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Let's be friendsHandy tips for making the most of your online sponsorship page
P&Per Gorilla Sophs sponsored fun run
1. Setting up your page
Follow the the steps on People & Planet’s Justgiving page to create your own online sponosorhip page. Remember to give it a snappy title!
Personalise your page
Make your page as compelling as possible by adding your own photograph and personalised pitcure. Ideally, your page should communicate the reason you have chosen to raise money, and why you believe People & Planet deserves support. You might want to mention our achievements, your group’s campaign successes or any benefits you feel you’ve gained through being a part of the P&P network.
Communicate the value of a donation
Let your supporters know what their donation means for Peple & Planet. It is more compelling to ask for donations with specific examples, rather than asking people to support a generic cause. Here are some examples:
£5 will cover the cost of producing a Fairtrade schools campaign pack.
£10 covers the cost of staff time for delivering an hour and a half long skills workshop.
£20 will help subsidise the cost of a week of training for a key student activist at the Summer Gathering.
If you’re not sure, contact the fundraising team who can offer you more advice.
Personalise your thank-you email
When you create your page, you have the opportunity to personalise the thank-you message each donor automatically receives. In addition to expressing your thanks, use this opportunity to ask supporters to pass on your web address to anyone else who might be interested in sponsoring you.
If you have already created your page, you can log in to your account to personalise the thank-you message at any time.
2.Promoting your page
Promote your page with People & Planet!
The fundraising team in the Support Office are here to help you with all your fundriainsg activities for P&P. Get in touch with us and we can help your promote your page by:
- writing a news story for the website
- including your event in our regular email updates to 10,000s of P&P supporters
- featuring your event in our termly Action Update newsletter
- helping you notify other potential donors on the key organisers list, P&P facebook pages etc
Email your family and close friends first
Before sending an email to your entire address book, ask your closest friends and family to donate first. An empty page can be a little intimidating, so try and get a couple of donations before contacting your entire list of potential sponsors.
People tend to match the amounts already listed on the page, so target your most generous supporters first!
Tell everyone you know
Email your family, friends and members of your P&P group with a link to your page, but don’t forget other groups of potential supporters: old school and college friends, teachers, lecturers, people you’ve worked or volunteered with, P&P key organisers or other P&Pers in your region, fellow members of any clubs, societies, or faith groups you belong to, staff in the P&P support office…you may be surprised how many would like to sponsor you.
Encourage them all to pass on the message to anyone else who might support People & Planet. Also think of those people living in different parts of the UK or abroad. The Internet is global —- so make the most of it!
Contact your local media
Publicity in the local and student media can be an invaluable fundraising tool. A few lines in your school, college or university paper or newsletter, and article in the local newspaper, or an appeal for sponsorship on your local or campus radio station, can yield amazing results. Check out our hints and tips for working with the media or contact the fundraising team in the support office who can help you get publicity
Keep your page updated and email your friends…again
Be persistent. It takes more than one round of emails to reach your fundraising target. Encourage people to re-visit your page by regularly updating it. Change your picture, post updates on your progress and, if you are taking part in a sporting event, keep a training diary. Some people find writing a blog is a great way to keep friends, family and supporters updated on the highs and lows of preparing for and actually doing your fundraising event.
Use your own email as well as the facility on the Justgiving page
Justgiving pages allow you to send out emails with a link to your page. However, familiarity with your own email system means you’ll be able to set up groups and send more emails at once than you can via your sponsorship page, so you this too.
Some of your potential supporters may feel more comfortable opening an email that comes from you personally through an email address they recognise.
Change your email signature at university, school or at home
If you’ve got a signature (a little footer that appears at the bottom of every email you send) find out if you can alter it, either by searching the help pages of your email client or talking to a techie friend. After your name and title etc, add a line at the bottom including the address of your web page. This will raise awareness of your event and ensure every email you send has the potential to prompt a donation.
Make posters!
Don’t just rely on email. A simple poster asking people to visit your fundraising page can reach people whose email address you don’t have. Put posters or a notice up on your school, college, student union or halls of residence notice board. Gyms, computer rooms and libraries can also be great places to pin up notices, but check that you’re allowed to first.
You might also consider printing some flyers to hand out to people when you see them.
Get on the web
See if your school or student union would be prepared to add your Justgiving web address to its public website or private intranet. If your university has a Raise and Give Society, they should be very keen to help to promote your fundraising activities and you could get a lot of extra donations from this.
Similarly, if you have a holiday or part-time job, the company you work for may be keen to support charitable events, so ask if they can add your link to their web page. Some companies may even offer a “matched giving” scheme where they offer to match any amounts you have raise.
3. After your event
Thank your supporters
A thank you email to all your supporters after your event is really important. Let them know how you got on, how much you’ve raised so far and what their support meant to you and to People & Planet.
Keep fundraising!
Some 20 per cent of all donations through Justgiving come in after people have completed their fundraising event. So don’t stop fundraising once you’ve cross the finish line! Update your page and email your supporters with news of your success.
Remind those who haven’t yet donated to do so, and ask others to donate again in recognition of your achievement.
For further help and advice, email the fundraising team in the Support Office
