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Why Do People Donate To Charity? What Runners Need To Know
You have signed up for a race, chosen a charity and created your fundraising page. You share the link with friends, family and colleagues, but then comes the difficult part: convincing people to actually donate.
The response can sometimes feel unpredictable. One person donates almost immediately, somebody you expected to support you never does, while an old colleague you have not spoken to for years suddenly makes a generous contribution. Understanding some of the reasons behind those different decisions can help you become a more effective fundraiser.
People rarely donate for one reason alone. They may care about you, have a connection with the cause, admire the challenge you have taken on or encounter your story at a moment when they are ready to respond. A good fundraising campaign gives people several reasons to become involved.
People Often Donate Because Of You
When you are raising money for charity, it is easy to assume that the charity has to be the main reason somebody gives. For many supporters, however, their connection with you may be just as important.
Your family might donate because they are proud of you. A colleague may support you because they know how much training you have been doing, while somebody from your running club might donate because they understand what taking on the challenge means.
That does not make their donation any less valuable. Your personal network can introduce people to a cause they may previously have known very little about, with their decision to support you ultimately benefiting the charity.
This is also why personal approaches can work well. A fundraising link appearing among dozens of posts on somebody's social media feed is easy to scroll past, while a message from somebody they know is much harder to overlook.
A Connection With The Cause Can Be Powerful
Some supporters will have their own reason for caring about the charity you have chosen. They may have used its services, know somebody affected by the issue or simply believe strongly in the work it does.
Your own reason for supporting the charity can therefore be an important part of your fundraising story. If there is a personal connection and you are comfortable sharing it, explaining why the cause matters to you can help potential donors understand why you are taking on the challenge.
You do not need a dramatic personal story to raise money successfully. You might have chosen a charity because you admire its work, because somebody introduced you to the cause or because you want to use your race to do something positive. What matters is helping people understand why you chose that particular organisation.
People Want To Understand The Difference Their Donation Can Make
Giving £10 or £20 can feel more meaningful when somebody understands what their money could help a charity achieve. Explaining the charity's work can therefore give potential donors another reason to support your fundraising.
Look at the information provided by your charity. Many organisations give fundraisers examples of what different amounts could help provide, making the potential impact of a donation easier to understand.
Be careful not to promise that an individual donation will pay for a particular item or service unless the charity itself presents the information that way. The aim is to explain the potential impact of the money being raised rather than make claims about exactly where an individual donation will go.
Your charity's fundraising team can often help with this. They may have statistics, stories, images and examples that you can use to show why the money you are raising matters.
The Challenge Matters
People are not only supporting the charity. They are also responding to the challenge you have set yourself, and understanding what that challenge means to you can give them another reason to become involved.
For somebody who has never run before, completing a first 5K can represent months of training and a significant personal achievement. Another runner might be attempting their first marathon, chasing a difficult time target or taking on several events for the same charity.
There is no need to exaggerate how difficult your challenge is. Instead, help people understand what it means to you and what you are doing to prepare for it.
If you are training for a marathon, let supporters see some of that journey. Tell them when you complete your longest run, when training has been difficult and when race day suddenly starts to feel very close. Somebody who has watched your progress over several months has much more context when you ask for their support.
Your Story Gives People A Reason To Care
Repeatedly posting the same fundraising link gives people more opportunities to see it, but it does not give them a new reason to pay attention. Sharing the story developing around your challenge makes it possible to keep talking about your fundraising without simply repeating the same appeal.
A running event naturally gives that story a beginning, middle and end. There is the decision to enter, the reason you chose your charity, the start of training, the difficult weeks, the milestones and eventually race day.
Use those moments to tell people what is happening. A photograph after your first 10 mile run accompanied by a few sentences about how training is going can say much more than another post simply telling people that you still need donations.
Your fundraising page should also tell that story. Someone arriving there for the first time should quickly understand who you are raising money for, why you are doing it and what challenge you have taken on.
People Are Influenced By What Others Do
Donations do not happen in isolation. Research into charitable giving has shown that information about other people's donations can influence giving behaviour, something often described as social information or social influence.
You can see how this might work on a fundraising page. A potential donor can often see that friends, relatives and colleagues have already contributed, as well as the progress being made towards the overall target.
This is one reason it can be useful to get your page moving before sharing it more widely. You might make the first donation yourself or initially send the page to a few people close to you who already know about the challenge and want to support you.
A page that already has some activity can create a sense of momentum. You should never manufacture donations or pressure people into matching somebody else's contribution, but genuine early support can show that the campaign is underway.
A Target Gives People Something To Aim For
A fundraising target gives your campaign context. Raising £600 means something different when the target is £750 than when nobody knows what you are trying to achieve.
Targets can also create useful moments during the campaign. Reaching 25%, halfway or getting within £100 of the total gives you something new to talk about and lets supporters see the progress their donations are helping to make.
Choose a target that reflects your circumstances and any fundraising commitment attached to your charity place. It can be ambitious, but it should not become the only measure of whether your fundraising has been worthwhile.
If you reach your target early, you can decide whether to increase it and keep going. If you do not reach it, the money you have raised still matters to the charity and represents something worth celebrating.
Timing Can Make A Difference
Someone not donating today does not necessarily mean they are not going to donate. There are plenty of reasons why a person who is interested in supporting you might not do so immediately.
