Running For Money.

At the Virgin London Marathon in 2008 runners raised a world record £46.7 million for charity. The majority of the money will have been raised through "Golden Bond" places where the charity pays £300 per runner for entry to the race. The runner then commits to raising a four figure sum, in the case of LLR this is £2,000.00. I can see why charities offer the Golden Bond places with a minimum donation but for me, even raising money for a charity that's close to my heart I couldn't take a Golden Bond place: I'd be too worried about raising the necessary sponsorship to do anything else.

Last autumn I raised a respectable £443.75 by running my first three 10k races. This was done with little effort on my part; I told my friends and family what I was doing, why, when and stuck a link to my sponsorship page up. People donated and I'm very grateful for that. I'm running the Great Manchester Run in May and again will be raising money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research. I've paid my own entry fee there is no commitment on my part to meet a fund raising target, but that doesn't stop me wanting to raise as much as I can.

This time round while I'm sure a quick link to my Virgin Money Giving site posted in a few locations will generate sponsorship, I asked myself why should people part with their cash so I can do what I enjoy doing? I'm sure my wife Jan could do the same thing with her football; I donate money and  then she (hopefully) watches her team win. Not really going to encourage people to part with their hard earned cash for a charity that might mean little to them. Times are hard, people have their own charities they want to support and little free cash to support with. Sending a sponsor form round the office isn't going to cut it anymore.
 

So as a runner what can I do to help a charity I want to support while doing something I enjoy doing? Doing a quick Google search I'm told to try things like bake sales, quiz nights sponsored car washes etc. Now while I don't think any of these are bad ideas, I do have some reservations about them. Great ideas but we are slipping away from the original idea of raising money by running. For those people running on Golden Bonds with a target to reach these are all ways to reach that.

A sweepstake sprang to mind, a way of getting people involved and I'm sure more people would be willing to part with some cash if there is a chance of a return. A sweepstake based on my finishing time could give some people an advantage; run with me at parkrun, or stalk my times on the internet you'll have a much better idea of my estimated finishing time than say my boss at work who knows I run but couldn't tell you how far or how fast.

After doing some research and exchanging a few e-mails with the running team at LLR they pointed me in the direction of Pledgeit. Pledgit lets you challenge people to do something, anything. It could be running a marathon, running a 10k race in under a specific time or eating five crackers in under a minute. Rather than simple sponsorship, people pledge to donate money upon completion of the challenge. No money is taken until the challenge is met, unlike traditional sponsorship where the money is generally taken online in advance. Unlike other sites all the money raised through Pledgeit goes to Beating Blood Cancer, you pledge £20 the charity gets £20 once the challenge is completed.

Raising money for charity now, in my opinion, needs to be more original and more interactive. I originally started this blog so people could see the effort I was putting in to be ready for my first race. For me it wasn't just about the event it was about all the hours of training I was putting in beforehand. Pledgit only works if you have Facebook, something just about everybody I know has (apart from my Dad!) giving sponsors the change to get involved, even if it's nothing more than a couple of likes.