Red Cross Blogs

Fundraising: a serious challenge

By Alix Miller
September 3, 2009 at 10:55 am

Apologies for my silence. I have been away on holiday tramping up mountains in the French Alps in a bid to step up my training for the 3 Peaks Challenge by Rail. My mum and I will be embarking on the endurance challenge in  just two weeks time, in aid of  the Railway Children. Gulp.

You may remember reading in an earlier post how daunted I was about the fundraising aspect of the challenge (not that the prospect of gasping up the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales over a weekend doesn’t also fill me with total dread).

I was inspired to see that one team in the British Red Cross’ 3 Peaks Challenge managed to raise £4,360 in July. So there’s hope yet.  Incidentally, check out our other challenges if you come over all energetic.

My mum and I managed to raise a good chunk of our sponsorship – around £800 - in one go with a clothes swapping ‘swishing’ party. Afterwards, I took some of the better quality clothes left over from the event to Twice as Nice, a clothes agency in Battersea which then sold some of them, netting us a further £47. I have also kept aside some vintage designer items from the party to auction on ebay.  Grey pvc eighties-style Versace mac anyone?

Since the party, our fundraising efforts have dwindled somewhat. So, panicking at the looming deadline for our sponsorship, I designed a poster simply appealing for funds and took it to my tennis club. It’s amazing how generous and enthusiastic people were about the challenge; after just an hour of canvassing some members between tennis matches, I notched up £155.

A friend has also told me how successful a recent charity raffle a friend of theirs held had been, with local businesses chipping in with desirable goodies.

It seems to me giving someone the chance to win something, rather than expecting them to simply fork out their hard-earned cash during tough economic times has got to be a winner. So over the next couple of weeks I’ll be trying to organise a raffle of our own. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Another friend suggested a ‘pledgefest’ auction where you get people to offer their expertise/services which people can then bid for. So, for example a yoga teacher might offer a free one-to-one lesson, or a gardener, their expert tips on your shrubs. This is something I’ll also explore.

In the meantime, let me know any bright fundraising ideas you have. Or, if you want to do a spot of fundraising for the British Red Cross (or another charity) yourself, read our useful tips.

If all else fails, there’s always the bucket!

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Comments (6) »

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Tags: 3 peaks challenge, endurance, fundraising

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 10:55 am and is filed under Fundraising and events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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