10 minutes to change a life

Fundraising can save lives.

At bigmoose, we rely on kind individuals taking on challenges and fundraising to
ensure we can continue supporting people with fast, accessible therapy.

When you fundraise for bigmoose, you have the power to directly help someone
who is struggling. That person will be given a lifeline when it’s needed most and
the chance to begin feeling better.

All thanks to you.

In terms of numbers - every £100 you raise will provide a therapy session for
someone who needs support, and every £500 directly funds a full course of
therapy.

These are real people, real individuals with families, lives and dreams. Real
people who, without your support, might not be able to access support.

How incredible is that?!

So let’s rewind... you’ve signed up to a super exciting event. You’ve got your event
confirmation, You’ve got your training plan, but now comes the bit that can feel a
bit overwhelming:

How do you actually raise your fundraising target?

Just like training, you have to take it one step at a time. Work back from your goal
and take it step by step. Small actions, repeated consistently, turn into something huge.

I head up fundraising at bigmoose and work with individuals every day who are
doing incredible and inspirational challenges to help us. So I wanted to distil some
of the top tips I’ve learnt for you to make it as easy as possible to get started.

I’ve created a 10 minute fundraising tip checklist you can quickly use to get
started and set yourself up for fundraising success.

So grab a cuppa, a pen and some paper (or your notes app) and let’s get started!

It is broken up into 5 simple steps, each with a quick timer you can set to boost your
fundraising fast.

By the end of this blog, you’ll have everything you need to hit your target with confidence.

 

Step 1: Storytelling

Your story is your most powerful fundraising tool. In the world of social media and
information overload, you have to cut through with a unique story.
Think about things that have made you stop scrolling recently - it’s always a
personal story, something that builds emotion or just catches your attention from
the first second.

Whenever you talk about your challenge, try to answer these three questions:

When people understand the reason behind your fundraising, they are far more
likely to support you and share your page with others.

Task:

1. Set an alarm for 2 minutes and write your story using the three questions
   above.

This will lay the foundations for you to tell your story effectively. Once you have this
ready, you can use this text every time you speak about your fundraising. It will
also massively saves you time, as you can now simply reuse this text instead of
rewriting your story every time you share about your fundraising.

 

Step 2: Make your target meaningful

Instead of only thinking about the amount of money you want to raise, think about
the lives you want to impact.

For example, every £500 you raise for bigmoose helps someone access a full
course of therapy.

Many fundraisers find it more meaningful to think of their target in terms of lives
changed, rather than just a monetary goal.

Let’s say you decide you want to help 4 people through a course of therapy, which would be a £2,000 fundraising target. Instead of focusing on the £2,000, you can shift your focus to the people you’re helping.

Suddenly, the target feels far more achievable. You can break it down into
milestones and celebrate every time you fund a course of therapy.
Make sure to share those moments with people who have donated to your page,
showing them the difference their support is making.

Task:

1. Set an alarm for 30 seconds and pick your fundraising target - how many
   people do you want to help through therapy?

 

Step 3: Personalise your page

JustGiving recently did some really interesting research where they analysed
pages on their platform and found traits of the top-performing pages.
Check out these super interesting quick tips to boost your page:

Anything you can do to personalise your page and tell your story really makes
such a difference

Task:

1. Set an alarm for 3 minutes and head to your fundraising page.
2. Add:

• • your personalised story you wrote in step 1 into the description
  • photos of you to the header of the page
  • the target you chose in the previous section
  • connect strava (or any compatible fitness apps if you use them).

 

Step 4: Time to get social

JustGiving also found that of all social media platforms, whatsapp has the highest
donation value. This is because it’s personal and direct. I’d really recommend
directly reaching out to people as well as sharing your page on social media.
Fundraisers in the top 1% also share their page on average 11 times, so the key
really is to keep sharing!

Task:

1. Set an alarm for 2 minutes and write a message you can send out to people
   via a direct message. This can just be your pre-written story with a link to your
   fundraising page.

Done? Now set an alarm for 30 seconds and send the message to 5 people.

This is something you can do every week, why not make a big list of people you
want to reach out to then each week work your way through the next 5.

 

Step 5: Make fundraising fun

Fundraising does not have to stop at online donations. Getting creative can go a
long way. Some brilliant ideas i’ve seen include:

• bake sales
• quiz nights
• raffles
• coffee mornings
• office sweepstakes
• community walks or runs

Small actions really do add up. Even encouraging people to donate the cost of a
coffee, takeaway or pint can make a big difference over time.

Think about your network, whether that is your gym, run club, friends or workplace
- where can you spread the message about your challenge?

Here are a few ideas you could try:

Task:

1. Set an alarm for 1 minute and write down the networks you could use for
   this challenge.
2. Now set another 1 minute alarm and jot down as many ideas as you can for an
   out of the box event you could do!

That’s it - 10 minutes complete!

When to share?

With all of this, it can be really helpful to plan what you want to share and when.
Working smarter, not harder makes a big difference.

Here are some quick tips, based on research from JustGiving, to help you get started:

• Donations spike on pay day and at the end of the month - share when people
  have more money to be able to donate!
• 7/8am and 8pm are the best times to share fundraising pages and donations
  are slower on weekends - try to think about when people are on their
  phones and able to donate

The biggest thing to remember is this: fundraising is not just about raising money. It
is about raising awareness, starting conversations and helping people who are
struggling.

Every share, donation, and conversation matters.

You are doing something genuinely powerful, and in just 10 minutes you have
taken real steps towards changing more lives.

Thank you for taking the time to do this and supporting bigmoose.