They might see your post while travelling to work, intend to return to it later and forget. They may be waiting until payday or prefer to sponsor people closer to the event. Others may decide to wait until the challenge has actually been completed.
This is why one announcement at the beginning of your campaign is rarely enough. Staying visible during the weeks or months leading to your event gives people further opportunities to support you when the time is right for them.
The easiest way to do that is to use genuine developments in your journey. A major training milestone, reaching half of your target, receiving your race number or completing your final long run all provide natural reasons to talk about the campaign again.
A Personal Ask Can Be Harder To Ignore
Posting on social media can reach a lot of people quickly, but it can also be impersonal. Your fundraising appeal is competing with everything else appearing on somebody's screen, and even interested supporters can easily miss it.
A personal message is different because it is directed specifically at the person receiving it. It does not need to be complicated or uncomfortable; explain what you are doing, why you are supporting the charity and provide the fundraising link.
Avoid sending what obviously looks like the same copied request to hundreds of contacts. Think about your relationship with each person and whether approaching them directly feels appropriate.
There is also an important difference between asking and pressuring. Give people the opportunity to support you, but accept that not everybody will be able or want to donate.
Do not overlook the value of writing a personal letter to people you know, particularly those who may not regularly use social media. A thoughtful letter explaining your challenge, why the charity matters to you and how they can support you can feel much more personal than another online fundraising post.
Different Donors Need Different Reasons
There is no single fundraising message that will appeal equally to everybody. Understanding that can help you avoid relying on the same type of message throughout your campaign.
Your closest friends may be interested in following your training. Somebody affected by the cause may be more interested in learning about the charity's work. Runners might appreciate the scale of the challenge, while colleagues could become interested after watching your training and fundraising develop over several months.
Varying what you share gives each of those groups something different. One update might be about training, another about the charity and another about reaching a fundraising milestone.
Together, those updates create a fuller picture of what you are doing. They also give potential supporters different opportunities to find something that connects with them rather than seeing variations of the same request for money.
Make It Easy To Donate
Motivation is only part of the equation. Once somebody has decided they would like to support you, donating should be straightforward and they should not have to go searching for your fundraising page.
Make sure the link you share goes directly to your fundraising page. QR codes can also be useful when promoting your fundraising offline, allowing somebody to scan the code and reach the page immediately.
Check your fundraising page yourself before you start promoting it. Make sure your story is complete, the charity and challenge are clear and any photographs display correctly.
Small barriers matter when people are busy. The fewer steps between somebody deciding to support you and completing their donation, the better.
Do Not Be Afraid To Remind People
Many fundraisers worry that talking about their campaign repeatedly will annoy people. That can lead to the opposite problem, where they announce their fundraising once and then barely mention it again.
The solution is not to ask for money every day. Instead, use something that has happened during your campaign as the reason for bringing the fundraising back into view.
Someone who ignored your first post might become interested after seeing how much training you have completed. Another person may notice when you are close to your target, while somebody who meant to donate weeks ago may simply need reminding.
Your supporters will join the journey at different points. Staying visible gives them the opportunity to do that without making every conversation or social media post about fundraising.
Race Day Creates A Natural Fundraising Moment
Race day brings together the story you have been telling for weeks or months. The training is finished, the challenge is happening and supporters can finally see what all those early mornings and long runs were leading towards.
Share the occasion if you want to. A photograph before the start, an update from somebody supporting you on the course or a finish line picture can reconnect people with your fundraising when the challenge feels most immediate.
Some people who have followed your progress without donating may choose race day to support you. Others may wait until they see that you have finished, which is why crossing the finish line does not have to mean closing the fundraising campaign.
Keep Fundraising After The Race
The days immediately after your event give you one final chapter to the story. They also provide an opportunity to reach people who followed your challenge but did not donate before race day.
Tell people how the race went, share a photograph and thank everyone who has already supported you. Include the fundraising page again so anyone who intended to donate but never got around to it still has the opportunity.
Once the final donations have arrived, share the total and thank your supporters again. People have not just given money; they have followed your training, supported the cause and become part of the challenge.
Closing the campaign properly also shows donors what they helped achieve. If you fundraise again in the future, supporters may remember that you kept them involved rather than disappearing as soon as the race was over.
You Cannot Make Everyone Donate
Understanding what motivates donors does not mean learning how to persuade everybody you know to give you money. Fundraising is an invitation to support something you care about, not an obligation for everyone you know.
Some people support several friends every year and have to choose which appeals they respond to. Others may already donate regularly to charities, have financial pressures of their own or simply prefer not to sponsor people for events.
Do not judge the success of your relationships by who appears on your fundraising page. Someone can support what you are doing without being in a position to make a donation.
Concentrate instead on giving people good reasons to support you. Explain why the cause matters, show them the challenge you are taking on, let them follow your progress and make it easy to donate if they decide they want to.
Final Thoughts On Why People Donate To Charity
People donate to charity runners for all sorts of reasons. Some care deeply about the cause, some primarily want to support the runner and many will be influenced by a combination of the charity, the challenge, the story and the timing.
Successful fundraising is therefore about more than repeatedly sharing a donation link. Bring people into the journey, show them why the money matters and give them different opportunities to become involved as your training and fundraising progress.
You will never convince everyone to donate, and you do not need to. Concentrate on telling an honest story about what you are doing and why you are doing it. Every person who decides to support that story becomes part of what you and your charity are trying to achieve.
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