Fundraising through sporting events -

Benefits for charities and race directors

Alex Heasley

Head of Customer Services, Virgin Money Giving

June 29th 2011

Event Director’s Best Practices Webinar Series

Presents Call-in for audio

For audio dial-in:

Ireland: 1800937003

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Today’s Speakers

Guest Speaker

Alex Heasley

Head of Customer Services

Virgin Money Giving

Ana Jesus

Marketing Manager

Active Network

Moderator

Webinar Agenda

About VMG

Virgin London Marathon

Sporting Events

Targeting & Demographics

Overview – Events & Charities

Case Study

Spread the Word

Acquiring and Driving Fundraisers

VMG Our Story so Far

We officially launched on 14 October 2009

So far….

o Nearly 4000 charities have registered online with us

o Nearly 100,000 fundraisers have created pages

o Average donation rose to £34.93 in January 2011

o We’ve raised over £54 million in online sponsorship

We’ve had our second Virgin London Marathon and have seen Celebs, Royalty

and national monuments fundraised with us

The average amount raised by each fundraiser including Gift Aid in 2010 for

the London Marathon was £1,411 and the average donation amount including

Gift Aid was £39

Gift Aid was reclaimed on 88% of all donations

Virgin London Marathon

Background:

Today, the London Marathon is known as the single biggest fundraising event in

the world but it’s important to look back at the history of the event to understand

just how it has gained such momentum, status and popularity:

• From inception and completion of the first event in 1981, the London

Marathon has been viewed as first a foremost a sporting event

• Today it still attracts the world’s best athletes

• Shown in over 150 countries worldwide and importantly has prime time

billing on BBC1

• From the very beginning, demand has out stripped supply:

- In 1981 over 20,000 applied to run, just 7,747 were accepted

- In 2010 over 125,000 applied via the online ballot, 40,000 were accepted

Virgin London Marathon

Charity involvement in the race and Bond places:

More than three quarters of competitors now run for a good cause and a third of all entry

places are offered by charitable organisations

In fact, a survey of 2011 participants told us the 81% of successful ballot place runners

raised money for charity

The Golden Bond scheme enables charities to gain places which they then offer to the

runners who’ve missed out on a ballot place

Over the last 15 years, this scheme has grown and now includes more than 750 British

charities with a total of 15,000 guaranteed places

Another 550 charities are involved in a Silver Bond scheme which guarantees one entry

place every five years

These places often come with a “pledge” style minimum sponsorship set by the charity

Bond places fulfil two important needs; 1. allowing another entry route for people to

participate and 2. ensuring charities see a valuable return on their investment

Sporting Events on VMG

On VMG “events” are classified into the following categories:

Running or Marathons

Cycling

Walking

Trekking

Adrenaline (i.e. Sky Dives etc)

Swimming

Triathlons

95% of all fundraising pages set up on VMG are linked to one of the above style events, with running

still proving the most popular (the additional 5% are pages created In Memory or for Community style

fundraising)

Outside of the London Marathon and looking at the site as whole, fundraising pages for these types of

events average out at £400 per page

Of the 25 most popular “open” events on VMG and excluding the London Marathon, running events

make up 21 of the 25 with the remaining 4 being 2 cycling events and a single swimming and triathlon

event

Two types of events have shown clear growth on VMG both in terms of the number of pages created

for them and also the amount of donations coming in – Triathlons and Cycling Events

Triathlons and Corporates

• Triathlons contribute to “high value” fundraisers on VMG and on average they raise over

£550

• Actual fundraiser numbers are often relatively low compared to participant numbers in

these types of events and may possibly be attributed to the type of participant taking part

• VMG has seen the best return for those charities where they have bond style places in

triathlons and have utilised and taken advantage of their Corporate Supporters

• For the 2010 London Triathlon 69 teams raised over £105,000 seeing an average of over

£1,500 raised per page created

• Of these teams, we were able to identify that 45% were created by corporates

• The use of corporates, particularly in the finance sector, to participate in and go on to

fundraise in triathlons plays to the male, south east bias we see in the type of fundraiser

who creates a page for a triathlon event

• It also allows you to attract support and resources from beyond your organisation’s

immediate network, giving you a greater chance of getting strong numbers to your event

and at the same time increasing the profile of your cause with a new audience

The Growth of Cycling

In the last 2 years, cycling events have certainly been a growth area on VMG

Spotting growth in the popularity of sporting events is key when looking to

invest in bond style places in an event as a charity or when looking to create

something new

Why Cycling?

