How do you elevate £300,000 to your charity’s trigger with a small staff and a restricted price range? As we speak, you’ll discover out!
We talked with Georgia Akers, Head of Occasions at Spinal Analysis, about precisely how the charity plans, promotes and raises a heap of cash in direction of its mission within the London Marathon utilizing JustGiving.
And we get particular. Georgia shares…
- How she recruits dependable and motivated fundraisers from day one
- Retains the hype going during race day
- The game-changer that raised an additional £100,000 and halved their dropout fee!
As you’ll see, it’s about getting in entrance of the appropriate folks, discovering the technique that works for you, and taking advantage of alternatives to achieve assist.
Let’s soar into it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Methods to determine your potential for fulfillment
- Setting the appropriate goals
- Recruiting one of the best supporters
- The optimum London Marathon fundraising timeline
- The technique that raised an additional £100,000
- Digital fundraising instruments for fulfillment
- The JustGiving London Marathon Fundraising Hub
Small charity…large outcomes
Spinal Analysis is the UK’s main charity funding the invention and improvement of efficient therapies for persistent spinal twine harm.
With work like that, you may assume the charity has a staff of 100+ folks. However they’re smashing it with only a small however devoted staff of solely 15 folks, and their London Marathon staff solely two: Georgia and one assistant!
And regardless of their modest staff measurement, the charity staff of 184 London Marathon runners mixed to lift £300,000 on JustGiving alone in 2024.
Methods to determine occasion potential, then check and scale
Success in London Marathon depends on cautious effort, and ongoing stewardship. How does Georgia inform if it’ll have a optimistic ROI?
“I have a look at the prevailing demand from runners, contemplate the cost-per-runner, and assess the fundraising potential of the occasion to see if it’s price buying charity locations.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
From there, she assesses if the worth’s price the price. “If I feel it’s price it, I’ll buy a small variety of charity locations to check the demand, then slowly enhance.”
TOP TIP
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Setting the appropriate goals
Setting goals comes all the way down to your charity’s particular objectives. For Spinal Analysis, the primary objective in 2024 was constructing model consciousness while gaining new supporters.
“We frequently discover that, as a small charity, folks haven’t heard of us until they’ve been immediately affected by spinal twine harm. This occasion provides us the chance to get in entrance of people that don’t learn about us.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
The charity additionally leverages London Marathon to construct even stronger relationships with their current neighborhood, while elevating as a lot cash as attainable.
Methods to recruit new and current supporters
The charity has an ongoing listing of people that have expressed curiosity within the subsequent yr’s occasion, which they faucet into when their London Marathon locations are confirmed.
For additional recruitment, they cut up their outreach into chilly and heat audiences. Spinal Analysis entice chilly audiences (reaching new folks not acquainted with the charity) with Fb adverts, and have interaction heat audiences (their current neighborhood or individuals who learn about them) by natural social posts and electronic mail.
“The demand is there; you simply have to determine how you can get in entrance of the appropriate audiences.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
Then, as quickly as individuals are accepted into the staff, they get a sequence of assets by way of electronic mail to welcome them and assist them begin fundraising:
- A immediate to arrange their JustGiving web page
- Marathon coaching plans
- Fundraising concepts and inspiration
- Reminders for upcoming milestones (extra on this later)
- Personalised assist
TOP TIP
For extra on how you can entice and activate new audiences, get our free JustGiving Information to London Marathon 2025.
The optimum fundraising timeline: how you can maintain folks motivated all yr lengthy
Georgia and her staff take into consideration London Marathon all yr lengthy, because it’s their flagship fundraising occasion. And London Marathon wastes no time in releasing poll locations and charity locations. They usually do it the day after London Marathon, for the subsequent yr’s occasion!
Right here’s the fundraising timeline we’ve seen work time and time once more:
To maintain the joy going, Spinal Analysis connects with their staff and helps their staff join with one another by:
- A WhatsApp group for answering questions and sharing ongoing inspiration
- Exhibiting as much as cheer on their London Marathon runners throughout the occasion
- Internet hosting a post-marathon meetup at an area pub to fulfill and congratulate their fundraisers after their monumental effort
The £100,000 fundraising difference-maker
Right here’s the one change to their fundraising technique that helped Spinal Analysis elevate an additional £100,000 in London Marathon 2024.
They mapped out a required milestone for his or her fundraisers, then had a backup plan if folks didn’t meet it in time.
“We launched a required fundraising milestone – folks wanted to hit 50% of their particular person FR goal by January to proceed on the staff.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
This strategic milestone attracted extra dedicated runners from the beginning. On prime of that, their fundraiser waitlist allow them to to drag in new folks if others needed to drop out.
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Spinal Analysis use JustGiving Marketing campaign Pages for all their London Marathon campaigns.
It’s straightforward for the charity and their fundraisers to test in on their particular person or collective fundraising whole. Plus, everybody can see how they’re measuring up towards others on the leaderboard – that little bit of pleasant competitors encourages folks to lift extra!
One other time-saver is having JustGiving related to their Salesforce CRM by way of the JustGiving API, which exhibits all of them their fundraisers’ knowledge in a single place (together with how a lot they’ve raised on their JustGiving web page) – particularly useful for such a small staff!
What are your London Marathon objectives for 2025?
Spinal Analysis is in the midst of their 2025 London Marathon marketing campaign and aiming to lift greater than ever subsequent yr.
“We’re rising our particular person fundraising targets this yr to push our supporters to lift greater than ever.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
Georgia says, “The cash raised will assist our mission by permitting us to proceed to fund cutting-edge analysis, advance scientific trials, and fund our PhD programme, which is coaching the subsequent technology of specialists within the subject of spinal twine harm.”
Spinal Analysis are heading towards their 2025 London Marathon fundraising objectives by…
These sensible methods are serving to them get donations day by day. Our recommendation: adapt these methods to spice up your charity’s London Marathon marketing campaign too!
Try our 2025 London Marathon fundraising hub for much more assets that can assist you plan, promote, and succeed within the greatest fundraising occasion of the yr 👇
EVERYTHING YOU NEED
The JustGiving London Marathon 2025 Fundraising Hub
Get all the newest London Marathon 2025 fundraising assets, incentives, and instruments to construct your charity a successful marketing campaign.
