Top tips for last minute fundraising

You’ve got your place secured in a charity run, have been training for months and are just about to begin carb loading when you realise your fundraising isn’t exactly where you’d envisioned it being. What do you do? We’ve rounded up some of the best last minute fundraising ideas to ensure that you can make the most of sponsored events and raise as much as possible for your cause.

Keep an updated online donations page

We’ve blogged before about comparing the different charity fundraising sites so take a look and see which site is best matched to your fundraising aims. Make sure you explain why you’ve chosen to raise money for a particular cause – it’s the personal stories behind a sponsored event that will often result in people pledging their financial support. If your donations page has been stagnant for a while then why not post a text or video update to let everyone know the event is fast approaching and how every donation will make a big difference.

Make the most of social media

This is probably one of the simplest ways to let people know about your fundraising. If you’ve already been spreading your message then a good way to remind those who’ve been considering donating is to create a Facebook event for the day of the sponsored event (even if it is the next day!) and invite all your Facebook friends with a link to your donations page. Additionally, send tweets out about your fundraising and mention the charity’s account as a retweet or interaction with them could get your story seen by an online community with similar interests in the cause.

Create a sense of immediacy

People are more likely to donate if there’s a sense of urgency. So whilst you may be panicking about only having two days to go, you could turn this into a reason for people to donate. How many times have you seen a Facebook event or been sent a JustGiving page for an event in three months time and clicked away thinking “I’ll do that nearer the time” and then forgetting about it. If you’ve left your fundraising to the last minute then it provides a near-immediate result for donors who you can inform of your achievements straight away. Be sure to thank them online too…

Put it in your signature

Even if you’ve only got a few days left you could put the link to your donations page (along with a short summary of what you’re doing and why) in the signature of your email account before the race. This way it doesn’t seem as though you’re emailing people specifically to ask for donations but is instead a friendly way to let them know when you’re in contact with them about something else.

And if that doesn’t work…

Comic Relief know their stuff when they recommend doing something funny for money. You could complete the run in fancy dress, wear a silly hat or do anything else to rake in the laughs (and, more importantly, the extra donations!) Whatever you do, make sure you document it online to share your story/embarrassment.

If you’ve got any other suggestions or want some advice about how to boost your fundraising, leave a comment below or drop us an email at hello@reasondigital.com