sell them on eBay or Vinted and donate the money you get from the sales onto your fundraising page.

Ditch the presents this year and ask for donations on your fundraising page instead.

Fundraising is an extremely rewarding part of undertaking a major event like the London Marathon. Even if you are lucky enough to be amongst the few who got a ballot entry you should still fundraise for a good cause. Start early though and take it as seriously as you would the training element. Keep at it and don't leave it too late.