Volunteer fundraising guide
The information on the documents below gives a guide for volunteers who are fundraising for or in relation to Moving Mountains. You can click on the pages to enlarge them. It would be a very good idea to print at least one copy of the first page to have with you when-ever you are doing fundraising activities.
Your fundraising target for Moving Mountains is making a genuine difference to children and communities in Kenya, Nepal and Borneo, and by joining a volunteering or international development trip you are committing to supporting the children and communities that you will be working with.
A charity trip on top of Kilimanjaro.
For us the beauty of our volunteering and international development trips is that you have the chance to see exactly how fundraised money is being used on the ground, it is this transparency that has helped to make Moving Mountains the successful charity that it is today.
Fundraising is not always easy but if you approach it in a confident manner and put the effort in then you will find that it is not as difficult as you might have first thought. Setting up an online giving page using BT MyDonate or Justgiving allows people to donate to Moving Mountains directly on your behalf. It also lets you keep track of the amount raised. For fundraising in Ireland use MyCharity
The following are a few tips and ideas to get you started but not all of these will suit you personally. Try to think outside the box, try new ideas and involve other people; when people know what the money is going towards you’ll find that most people are really supportive.
Students on a charity trip to Kenya.
Fundraising Tips
• Make sure your fundraising page is interesting, engaging and explains exactly why you are fundraising for Moving Mountains, people like to know what their donation will help to support.
• Time donation requests, people are more likely to be generous with their sponsorship directly after payday.
• Don’t forget to ask for Gift Aid as it means more money goes to your charity (and your fundraising target!).
• Ask close friends and family to donate first as other people may then match their generosity.
• Add some perspective around a suggested donation, for example, £20 might mean missing a visit to a restaurant.
• Set yourself small weekly fundraising targets rather than thinking about a larger and daunting total target.
• Get friends and family to spread the word about your fundraising too – they’ll be keen to help you get more sponsors.
• Make use of social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc are great tools for promoting fundraising.
• Mention your fundraising events in your answerphone messages, email signatures, notice boards, anywhere you can!
Fundraising Ideas
• Fundraising parties/Social events (coffee mornings, a night at the races, bbq’s, etc)
• Collections (bucket collections, supermarket bag packing, etc)
• Sponsored events (mountain climbs, fun runs & marathons, etc)
• School & University appeals (assemblies, non-uniform days, RAG, etc)
• Church & Community group support
• Local newspapers and media (articles and broadcast advertising your events)
• Sales (setting up tuck shops, selling unwanted items on eBay, etc)
• Local Businesses (letter writing to selected companies for support)
• Support from family and friends
Whatever your Moving Mountains fundraising target is we find that it is better to think of it in smaller sums, for example, a target of £500 could be 50 people each donating you £10... Always keep in your mind what you are fundraising money for, it is not for you to go out on holiday but is an amount which is going directly to the charity to improve the lives of hundreds of children.
Support Moving Mountains online
Fundraising for the Moving Mountains Trust helps us to support and develop long-term sustainable projects in Nepal, Borneo and Kenya and allows us to continue changing lives. To set up a BT MyDonate fundraising page follow these simple steps;
- Go to the following link - http://www.btplc.com/mydonate/
- Click on Start Fundraising
- Click on Create My Challenge (or Join An Organised Event if you are fundraising for a specific project, eg; our Medical Camps in Kenya and Nepal)
- Complete the Personal Registration form to create your account
- Under ‘Search for a Charity’ enter Moving Mountains Trust
- Enter the type of ‘Charity Challenge’ that you intend doing (for people involved in Moving Mountains trips to the countries which we work in click on ‘other’ and enter the name of the trip which you are on, for example; Africamp, Volunteering in Kenya, Himalayacamp, etc)
- If you are doing one specific challenge to raise funds for Moving Mountains (for example; Marathon, Mountain Climb, Coffee Morning, etc) then click Yes under ‘Is your challenge taking place at a specific location?’, click No if you are on a Moving Mountains trip as you are likely to be doing more than one event to raise funds
- Under ‘When is your challenge happening?’ enter the dates of your Moving Mountains trip or your challenge
- Select 12 months for the length of time you can ‘accept donations after your challenge is finished’
- Enter your name when ‘Choosing your web page address’
- Click Yes under ‘Do you want this link to be searchable on MyDonate?’
- Click No under ‘Do you want to link your page to a fundraising team?’
- Click No for both the queries under ‘Gift Aid & Charity Support’
- Be creative under ‘Inspire others with your fundraising story’, remember this is what people will read before they donate, let people know what you are doing and why!
- ‘Photographs & Video’ - Make sure that your main photo is relevant
- ‘Your fundraising targets and total’ - If you are on a Moving Mountains trip then you should already know what your fundraising target is
- ‘Notifications’ - Click Yes to both queries under notifications and enter a personalised message to thank donors (BT MyDonate send this out to the donor automatically) and a link to www.movingmountainstrust.org so people can read more about the work that we are involved with.
- PROMOTE YOUR PAGE! Let everyone know what you are doing, share on Facebook and other social media sites, let friends and family know and get people helping... You’ll be surprised how much support is there when you start asking. Good luck and let us know if you have any queries!