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What's your view on fundraising?
loneswimmer
IrelandCharter Member
Many of us have raised some funds for charity as an adjunct to swims. This is a bloody expensive sport and costs are a limiting factor for most of us.<div><br></div><div>I was asked by a well-known commentator how much of this fundraised cash went to supporting swims and I could only say that In my experience in Ireland, most of the people who raised money for charity, gave 100% or very close to it of the funds to the chosen charity. (I've come across exceptions where people might have been stuck for an extra flight home or a delayed swim and they've used a small part to help defray costs, none of which exceptions do I have a problem with).<div><br></div><div>But I was talking to some other friends since, of whom one was also going to raise funds for charity deliberately to defray the cost of his own swim by taking the cost from that raised, another friend is completely against anyone looking for support, and there are people in between.</div></div><div><br></div><div>I'm not making any judgements, we all get to decide for ourselves, just curious on the range of options and opinions on this area.</div><div><br></div><div>And are there any recommendations or ideas on fundraising that anyone has used, successfully or otherwise? Has anyone been successful in getting sponsorship outside charity raising to help support costs, and if so, how did you achieve it?</div>
loneswimmer.com
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I've only done one real fundraiserly type swim and everything donated went to the charity of choice (minus PayPal fees for money donated that way). I paid all the costs for the swim out of my pocket, I think that's the way it should go when it's advertised as a fundraiser. I feel it's ok if your costs are picked up by a sponsor or something of that sort, but I would feel weird about funding a personal expedition under the guise of it all being for charity.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Also, if a swimmer does use some of the funds to defray swim costs (which is certainly understandable), taking a percentage cut seems more ethically sound than taking "the first X dollar amount" of whatever is donated.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
"First X dollars go to charity, after which Y% goes to charity and Z% goes to defraying costs" ...?
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
I have seen a few approaches that worked better. I'd recommend talking to the charity first because if they put a Press or Advertising person onto your swim, the effect can be huge, as they issue Press releases and can get you interviews with media especially radio and press. I have two friends who did this for EC and the effects were enormous, one multiplied what I raised by a factor of over 10x.
One friend did a agreement with a local small scale philanthropist who would donate €1k to the swimmers for every €3k raised and the sponsor help with media. That one was a bit of luck though.
Also, if that is what you want, you can probably agree some or all cost with the charity who can often set those costs off against tax (at least here they can). You're into that grey area of disclosure or not there, but that's your own and the charities decision.
Another swimmer recomended to me to get a business card with your swim, blog and charity details on it, that you can hand out when it arise in conversation. It was a great idea, (that I also didn't do, I'm a slow learner).
loneswimmer.com
Evan, any charity rules from SBCSA? I did a quick search on your site, and didn't come up with anything.
I really like the idea of business cards. Since I'll be raising money for a military charity, I may/may be able to advertise amongst the military and government civilians, which might raise the stakes.
IF, If I use any of the money to help defray costs, I wonder what people would think? Spit-balling it, I'm thinking no more than 50% of my costs...and I pay the other 50%, but would some people think that is too much? Not enough to the charity? Hmmm...lots to think about.
Donal, did you use any of the money you raised to help pay for your crossing?
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
From a sociology research perspective, though, I am intrigued by popular assumptions that swims must (should?) be for charity - for example, when people's first response to hearing about a swim is "who are you doing it for?". There's a lot of data on this topic coming out of the research project in terms of motivations and justifications, and I'll be giving a paper on it at the Sport and Society conf in Cambridge this summer - I'm happy to share audio / text as and when, for those interested in one take on this issue.
Money I raised for charity, was only a distant secondary motivation, that arose because our coach requests it, and it also allowed others to take part in some way. I never felt any pressure from it though, since it was low key, anyone donating through the website could see that it was going to the charity.
Mike, it all went to the charity (RNLI).
loneswimmer.com
There are, no doubt, a few charitable souls in this sport who are truly swimming only for the benefit of their chosen cause (and I do believe that I've met one or two) but I suspect that for the vast majority of swimmers, charity is an after thought... or dare I say a scheme to finance their pursuits.
I've seen some business models that are pretty misleading about how to raise money and fund one's athletic activities... leaves a bad taste.....
