We have teamed up with Just Giving to provide an online sponsorship facility, here are some tips on making it work.

Maximising your online sponsorship page

Once your online sponsorship page is up and running you are able to start using it to collect sponsorship immediately. Most people do this by sending round an email to all their contacts containing a brief explanation about their motivations for taking part in the event, why they have chosen REGENERATE to benefit from it, and a link to their sponsorship page. Here are a few more ideas to help you maximise the potential of your just giving site:

Make sure you have emailed all potential supporters:

Apart from close friends, family and colleagues, why not contact college friends, overseas friends, former colleagues and fellow members of churches, social clubs, sports clubs etc as well. Think of other places you could put links to your page, such as on your blog or website, or if you use the social networking site Facebook you can add a Just Giving application.

Add a link to your just giving page to your email signature:

Adding your link to your signature helps ensure that all your contacts are made aware of your efforts.  You may even gain some unexpected sponsors, but don't forget to ask permission about your work signature.

Send email updates on your progress:

Try to engage your supporters as much as possible - make sure they know how your training and sponsorship is progressing, and what a potential donation will do for REGENERATE. Don’t be afraid to send out reminders - people often intend to sponsor you but don't quite get round to it on the first request!

After your initial email out with your Just Giving web page link, we recommend that you send an update email to all those contacts (and any more you’ve gained!) at least a week before your event and again in the days immediately after your event.  If you’ve set your page up a long time in advance you might consider doing a monthly update email.

Certainly, adding a personal photo to your site will encourage more people to sponsor you.  Regularly updating your page will also encourage people to keep checking it.  Consider sending a reminder email out every time you update your page….and watch your list of sponsors grow and grow!

Ask to be on your company's website:

Ask your web-editor at work whether they would be prepared to add your site to the company/organisation's website or intranet. You could get a lot of extra sponsorship.

Publicise your efforts on a notice in your gym, church, college, children's school, pub, etc:

Create a basic poster telling people what you are doing and why, and ask any interested parties to sponsor you via your page. You may be surprised at the amount of people who receive sponsorship from complete strangers.

Advertise your web address via any publicity drives you initiate:

If you are carrying out any publicity surrounding your participation in the marathon for example to local papers or radio stations, make sure you include your link on any information you produce for them. REGENERATE is more than happy to advise you on how to write press releases and approach the media, click here for our contact details.

We are happy to help you with any part of building your fundraising page and letting people know, just ask!

 

Thanks for helping support the work of REGENERATE.