UKC

I am looking at doing the above for charity in 2013. As I both have to and also want to raise as much for charity as possible, what steps can I take in order to raise as much as possible?

I know some people open a justgiving page but this is not always going to attract that many people is it?

Help please folks

In reply to An Triubhas:

Are you organising it through a charity?

To maximise what the charity receives, one option would be to book it independently of the charity and then set up a Just Giving site which pays directly to the charity. I did this in 2006 - Paid for my own trip with Jagged Globe and got a few mates and work colleagues to chuck in £20 for my chosen charity. Raised about £1,000. Charity saw every penny (bar the small % Just Giving take) and I had a nice time.

In reply to Axel Smeets:

Yes organising it through a charity, as the trip is more affordable that way!!!

In reply to An Triubhas:

Hmm, not sure I'd be comfortable in doing this. When I go away on mountain trips, I see it very much as a holiday. I wouldn't be comfortable in asking people to sponsor me, knowing that a significant proportion of what they give would be covering the cost of my holiday. Even if this is fully disclosed, I wouldn't be comfortable with it.

In reply to Axel Smeets:

even though a significant amount of the money goes to the charity??

In reply to An Triubhas:

Yes, even if that is the case.

Although I have raised moderate amounts of money for charity for all my trips, the main purpose has undeniably been for personal satisfaction/fulfilment. Therefore asking people to pay for that satisfaction is not something which I would be comfortable with. I feel that the cost of the trip and the charitable element should be kept entirely separate.

In reply to Axel Smeets:

Couldn't agree more.
Getting a cheap holiday on the back of raising money for charity is morally wrong in my eyes.

In reply to Conan:

That is not why I am doing it, I am doing it to raise money for charity, this is the best way I can raise the most money!!!

In reply to An Triubhas:

Think you may need to clarify your plans a bit better before you get berated even more on this forum.

Basically what we are saying is you don't join one of these "Climb Kilimanjaro" trips organised by the charity as £500 - £1000 give or take of the donations will go to pay for your holiday.

Instead, book and pay for the trip yourself through an expedition company or local Tanzanian operator, set up a justgiving page linked to the charity and also contact the charity to ask them to publicise your event on there newsletters and website.

That way all donations go to charity and all costs for YOUR holiday are paid by you and your mates who join you on the trip

In reply to An Triubhas:

Why not sacrifice your trip, give the money you would have spent to charity and spend the time you would have been there canvassing your friends, relatives etc to raise furthr funds. Or just admit that you want adventure. This article sums up my views..
http://www.adventure-journal.com/2012/05/adventure-without-a-cause-calling-...

In reply to An Triubhas:
this is the best way I can raise the most money!!!

I admire your efforts and sincerely hope the trip comes off for you, but I refute the claim that this is the best way you can raise the most money.

Kilimanjaro is not a cheap undertaking - surely a less expensive adventure would be the best way for a charity to raise the most money. The residual amount of money once costs have been accounted for is unlikely to be huge. Sitting in a bath of beans or maybe shaking money tins at shoppers over the course of a few weekends (i.e. something which doesn't cost several thousands of pounds in the first place) would probably raise more money for the charity.

In reply to An Triubhas:

Of course, this is complete rubbish.

In reply to dunc56:

I really don't give a sh*t what you think, I know that I am doing it for a good cause!!!

In reply to dunc56: you know nothing about my personal situation so cannot comment on the matter.

In reply to An Triubhas:

Hey, as others have said. Pay for your own holiday. It's quite simple.

In reply to An Triubhas:


...to be fair, you DID ask for input...

In reply to ThunderCat:

yes of the productive nature!!!

In reply to An Triubhas:

Just as a bit of a comparison, I did a bike ride up in scotland over 4 days for charity a few weeks ago.

I paid for the train fare to get up there, and I paid for the B&Bs that I stayed in. I paid for grub out of my own pocket, and I also funded my considerable alocohol intake along the way. I just wouldn't have felt comfortable taking money out of the sponsorship pot to cover any of those bits.

Totally appreciate your motives for doing this but if you think about it, you are getting a bit of a freebie holiday to an awesome location out of it...aren't you?

In reply to An Triubhas:

Not fair to ask a question and dictate the type of answers you want.

Just saying...

In reply to ThunderCat:

but saying that the answers did not match the question at all!!!

