Steps to Success FUNDRAISING PACK SPONSORED EVENTS

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1 Steps to Success FUNDRAISING PACK SPONSORED EVENTS

2 Dear Supporter Thank you so much for deciding to take part in a sponsored event on behalf of Rennie Grove Hospice Care. This Fundraising Pack is designed to help you get the most out of your sponsored event. We appreciate that a lot of these points may not apply to your event but they are worth bearing in mind when planning your fundraising. Rennie Grove Hospice Care is a charity providing care and support for patients in Herts and Bucks diagnosed with life-limiting illness. Through our unique 24/7 responsive hospice at home service and a range of day services we make it possible for patients to choose how and where they want to be cared for towards the end of life. The support we provide for families both during the illness and after bereavement is an integral part of our care. Our Vision is that every adult and child with life-limiting illness can choose how they want to be cared for knowing they will receive exceptional specialist palliative care. We rely heavily on public support to raise around 87% of our annual running costs which currently stands at 7.6m. It is the generosity of people like you that allows us to help all the families who need us If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact the Rennie Grove Hospice Care Fundraising Team on or fundraising@renniegrove.org. Thank you again for choosing to support us. The Rennie Grove Hospice Care Fundraising Team

3 We are happy to help How we can help your fundraising! To maximise the success of your fundraising challenge we are happy to help you in any way we can. We can provide the following: Personalised sponsorship forms Personalised business cards Sweepstake forms Gift aid envelopes Individually designed posters and flyers (A5, A4 and A3) Up-to-date charity leaflets and information Publicity through our website, newsletter and s as well as other media coverage and publicity where possible A Rennie Grove Hospice Care t-shirt or running vest to wear during training and on the day if applicable Rennie Grove branded collection boxes / buckets Rennie Grove branded balloons Thank you letters to your sponsors on request Letter of authority to request raffle prizes / corporate sponsorship General advice and moral support Please feel free to contact the Fundraising Team at any time to request the above items on or fundraising@renniegrove.org Postal address: Rennie Grove Hospice Care Rennie House Unit 3a, Tring Industrial Estate Tring Herts HP23 4JX 2

4 Top tips for raising sponsorship START AS SOON AS POSSIBLE Carry your sponsorship form and business cards with you at all times. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES Leave a sponsor form and poster in a prominent place such as a staff room at work, a gym changing room or a notice board. People can still sponsor you without you being there and it is also a good option for those who find approaching people directly for sponsorship a little awkward. WRITE LISTS OF KEY CONTACTS Make a list of all your family, friends, work colleagues, sporting or social associates. If it helps, list them in separate sections and decide how best to ask them to sponsor you. ENLIST THE HELP OF OTHERS Give sponsorship forms to friends and family so that they can raise sponsorship amongst their contacts too which will widen the pool of potential sponsors. FACE-TO-FACE It s more difficult for sponsors to say no if you're standing in front of them. But if you can't meet them, you might like to ask for some of our personalised business cards, which will include a link to your fundraising page, and which you can leave on work desks. MATCHED FUNDING Ask your employer if your company would match your sponsorship amount raised pound for pound, or even if they would round your total up to the nearest ten, or hundred pounds. Many companies offer matched funding so all you have to do is ask! HAVE A HIGH PROFILE Raise publicity for your event by contacting your local newspaper, magazines, radio stations or even a company newsletter to help raise awareness of your venture and the vital work carried out by our nurses. We can offer you advice on this. THE PERSONAL TOUCH If you have a particular reason for raising money, for example a personal experience, be honest with sponsors about it. Try to avoid being too pushy but giving people some background information about the charity or the event may make them more likely to sponsor you. HOLD AN EVENT You don t have to raise your sponsorship through the traditional methods: you could hold a mini -event to raise funds too. For example raffles, quiz nights, cake sales, poker nights, coffee mornings, car boot sales, ebay sales and car washes are among the endless activities you could engage in to raise sponsorship. People are often much happier to give you money if they are receiving something in return.

