Mostafa Hussain shares the learnings that helped a community fundraising initiative maximise its return on investment
Race For Charity is an independent voluntary project set up in 2013 by a small group of Muslim volunteers across London to support local, humanitarian causes. The aim of the project is to organise fun-filled, high adrenaline, action-packed events for our willing participants, and in doing so, help to raise money and awareness for worthy causes both here in the UK and abroad.
Each year we support a different cause, and our chosen charity for 2015 was the homeless charity St Mungo’s Broadway. They are doing fantastic work, specifically by helping people recover from the issues that create homelessness, as well as providing a bed and support to more than 2,500 people a night who are either homeless or at risk, and work to prevent homelessness, helping about 25,000 people a year.
Driving greater participation
In years one and two, we held team rowing events, which were very successful but based on the feedback we got from participants last year, we decided to hold a different event this year and every year going forward, to add variety and keep things exciting and challenging for our loyal participant base. Mountain trekking and long-distance cycling were suggested, however while these might be seen as obvious challenge-type activities, our goal was mass participation and to get as many people to take part in the event as possible, as this would increase our odds of raising a large total. We felt that organising a more local, inclusive and fun event would better lend itself to this.
After discussing all the options, we decided on go-karting. We hired the biggest indoor go-karting track in London, Capital Karts in Barking, which would allow up to 25 karts on the track at any one time, without the risk of track congestion given the size of the race track. For each kart we had a team of three participants, making 75 participants in total. Within just three weeks of launch, all 75 places had been filled.
Making it a team challenge had big advantages in that it added a level of camaraderie not seen in individual participation events. As a team, you push and encourage each other, which helps you stay focused and motivated, both to win the event and to raise as much money as possible for the cause.
However, because go-karting is generally viewed as a fun activity, rather than a ‘challenge’ per se, it can be quite a hard sell when trying to get sponsorship. One of the ways we tackled this was to make the go-karting event a test of endurance, lasting approximately three hours, thereby turning it into a challenge event and not just a fun day out that people would be less likely to want to sponsor.
Connecting with the cause
To the same end, we encouraged our participants put the cause at the centre of their pitch when talking about the event to supporters, because we’ve learned that attracting sponsorship comes much more through connecting people with the cause than through focusing on the format of the fundraising event.
As part of this, we prepared and served a special curry lunch at one of St Mungo’s Broadway’s hostels, so that our participants could meet some of the people that their fundraising efforts would benefit. Hearing their individual stories and gaining that understanding of their plight really motivated our participants to put lots of effort into raising as much money as possible. Indeed, we saw fundraising totals increase exponentially from that point onwards.
Guarding against unforeseen circumstances
One the biggest challenges we faced with this year’s event was the possibility of teams dropping out before the event. Previous years had taught us that with mass participation events, you do get people dropping out along the way due to personal circumstances, and so we had to take steps to minimise this. I kept an up-to-date list of people who were keen to take part and who were on standby, ready and keen to fill any spaces that became available. This proved invaluable, as around seven teams dropped out along the way and needed to be replaced immediately to give them enough time to hit their fundraising targets before the fundraising deadline.
Extra motivation through prizes
After the event, we put on a lunch/awards ceremony and invited all the participants and the organisers from St Mungo’s Broadway, with prizes and trophies/certificates given out to the team that won the race and the team that raised the highest amount. The lunch was held at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, and a set of iPad minis were provided as prizes for the members of the highest fundraising team.
We have learned over the years that offering prizes as a motivational tool boosts the competitive element which encourages everyone to put the extra effort into exceeding their fundraising target, rather than just stopping when they meet their target. Indeed we had three teams competing at the top this year right until the last minute of the fundraising deadline, with the winning team raising well over £1400 - almost double their £750 target!
Overall, we raised a very respectable grand total of £24,590.33 for St Mungo’s Broadway. For Race For Charity, it’s helped cement our track record of organising successful events for worthy causes both here in the UK and abroad, which hopefully will help us achieve an even greater impact on important causes in the future.
Mostafa Hussain is 2015 project manager for Race for Charity