In reply to An Triubhas: sorry but i have to agree with other posters. I Will never sponsor people who do these sorts of "charity" event. I have raised about £20k over the years for charity and every thing i have done to raise money has cost me personally to do the event. Only my personal opinion but i would pay every penny of the trip myself and raise money
for charity completely separately. If you want to raise money for a worthy cause go and get sponsored to sit in a bath of baked beans.....but pay for the beans out of your own pocket eh?

In reply to An Triubhas:

Ok, my mate did a marathon run a couple of years ago. To get a bit of publicity he asked his local Tescos if he could set up a rowing machine in the foyer / entrance of the store.

He sat there and rowed (I think the idea was to row the length of the marathon) all day so that everyone who came in walked past and could pick up a flyer, find out about his sponsorship, sponsor him or just chuck loose change into a bucket towards the cause.

Amazing footfall, and he raised a shed load of additional money and got a lot of people interested.

Hows that?

In reply to An Triubhas:

OK. In answer to your question "what steps can I take to raise as much money as possible?" The general view of this forum so far seems to be to pay for the cost of the trip yourself, which will reduce the costs to the charity whilst improving goodwill (and hence cash) from potential donors

In reply to An Triubhas:

I am another one who reckons you can maximise the fund raising from a trip up Kili by ensuring that none of the donations you receive go to cover the costs of your tip.

This has two benefits:
The charity gets all the money you raise.
People ar emore likely to donate money if they believe all the cash they give is going to the charity, rather than a hefty percentage of THEIR cash going to fund YOUR trip to Kili.

In reply to An Triubhas:

It is completely morally indefensible to fund a holiday by getting people to give to charity.

Pay for the trip yourself and raise money over and above that. Anything else is disgusting.

In reply to An Triubhas:

Of course, I have a question:
What makes you convinced that a trip to Kili is the most effective way to raise money for this particular charity?

As has been said, if your main objective is to raise funds for a given charity, there are lots of other ways to achieve this, many of which do not involve the time and expense of getting a Westerner to Africa and then up Kili.

One effective way is to persuade people of the value of the charity. Encourage folks to get involved as volunteers themselves. This way people will see the sense of the work for themselves, and the number of donors (and fund raisers) will increase.
Or you can devote time and effort looking through the various grant awarding bodies. See what funding might be out there looking for a home.

You can mix fund-raising with campaigning. For example, there has been a recent campaign to live on a pound a day. https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk This was a mix of experiential learning, campaigning and fund-raising. I think it was done very well. I know other people who have got together and created a "shanty town" on the local high street for a night to raise awareness of street poverty round the world. Those who took part gave the money they would normally spend on a Friday night to a charity like Shelter or Oxfam, plus they asked for donations, made "gifts" out of "junk" just as some street people do in other countries, so campaigning, raising awareness, involvement and fund raising were all mixed in.

To me these are all much more effective ways of raising money and promoting the work of the charity than any sponsored trip up a mountain or along a trek.

Of course, my suggestions only work of the charity is worthwhile...

In reply to An Triubhas: fund your own trip. The charity trips tend to get herded up the two tourist routes which are less scenic,busy and give youless time to acclimatise. Doing it privately means you could do the Lemosho Glades andShira plateau route which has really stunning varied scenery through the various vegetation zones,a cracking hands on rock scramble over the Barranco wall,is quieter and because it spirals round the mountain rather than going straight up and down,gives you a better chance of acclimatisation and summiting. Also you can fit in a safari to ngoro ngoro or lake manyara after instead of being herded straight home by the charity.

So to reiterate what overs have said,organise and fund the trip yourself and set up a just giving Page so that ALL the money goes to charity.

In reply to An Triubhas:
Do the TGO challenge for charity, and set up your own Just Giving page. Much harder, cheaper, and less environmental cost. Far more likely to raise a decent level of cash.

In reply to An Triubhas: I agree with everyone else, Book your own trip then raise money after!

I'm currently doing just that, Ive allways wanted to go to the alps, so booked an introduction course, and mont blanc extention with jagged globe. A freind suggested I raise money for charity for the mont blanc bit, so set up a just giving page, sold donated items on ebay and normal sponsor forms so far...

I pay for the experience I want, the charity benefits from all the fundraising efforts! its a win-win situation!

In reply to An Triubhas:

Fine if you want to go to Kili, but all the costs of the trip should be met by you and that way charity donations are just that, not your holiday funding. I'm far more inclined to sponsor someone under this setup.

In reply to An Triubhas:
Kilimanjaro is not a climb.

This seems similar to the charity sky dive concept...