5 Online Fundraising Online fundraising is a very popular way to raise money and increasingly more people raise the majority of their funds via the internet. Through organisations such as BT My Donate, Just Giving and Virgin Money Giving charity supporters can design an online fundraising page in minutes. Your sponsors will be able to donate safely and tax-effectively, from anywhere in the world. Your personal fundraising page will record all online sponsors, and you will be notified every time someone sponsors you. Please note: the majority of online fundraising page providers will take a small fee from funds donated online (including Just Giving and Virgin Money Giving). BT My Donate DO NOT charge any fees which means that Rennie Grove Hospice Care will receive all of your online sponsorship. Here are some tips on how to make the most of your online fundraising page: Make an effort with your fundraising page. People are more likely to pass it on to others, return to it and, most importantly, make a donation. Use your imagination to get your message across and persuade people to donate. Write your story in a clear, informative and persuasive manner. If you can recount a funny story or anecdote this can help - if you can make your potential donors laugh they are often more likely to sponsor you! Include pictures of yourself too to add the personal touch. Spread the word once your fundraising page is set up you can the link to friends, family, people at work, old friends, people you know through hobbies or a church or community group anyone. Take advantage of the benefits of social media; after all, you can reach people anywhere in the world. Add the link to your fundraising page in your auto-signature and write something like: 'I'm taking part in The London Marathon! Would you like to sponsor me?' to raise awareness of your event and add a link to your fundraising page. You can also set up a signature in online chat forums so that whenever you post, the signature with a link to your fundraising site will appear. Update your fundraising page regularly with progress reports, news and recent pictures and keep your donors up-to-date. When you update your page, you have a good reason to send updates to people on your mailing list and encourage them to sponsor you and/or spread the word about you. Send thank you s to anyone who donates. A lot of sites will let you automate this process and offer an option to automatically personalise thank you s and it is really worth taking the time to set this up. ONE MORE POINT TO REMEMBER It is important to consider how you will collect your sponsorship money as this can often be harder than attracting sponsors in the first place so do bear this factor in mind when planning your sponsorship activities.

6 Collecting Sponsorship Some people find it easier to collect the sponsorship as it's pledged, to save having to go back to ask their donors to put their hands in their pockets afterwards. If you'd prefer to complete the event first, work logically down the list, asking people to pay the amount they pledged. We hope that you will find the following tips helpful. Perhaps the top tip of all is that you should always carry your sponsor form with you because you never know when you'll bump into a sponsor! Write a newsletter - Send a one-page newsletter or to everyone who pledged a donation. Include a photograph of yourself taking part in your challenge (ideally wearing a Rennie Grove t-shirt or running vest!) or of your fundraising event. Give advanced warning - Send an to colleagues letting them know you have finished the event and warn them you will be round to collect their sponsorship shortly. This will remind them to get cash or bring their chequebooks in. If you can, wait until pay day as sponsors may be even more generous. How do you send your sponsorship to Rennie Grove Hospice Care? There are different ways of sending us your sponsorship. You could use one or a combination of the ways below: You could wait until you've collected the whole amount before posting one covering cheque to us. It can take a while to collect everyone's pledges though, so your cheque might not reach us until some months after the event. Cheques should be made out to Rennie Grove Hospice Care. We also accept CAF cheques. You could send the money to us as you collect it. If you choose to do this then please follow these steps: 1. Enclose cheque/s with a covering note stating your name and the sponsored event. 2. Enclose copies of the sponsor form/s highlighting those sponsors you have collected money from on this particular occasion. If you use an online fundraising page, we automatically receive the money you have raised on a regular basis. We will keep a tally of the amount you've raised and add it to any offline funds you have raised.

7 Collecting Sponsorship Cont. Please do not... Please do not send cash by post as it is not safe. Please do not open a bank account using the Rennie Grove Hospice Care name in order to pay in cheques made payable to us, even when you intend to send us one cheque for the total at the end of your fundraising. This is illegal. Cheques made pay able to Rennie Grove Hospice Care must be sent to us by post or paid into our account directly. Gift Aid it! Please note that if your sponsors are tax payers and they wish us to reclaim tax paid on their donations then they can indicate this on the sponsorship form by ticking the Gift Aid box. They must also individually complete the form with their full name and address. We can then reclaim the Gift Aid on their behalf (currently 25p in every 1 given). This can significantly boost your total sponsorship money raised. Please note cheques should be made payable to Rennie Grove Hospice Care with your name written clearly on the back, and sent to: Fundraising, Rennie Grove Hospice Care, Rennie House, Unit 3 Icknield Way Industrial Estate, Tring, Herts HP23 4JX Thank you

8 Eugene Clarke Prudential RideLondon Thank you for supporting us We look forward to hearing about your event! Eleanor Maxwell and Nicola Molloy London to Brighton Cycle Challenge Ian Thurman Strathmore Saunter Front cover image: The Childs Family Team Smileage at the summit of the Schmittenhoe, Austria Ruth & Richard Bowen High Wycombe Half Marathon Rennie Grove House Hospice Care Registered Charity No Registered address: Waverley Road, St.Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 5QX