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
In principle, I absolutely agree with Dave & Anne. But I also think marathon swimming should not be an activity limited to those with disposable income or those with wealthy benefactors. What are the best practices for those with big dreams but small wallets?
I love Karen's idea of "separate pots" for swim funding and charity - and I think people actually would be happy to give to both. Advertising is another somewhat less-smarmy way of financing swims; at least it's honest. But it's probably only feasible for certain types of swims - those with local significance, or those that are unique or impressive enough to attract media attention.
One way swimmers around here have gotten help with expenses is to sell tee shirts silk-screened with their personalized channel swim logo. It doesn't cost much to have them made up and people do enjoy buying and wearing them to support the swimmer and their efforts and adventures. Only problem is when too many at one 'swimming hole' do it during the same season...
What I did for my EC swim was that all of the money that was donated by people went straight to my three charities. I did however find that there were some people who asked specifically to donate towards my costs because they knew how expensive the swim was and I also got a small amount of sponsorship from companies. Altogether I got about €2,000 towards my costs, which I estimated were over €10,000 in total. And I raised €22,750 for my charities. I did have quite a few people telling me that I was mad not to cover my costs out of the money raised! But that wasn't the way I set out to do it, and I was glad to be able to give a decent amount to my charities.
I will be fundraising again for my next swim-and solely for charity again. The way that I see it is that I'm doing the swim for me, it's my challenge. But I don't see why I can't allow a charity to benefit from it. It's always one of the first questions that people ask me when I say that I'm training: how can they donate towards it? If they're prepared to give a charity money through what I'm doing, then I don't see why I shouldn't facilitate that. The money I raised the last time was with very little effort really-it didn't take me a huge amount of time and I didn't feel that I was putting a big burden on people...mainly because most people came to me offering to help rather than the other way around. And it did give me that little bit of extra motivation on the day of my swim knowing that so many people had given money towards it and I didn't want to let them down...any extra motivating factor to get you across is a good one!
I set up the Team Forever 501(c)3 to take in charitable donations via my website (www.darren-miller.com) which travel to a bank account, and then a check is written every month to the Forever Fund (co-founded) at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. 100% OF ALL DONATIONS go back to the Forever Fund, which helps ease the financial obligation for families who have sick children at the hospital.
Pittsburgh is not use to marathon swimming, as I believe we have only had 2 other swimmers from this area to attempt the Channel. The media has been very supportive of my adventures, and we have been able to fund-raise some significant assets for the cause! When I speak to large groups about swimming with sharks in the middle of the night, they tend to pay attention!
I believe if you want to get funded, it is possible, but you have to get lucky. I was not necessarily looking for a sponsor when I found mine, as I was just doing what I loved (swimming) and talking about the importance of volunteerism and dedication to helping those less fortunate. I was ready to self-fund the Ocean's Seven, but was blessed to find someone who wanted their name attached to the charitable journey!
I recommend public speaking, and getting your name out into the media to help raise awareness for your cause, as you never know who will want to fix their name or business to what you are doing! Trust me, there are a lot of people out there with deep pockets who love adventure, and will support your journey... finding them is the hardest part.
www.darren-miller.com
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
We set our fees so that we will cover our costs and raise some money regardless of any additional fundraising by our swimmers (It's a 50-50 breakdown). We tell our swimmers that, at the outset. We try to make it very clear to those who are joining us that they should feel under no pressure to participate in additional fundraising. Any supplemental fundraising by our swimmers goes entirely to support our center and our Healthy Changes Initiative.
Long and the short of it. My own experience says, if you are raising money to cover your costs for an English Channell crossing, say so. If 50% of funds raised go to cover the costs of your swim and 50% to charity, say so. Don't be fearful of transparency. And make it fun. A person raising money for Kingdom Swim this year, Christpher Lake is using his face book and every now and then he says something like, "The next $25 or more donation gets to select my profile picture for the next week." That kind of thing. It's been fun (and profitable for us) to watch his progress. And, find out ways to give your donors something in return. Like they do on public radio and TV. For $75 you get a mug. That kind of thing. We call one of our "thank you" gifts the most outrageiously priced $150 sweatshirt they're ever going to get. But it is a way to say thank you that folks appreciate. And they love them. Marcia Cleveland sells a T-Shirt with a logo that says "Real Swimmers Swim Naked" Now that's a thank you!!
