Top Tips For Raising More Sponsorship

No-one said that fundraising is easy! What makes it easier is if you first of all believe in the cause you are raising funds for and secondly that you have a plan of how to maximise your fundraising opportunities. Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Set yourself a fundraising target, and tell people about it, so that they can see what you have to achieve, and help you to achieve it.
2. Find out if your company or boss is prepared to match what you raise or at least provide a generous starter! If you explain why you are participating in an event, especially if it has to do with their local community, many are more than willing to help.
3. Publicise what you are doing. If you have a company, church, club or company magazine or website, they may be interested in covering your part in the event.
4. Set up an online fundraising page at www.charitysponsor.com - it only takes a few minutes and will help you raise funds quickly and efficiently.
5. Make sure the first few sponsors on your form are generous ones, say a family member or friend. This will act as a guide for the others.
6. If you can, and if people trust you (especially if you’ve done it before!), you can ask for the money up front, but be sure to keep a record of what has been given.
7. If your sponsors are Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax payers, ask them to put their home address details on the form and tick the Gift Aid box – by doing so St Columba’s Hospice will get an additional 28.2% back from the Taxman for no extra effort on your part and for no extra money out of your sponsors pockets. Without their home address details and ticked Gift Aid box we can’t claim the extra 28.2% from the Inland Revenue.

And if that is not enough to help you, here are 110 fundraising ideas to try: