Fundraising for the London Bridges Challenge

How to reach your fundraising goals

Knowing where to start can be the toughest part of fundraising. So here's some ideas to get you started. 

Reaching £40

Our first milestone is £40 which is all about small donations and reaching the right people.

• Create your JustGiving page and donate a small amount to your own page.
• WhatsApp or text 5-10 family and friends asking for small donations to help get you started.
• Post your story and JustGiving page on social media, mention that you're trying to reach £40 by a specific day to get people's attention.

By messaging the people you know directly and setting a time limit on a general post on social media you can hopefully reach your first milestone quickly. 

Reaching £120

Reaching our second milestone requires more of a scatter gun approach. We're looking for small donations from a large volume of people, and potentially some creativity.

• Share your JustGiving page across all networks. Social, work, sports, community. Ensure everyone gets a look at your page.
• Face to face is such an important way to inspire people to donate to your page. When they ask what you're up to, talk about your fundraising.
• Get family and friends to share it with their networks too, small donations from people you may not know will add up.
• Hold a small coffee morning or a healthy bake sale, remember savoury food goes down a treat. 
• Offer out incentives to your supporters. If you reach £120 you'll wear a fancy dress item, face paint or host a party to celebrate after the London Bridges Challenge.

Reaching £500+

Reaching £120 is a huge achievement, but you might want to go beyond that. It's here that you can get really creative with your fundraising:

• Hold a simple event for friends and family, it can be anything you enjoy. A pub quiz, movie night, Friday night disco, BBQ fundraiser, healthy bake sale or sports day. Bring the people you know together to have a great time and they'll show their appreciation. We're here to help, so if you're holding a fundraiser and need some advice just get in touch.
• Matched funding can be a huge help in your fundraising, talk to your HR team at work and see if they offer the scheme. If they do, your company matches your fundraising for free, or up to a certain amount.
• Repeat your sponsorship requests on pay day. It's simple but effective and you can update people on your progress with your practice steps and fundraising.
• Ask us for some collection tins for family and friends to keep at work or their favourite local. 
• Organise a long practice walk for a large group and finish off with a fundraising picnic. Have a suggested donation of £5-£10.

There's so many different ways to reach your goals. So the first thing to do is to start simple and work your way up. See what works with your family, friends, colleagues and social groups and keep going. We're here to help you come up with clever ways to keep on making a difference, so get in touch if you need a hand.

Every penny you raise helps us fight for a world where diabetes can do no harm.