Most people are pretty cynical when it comes to the 'sponsor me to have a great experience' type of things. As others have said, you can probably raise much more by organising something domestically that incurs minimal overheads. I climbed Kilimaanjaro about 5 years ago (not for charity) and the flights alone cost about £450. I met quite a few charity climbers on the way up and generally I found them insufferably smug.

In reply to An Triubhas:

I dont follow why setting up a Just Giving page would not attract that many people. Anything you raise by other methods can be added to the site by yourself.

Frankly, most climbers these days find such 'charity holidays' beyond the pale; setting up a Just Giving page or similar (to ensure charity funds dont pay for your trip or some companies profits) seems to me the minimum morally acceptable position. If the trip is for a specific good cause but involving a long flight some might even pay to carbon offset their flight and see what they can do for any local community projects.

The most effective charity fundraising is to do stuff clever at home.

In reply to An Triubhas:

To be fair guys, the OP asked for advice on how to fundraise, not whether you agree with his chosen path. Most climbers probably wouldn't sponsor someone wh uses some of the funds to pay for their climb (if the replies on similar posts on UKC are anything to go by). It's certainly not something I'm comfortable with, but the average Joe Public doesn't see this.

I would suggest - the Justgiving page as a start.

Facebook is a great way to get your details out there.

You could organise events like a Race Night in your local pub, or something like that.

Get sponsorship cards from the charity and get people at work to do it.

Perhaps the charity itself might have some fundraising drives/ideas.

You won't get much in the way of sympathetic suggestions on this forum unfortunately, as you can see from the replies above.

In reply to Tom G:

The guys talking about climbing Kilimajaro...I think he's able to put up with a bit of negative feedback and discussion about the ethics of what he's proposing...

In reply to ThunderCat:

...and I did offer some advice...

In reply to An Triubhas:

My justgiving page got just over £1000.

I'll sponsor you. Unless the sponsorship is going to pay for your holiday, in which case I won't. I know you've said you don't want to hear people say this, but you also asked how to maximise sponsorshop, and one of the best ways is by not putting off potential sponsors.

In reply to Toreador:

+1

And the OPs petulant response to perfectly reasonable advice doesn't inspire confidence about their motivation

In reply to Tom G:

The two are intrinsically linked rather than, as you imply, being mutually exclusive.

The "pay for my holiday and anything additional goes to charity" approach would appear to be likely to yield less for the charity, than would the "I am paying my own expenses, please donate to the charity" approach, at least w.r.t. this audience. It's pretty clear-cut!

In reply to An Triubhas: I have to agree with everything that has been said here, but the OP never suggested that they were going to raise money with the intention of it covering their personal Kili expenses.

I'm walking the HRP (trans Pyrenean 800km trek) this summer, hadn't thought of doing it for charity since to me it's just a very physically intensive holiday, but a friend pointed out to me that to most people, it's a big deal - so why not get people to sponsor? So long as every penny that other people give you goes straight to charity (bar any percentage taken by a mediator like Just Giving), I really can't see any problem.

To the OP: if I were you I'd just publicise as much as possible - get an ad in a local paper, get the charity of your choice to put up a poster in all their shops, make flyers to go through people's letterboxes etc. Sure, a JG page won't attract people itself, but it's good for centralising your sponsorship!

Best of luck!

In reply to alexm198: Silly me, did not notice the many replies in which the OP seems to suggest they are trying to get other people's sponsorship to bankroll a personal holiday...

As mentioned by someone earlier, any profit the charity do make will be offset vastly by the expensive nature of your event - if you want to do something expensive, fund it yourself and give actual 'sponsorship' to charity.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

+2

In reply to An Triubhas:

Let's imagine the trip costs £1000 and 10 people will each give £200 to some charity or other this year.

Scenario 1.
You pay for your holiday, you don't do anything for charity:
You: £1000 down but a nice holiday
Your charity: £0
Other Charities: £2000

Scenario 2.
You do the gig as described.
You: a nice, FREE, holiday
Your charity: £1000
Other charities: £0

Scenario 3.
You pay for your holiday, but ask for gifts to your charity.
You: £1000 down, but a nice holiday
Your charity: £2000
Other charities: £0

Scenario 4.
You give half the money you proposed to spend on your holiday to your charity and ask others to help (50%). You go on a cheaper holiday.
You: £1000 down but a nice, cheaper, holiday
Your charity: £1500
Other charities: £1000

What people are objecting to is a) funding your holiday b) you not making an equivalent contribution to your charity directly c) your attitude.

