Tips for Raising Money - Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust

We’ve put together our top tips to help you organise your fundraising for us.

General Fundraising Tips: Before the Event

Decide approximately how many churches you are likely to visit before asking people to sponsor you.
Start your fundraising well before the event.
If you do not want to collect sponsors yourself, ask someone else to do it on your behalf or encourage a young person to take part and offer to collect the sponsors.
Ask close family and friends first to get them at the top of your page as subsequent people tend to put similar amounts.
Ask friends, neighbours and work colleagues and employers
Ask if the sponsor will GiftAid their donation.
Advertise in your church and any local magazines that you are taking part.
Stand up in church, or elsewhere, and make an announcement that you are looking for sponsorship.

Just Giving Tips: Before the Event

Put the name and place of the church you wish to receive 50% of your sponsor money or say 100% OHCT in the “My Story” section.
In the “My Story” section state if your church is fundraising for a particular purpose e.g. new heating system or roof repairs.
Upload photos on your JustGiving page as it is great to see a happy picture of the participant.
Make a video explaining what you are doing and why and upload it onto your page.
Put your JustGiving page address in your e-mail signature.
E-mail out your page to different groups of people at different times starting with family and close friends.
A good time to e-mail out your page is just after payday.
Update the basic “Thank you” to make it more personal for people making a donation.
Send out an e-mail reminder shortly before the event.
Share your page to your Facebook and Twitter accounts

After the Event

Update your JustGIving webpage with photographs of your Ride and Stride and information about what you did.
Send out another e-mail updating people about your achievement, thanking people for sponsoring you and saying that you can still provide sponsorship.

Publicity for Ride and Stride

As always it is good to get advance publicity such as ‘celebrities’ who might take part in some way – if not actually participating but waving off a group or welcoming them at a particular church, or if you hear of someone doing something different please let us know as it makes good publicity for the event as a whole.
Nearly £250,000 was awarded in Grants in 2019 – a truly magnificent sum. This is due in no small part to the income generated by Ride and Stride. If your church has received a Grant from OHCT or is planning to apply please do highlight this – local interest is excellent publicity!
Do remember to mention any outstanding achievements of participants from your Church and if you have not already done so, let people know how much you raised last year.Posters, sponsor forms, etc are now available; please get the posters up as soon as possible and encourage anyone who might like to take part.Electronic files are available from the Ride and Stride Administrator.
Do remind people that if they are unable to take part on the day they can do so at another time, but it is unlikely that they will be able to have their sponsor forms signed.
An increasing number of people have been sponsored for signing people in at their Church, so please encourage your Welcomers to do this.

Please encourage people to set up a Virgin Money Donate page – this is an easy and safe way to get sponsorship.

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