Don't know whether any of this helps. Hope so.
That is my favorite sweatshirt!
I hate asking friends/family for donations regardless of the cause. I always cover charity requirement myself. It does get expensive and prohibitive from trying certain events. I really like Phil's approach where you have a large selection of overpriced items so that you can make a donation. Maybe a little selfish to get something back but certainly eases the pain.
Surely the most important thing is that people know exactly where their money is going - I couldn't disagree more with people using charity money to defray costs. I'd only ever use money to cover costs if it was donated specifically for that reason.
I'm sure there are equivalent services in other countries, but in the UK www.justgiving.com is probably the most popular fundraising method - the money goes directly to the bank account of the chosen charity so there's never any confusion about what the money is being used for. (Shameless self-promo alert): this is my team's page for a fundraiser we did last summer: http://www.justgiving.com/readytomongol/
English Channel solo aspirant - July 2013:
http://againsttheti.de - http://twitter.com/jasonmconnor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2013/feb/27/not-running-for-charity
I raised £500 from a sponsor who also donated £150 of product to give away and £150 in clothing. This was for my Ice Mile swim. The costs were about the same in petrol and hotel and fees according to my original plan to swim on the UK. except ultimately I had to travel to Slovenia to do it and that cost me flights and hotel etc ( but I got a holiday too) but I paid that part myself.
I received donations of around £300 for the charity.
The trouble is the next swim costs a lot more, so I am now seeking a sponsor to cover the costs (a title sponsor) plus smaller donations from other businesses.
In this way, I will seek to cover all the costs of my swimming, including petrol and training costs.
Doing this demands I give a good payback and return for the sponsors. Giving free lectures at their events, going on their stands at trade exhibitions, wearing their t shirts and getting publicity into their trade press, their logo on my website and flyers. Their product on display in my shop.
Then there are family and friends who also want to share, who may give me a few £s to help me (as opposed to helping the charity).Maybe one day, these donations will cover a swim in full and even go towards the next swim.
At the same time as all of this, the charity is also given some effort in raising both funds and awareness to their cause . These donations are especially for the charity are also sought.
The thing is, we are swimmers, and it is tough to learn how to raise funds. But I think we can raise a few hundred £s , impress our sponsors and then up the stakes and do it again.
You can see my efforts at www.haydnwelch.co.uk to see how I try to give a good return to my last sponsor. Ice-Watch and awareness to my charity CoppaFeel.org and my first lecture is in three days time "Swimming with Ice"
I will seek more charitable donations there, but will also be paid £50 for speaking which will go towards my next swim.
Maybe one day, I will find a sponsor for another swim, but need £30,000 for it. Any body interested in supporting it?
Like many comments in this thread, I think that different formulas are valid as long as you are upfront with where the donations are going. As a swimmer, I would be very happy to donate to another swimmer's cause knowing that part of what I am giving will go to help that swimmer pay for the expenses of a swim that will fulfill his/her dreams. But I would like to know in advance.
Also, I think that it's important to know how the charity will use that money. i.e. is 100% of the donations being used for the charity's cause (in our case, buy e-readers and books to take to kids), or are part of those donations being used to pay for the charity employees' salaries? I prefer that the donations that reach the charity be used to fund the cause instead of partly funding the overhead.
An advantage of swimming for a charity is that it raises the commitment to the task. It makes the training more bearable and it gives you a solid feeling that there is no turning back from attempting your objective. I think it could give you an additional motivation and boost of energy when your mind or body is failing.
In terms of what has helped to raise money so far, here are some of my modest learnings:
- Be proactive. It is very difficult to raise money by passively waiting for people to click on the "donate" link of your blog. Every $ raised costs significant time and effort.
- Easier to get money for a cause that will use 100% of the donations flow directly to the charity’s cause (instead of paying for its employees).
- Easier to get donations for a cause that you firmly believe in and have been involved with in the past. It gives credibility to your motivation.
- Helps to be more than one person doing the fundraising. It multiplies the networks, families and friends that you can tap onto.
- If you are having a birthday, organizing a party at your house, or whatever event where people normally bring a gift to, ask people to donate to your cause instead of bringing a bottle of wine or such.
