e-fundraising

The internet can, if used well, be an amazing fundraising tool for you. Set up your own fundraising page online at www.justgiving.com.

1. Personalise your page
Make your page as compelling as possible by adding your own photograph and text. Make sure your page communicates the reason you have chosen to raise money, and why you believe Islamic Relief deserves support. Be creative!

2. Email your family and close friends first
Before sending an email to your entire address book, asking your closest friends and family to donate first. An empty page can be a little intimidating, so do make sure to capture a couple of donations before contacting your entire list of potential sponsors. People tend to match the amounts already listed on the page, so do target your most generous supporters first!

3. Tell everyone you know
Email your family, friends and colleagues with a link to your page, but don’t forget other groups of potential supporters: former colleagues, old school and college friends, and Face book Friends 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 Islamic Reliefs work.

Also think of those people living in different parts of the UK or abroad. The Internet is global — so make the most of it!

4. Contact your local media
Publicity in the local media can be an invaluable fundraising tool. A few lines in the local paper, or an appeal for sponsorship on your local radio station, can yield amazing results. With Justgiving, attracting sponsorship couldn’t be easier — readers and listeners can simply visit your page and sponsor you direct.

5. Keep your page updated and email your friends — again
Be persistent. It takes more than one round of emails to reach one’s 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. Let supporters know how much you’ve raised so far. An email update is interesting for those who’ve already supported you and a nudge for those who haven’t. You know what it’s like – people mean to donate, but sometimes they don’t quite get round to it on the first request.

6. Facebook
This is an excellent way of keeping friends update and asking friends to pass on you justgiving.com page. You can post your page on friends wall and expose your page to more people.

7. Change your email signature at work and/or at home – update your status!
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. Regularly update your Face Book status keep your cause fresh in your friends mind.

8. Communicate what a donation will buy
Let your supporters know what their donation will buy for Islamic Relief. It is more compelling to tell someone that £30 will support an orphan for a month, or a £100 will purify water for an entire village than it is to keep a generic cause.

9. Put a notice up in your gym, mosque, college, children’s school, etc.
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. You might also consider printing some flyers/cards to hand out to people when you see them.

10. Ask to be on your company’s website and explore match giving!
See if your company would be prepared to add your web address to its public website or private intranet. Many companies like to promote the charitable and public-spirited efforts of their staff and you could get a lot of extra donations from this. Some companies may even offer a “matched giving” scheme where they offer to match any amounts you have raised, so this action could help you reach your target even faster.

Other Ideas

Fundraising should be renamed fundraising. Many of our past challengers have had a great time fundraising, here we share just a few of their ideas, but let your imagination fly and be creative.

Fundraising dinners
One challenger from Coventry approached a restaurant, asked how much it would cost to have set meal for 15 people. After explaining the restaurateur that he was fundraising for charity he was given a figure of £5 a head.  The challenger then invited 15 of his friends for a restaurant meal charging £25 per head. He repeated this four times making a total of £1,200 for the cause.

Fancy dress car wash
A challenger in Manchester asked his friends to dress up as comic book heroes and using his fathers’ garage forecourt invited motorist to treat their car to a superhero car wash for charity.He charged each car £5 and invited them to make a donation eight hours later he’d made just under £800 for the cause.

Only Smarties have answer!!
One challenger bought 20 tubes of Smarties and gave them to 20 of her friends.  Her only condition to her friends was once they’d enjoyed the Smarties they return the tubes back to her filled with as many £1 coins as they could collect in a week.  She made well over £200, not bad for a £7 investment!