Sponsorship is a bizarre thing all round. Tell us the charity and ask us to give some money and why. Nobody cares if you go on holiday or not.

In reply to An Triubhas:

That really says it all doesn't it? You are basically asking others to pay for your holiday and hiding behind the veneer of raising money for charity. It's known as scrounging.

In reply to An Triubhas:
You want to do a trip to Kili? Great, its quite an experience well worth going. Away from the Coca-cola and Whiskey routes there are some great ways of doing it. Lemosho Glades is really interesting. This is your holiday, pay for it yourself. Remember that a significant proportion of your outlay will be going to workers in a poor country. Think of this as charity if you will. Its easy to organise a trip yourself. Flights... easy. Guides.... try the African Walking Company, but there are others based in Moshi and Arusha. This way a wealthy white man in UK doesn't take a skim of your dosh. Go independantly and you dont't need to limit your time there. A few extra days could be spent giving your time and possibly your experience/expertise for free. The upper schools in Tanzania have lessons taught in English. What could you contribute here? It could be something more valuable than cash.
If you raise any money through fundraising....take it with you and give it directly to the people who will benefit. Don't give it to a British charity unless you are happy for an affluent person in say, Oxford to take his cut, (he'll call it wages). As an idea there is a school in Moshi or Arusha run by a couple of Australian nuns. Look it up on the interweb. Go and give them the money that you raise.... and some of your time.
One last thing. If you go, don't be hearded. Make a point of seeing the things that the western tourists are guided away from. Go to a village off the tarmac road, talk to the people in the city who get their water from the stream that comes off Kili.
Experience the mountain, but if you are prepared to do it you'll get more, much more, from experiencing the wider area and its people.

In reply to siisu:

An inspiring post

I hope the OP is still around to read it

And if OP does go ahead and follow advice, organising locally would allow the possibility of spending extra nights on the mountain. I'd say this is essential, otherwise the whole experience risks turning into a miserable slog marred by daily acute mountain sickness. Which would be a sad waste of what should be an amazing experience

In reply to An Triubhas:

Go for it mate.
But this is definitely the wrong audience to ask. You'll find that away from this self righteous forum in the real world ( ) you'll do fine with sponsorship.

Mrs Ent is doing an organised charity bike ride in India in October. All the climbers who've passed through our doors this year have sponsored her. Away from this forum I've never heard the views expressed above.

It's actually quite a challenge and it's costing her a bit too - maybe a little less (but not much) as doing it independently but she gets to ride with 80 other girls some of whom are breast cancer survivors.
80 girls doing the ride should raise over 200k for the charity - would the charities get this if the 80 girls had to organise it themselves - no!

E

In reply to Enty:

Details matter Enty.
It is one thing for an organisation to put in place a charity event where the people doing the event pay their way and all the money raised goes to the charity.

It is quite a different thing where the bulk of the money raised goes to pay for the person to do the event.

And this forum is far from the only place I have heard this view. But then, I am quite involved in the charitable sector, and get into debates about ethical fundraising...

In reply to Enty:

Most of us have a finite amount of money to give to charity and choose th give in a way that maximises the amount received by the charities. Personally I don't give to any sponsored events where part of the money pays for the running of the event. Is that such a bad thing?

In reply to almost sane:

I disagree with this kind of charity also having had some friends do a kili or Everest base camp trip this year.

The Kili trip was £2500 minimum sponsorship with at least £900-1000 going to charity. So Less than 40% of base sponsor money went to the charity...

In reply to An Triubhas: Why not try just quietly getting on with it and raising the money directly instead of trying for hero status?
A perfect example of this is Dave Hoopers charity effort See his current Premier Post
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=510866

In reply to L.A.: Thankyou for the mention.

Just out of interest, I obviously bought the bike and all the kit myself out of an early pension payout and Ive paid the £18.00 registration fee for the event.

I used to be heavily involved in outdoorsy type charity evnts and I do agree that these exotic treks abroad should be paid for by the participant, with all the sponsorship going to the charity.

Also Im particularly not fond of the Kili fundraiser. Because of the daily peak fees, they tend to herd people up the shorter and steeper tourist routes rather than the longer spiral routes around the mountain, potentially leading to more acclimatisation problems and giving a less rich experience to the participants.

Its so cheap and easy to sort it all yourself really and set upm a just giving page.

In reply to siisu:

Nice post.