- Similarly, your kids can “donate” their birthday to this cause. Instead of birthday presents, have people give money to the cause. Your kids will learn an important lesson of giving and they will feel like they are part of your swim.
- Try to get corporate sponsors who can help by giving you material that you could sell, with the proceeds going to the charity.
- Try to get the support of a celeb. But that’s damn hard.
I have no huge issue about this sort of thing. I have a friend who got a 3 week trekking holiday in Peru for which they had to raise a certain amount of money, which is, in my opinion, far less legitimate than putting yourself through2 years of training before attempting the EC!
- For any fundraising - think big and beyond your inner circle.
- Many Int'l Corportations often match donations when employees donate to a cause. It's an easy way to double a donation.
- Lots of businesses have a budget for social good. Do some research and approach them.
- Make stickers or a flyers that local businesses can display when they support your cause, then they get to show customers what they support. It's good for their image.
- Ask friends to help you fundraise, we all know that it's a lot easier to ask for money for someone else than it is for ourselves.
I personally do not like asking friends and family for doantions of any sort. If I decide to do a swim then it is my responsibility to pay for it - I would never ask someone to give me money for my swims (not saying I would not take it if I had a wealthy benefactor enter my life).
I did raise money for charity when I did MIMS. I kept the list of donars and anytime I see someone on that list raising money for a chairty I donate an equal amount to their cause as a way to show my respect for the money they donated to my cause.
@sharkbaitza
It seems that there is some weird misconception in folks minds that doing a swim or running a marathon involves some kind of sacrifice or hardship on the part of the participant. I'm sure for some folk that might actually be true (e.g. they are doing the event as part of some kind of masochistic bucket list), but I enjoy the training and I enjoy the doing the swim I have trained for.
If someone wants to leverage the publics misguided understanding of why we swim and raise money for a charity, that's great, but I personally would be very uncomfortable with the idea of using any portion of the funds raised to defray expenses not directly associated with the fund raising effort. That is tantamount to asking someone to subsidize my next plasma TV purchase (i.e. if only I was not blowing all my spare change on swimming trips I'd surely have a brand spanking new 60" plasma TV).
Now I am lucky enough to have the discretionary income to spend on the swims that I want to do, and I am more interested in swimming than watching TV, but I can understand that is not true for everyone.
If there is a need to defray costs though it does seem that sponsors are the way to go, simply because they are more likely to ask the hard questions about where their money is going.
http://notdrowningswimming.com - open water adventures of a very ordinary swimmer
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Yes, I think we all know that any charitable donation is watered down within the charitable foundation itself and we accept this when making the donation. If I ever donated to an athlete who advertsies all money raised will go to their designated charity and then found out after the fact this person kept a portion for themselves I would consider that person to be dishonest and a fraud.
If an person cannot afford to pay their own expenses then they need to find sponsors, a benefactor or rethink their dreams but not raise money for charity and then take a protion for themselves unless they have stated that is what they are doing in big bold letters that cannot be missed.
@sharkbaitza
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=swimming charity%2C swim charity&cmpt=q
and 'charity' alone:
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=charity&cmpt=q
Here is what their webpage says regarding how donations are used:
In addition to the other suggestions above, I think swimmers who wish to be truly transparent about how their donors' money is being spent should specify exactly what "administrative expenses" mean.
I was back in Dover with @LisaCummins on the least tide of that season on crew (we got weathered out) and advising another. There was one poor day and a bunch of swimmers went out on a call, only one had any experience, a mix of solos and relays. One solo swimmer, whose name I won't give, was talking it up on the pontoon (it was an unusual early evening start) about how he was now a real Channel swimmer. He was big time and elite. (His words, not mine).
Conditions were poor, we didn't expect anyone to make it (they didn't), I'd advised another guy I knew against going out.
Anyhoo. The guy who was doing all the talking up, was out of the water at 50 minutes. I was told afterwards that he had a contract with the charity he'd been fundraising for and in order to have his costs covered, he had to swim a minimum of ... 50 minutes. It turned out, that this had also been the case for the 6-minute swimmer mentioned at the start.
Therefore contrary to most of us, these people (as @SwimForever says) were extrinsically motivated, by the charity funding, not by the swim as most of us are.
loneswimmer.com
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.