How do you elevate £300,000 to your charity’s trigger with a small crew and a restricted finances? Right now, 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 the 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 right through 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 correct individuals, discovering the technique that works for you, and profiting from alternatives to realize help.
Let’s leap into it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- The right way to determine your potential for achievement
- Setting the correct targets
- Recruiting the most effective supporters
- The optimum London Marathon fundraising timeline
- The technique that raised an additional £100,000
- Digital fundraising instruments for achievement
- The JustGiving London Marathon Fundraising Hub
Small charity…big outcomes
Spinal Analysis is the UK’s main charity funding the invention and improvement of efficient remedies for power spinal wire harm.
With work like that, you may assume the charity has a crew of 100+ individuals. However they’re smashing it with only a small however devoted crew of solely 15 individuals, and their London Marathon crew solely two: Georgia and one assistant!
And regardless of their modest crew dimension, the charity crew of 184 London Marathon runners mixed to boost £300,000 on JustGiving alone in 2024.
The right way 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 constructive ROI?
“I take a look at the prevailing demand from runners, think about 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 associated fee. “If I believe 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 correct targets
Setting targets comes all the way down to your charity’s particular objectives. For Spinal Analysis, the principle purpose in 2024 was constructing model consciousness while gaining new supporters.
“We frequently discover that, as a small charity, individuals haven’t heard of us until they’ve been instantly affected by spinal wire harm. This occasion provides us the chance to get in entrance of people that don’t find out 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 doable.
The right way to recruit new and current supporters
The charity has an ongoing record of people that have expressed curiosity within the subsequent 12 months’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 appeal to chilly audiences (reaching new individuals not aware of the charity) with Fb adverts, and have interaction heat audiences (their current neighborhood or individuals who find out about them) by way of natural social posts and e mail.
“The demand is there; you simply have to determine get in entrance of the correct audiences.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
Then, as quickly as individuals are accepted into the crew, they get a collection of assets by way of e 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 help
TOP TIP
For extra on appeal to and activate new audiences, get our free JustGiving Information to London Marathon 2025.
The optimum fundraising timeline: maintain individuals motivated all 12 months lengthy
Georgia and her crew take into consideration London Marathon all 12 months 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 12 months’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 crew and helps their crew join with one another by way of:
- 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 individuals didn’t meet it in time.
“We launched a required fundraising milestone – individuals wanted to hit 50% of their particular person fundraising goal by January to proceed on the crew.”
GEORGIA AKERS, HEAD OF EVENTS, SPINAL RESEARCH
This strategic milestone attracted extra dedicated runners from the beginning. On high of that, their fundraiser waitlist allow them to to drag in new individuals 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 verify in on their particular person or collective fundraising complete. Plus, everybody can see how they’re measuring up in opposition to others on the leaderboard – that little bit of pleasant competitors encourages individuals to boost extra!
One other time-saver is having JustGiving linked to their Salesforce CRM by way of the JustGiving API, which exhibits all of them their fundraisers’ information in a single place (together with how a lot they’ve raised on their JustGiving web page) – particularly useful for such a small crew!
What are your London Marathon objectives for 2025?
Spinal Analysis is in the midst of their 2025 London Marathon marketing campaign and aiming to boost greater than ever subsequent 12 months.
“We’re growing our particular person fundraising targets this 12 months to push our supporters to boost 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 medical trials, and fund our PhD programme, which is coaching the subsequent technology of specialists within the subject of spinal wire harm.”
Spinal Analysis are heading towards their 2025 London Marathon fundraising objectives by…
These sensible methods are serving to them get donations every single day. Our recommendation: adapt these methods to spice up your charity’s London Marathon marketing campaign too!
Take a look at 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 12 months 👇
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 profitable marketing campaign.