Evidence that the bicycle is well and truly back in vogue was highlighted by the results of

a 2010 study by the market research company BRMB, which showed that this decade

has seen a 40 percent rise in the number of adults jumping into the saddle

The increasing popularity of cycling as a televised sport has no doubt contributed to these

impressive figures. Indeed this rekindled interest within the UK was illustrated by the

crowds that turned out in London to witness the beginning of the 2007 Tour de France

Furthermore, the affordability and availability of good bicycle equipment means that

cycling is increasingly accessible to people across the country

The Growth of Cycling

Why Cycling? (cont.)

UK Sport surveyed 2,000 members of the public before and after the Beijing Olympics

and concluded that cycling has made a quantum leap in the last 12 months and joined

athletics and swimming as the most popular Olympic sports in Great Britain.

The results of the survey demonstrate there is a link between elite success and public

interest in a sport, with, for example, Rebecca Adlington's success in the Water Cube

driving interest in swimming among young women.

They also show that one in five people intend to turn their pride into action by changing

their sporting behaviour – taking up or watching new sports, or becoming more interested

in sport – providing encouragement for those who believe that hosting the Games in 2012

will provide a legacy of increased participation and sporting opportunities

Targeting Participants and Understanding your Demographic

Where new events have come to VMG and have seen real success in their first

2 years , there has been a clear connection between the type of event and a

specific demographic.

Existing events may wish to align themselves with a particular charity or

charities which support a specific cause to allow them to target a particular

groups:

Students and Young Adults

VMG has seen a significant growth in events targeting the student and young

adult population. The events centre around adventure and often have a

challenge element to them

The charity Link Community Foundation developed their Hitch event and

specifically sought out students, pitching universities against each other.

Coupled with the Facebook followings that led from this, the event income has

doubled from 2010 to 2011

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=137265183215

Targeting Participants and Understanding your Demographic

Families

As the rise of childhood obesity grows and the media interest in exposing the

declining health of the nation, the opportunity to create events that involve the

whole family are becoming more attractive.

Events such as regional Skyline cycles have teamed up with local councils and

cycling clubs to provide accessible and safe routes for families to take up the

activity

Male/Female Targeting

Many successful events offer a clear symmetry with a charitable organisation.

Some examples of this include Movember for men’s health, Boutique Run,

Midnight Walks supporting female cancers which all go to strengthen the

connection between the cause supported and the event

Overview – Events and Charities

Why do events need charities and charities need events?

The benefits to an event to include charities and support fundraising are clear

Charity packages should equal guaranteed place sales

Charity involvement often brings first time participants to an event

Events often gain wider popular appeal and reach

However the act of simply involving charities with an event does not guarantee the

return that both the charities and the event expects

Overview – Events and Charities

There are reason why some schemes work well and others struggle

Event organisers need to understand and structure their ballot and charity place

system

Why are participants going to look to charities for places?

Has the demand for places been created?

Have you created resources to help support your member charities?

Has fundraising been integrated within the registration process and event led

communications?

The event itself needs to look to embrace the charity participant elements and

create a “festival” style feeling which those taking part because of a charity place,

their families and supporter would expect

All too often, the responsibility of turning a participant into a fundraiser has been

left to the charity alone. Organisations need to work together and understand the

vested interest they have in each other’s success

Overview – Events and Charities

Online Fundraising Platforms

Integrating charities and fundraising throughout the journey taken by a participant

registering into an event will lead to a better conversion rate between those who take part

and those that go on to raise money

There may also be a commercial agreement which can be reached which helps to focus

all parties to the business of fundraising

However, event organisers should be looking at these partners to understand which have

the best reach in terms of helping add value to

Event brand

Acquiring participants

Driving activation of fundraisers to raise as much as possible

Provision of additional resources and support to event charity members

Virgin Money Giving as an example has a reach that can touch millions based on the

relationship with Virgin Money and the wider Virgin Group through direct communications

and social media followings

For many of the events partners VMG has, workshops are held during the week and at

weekends for both fundraisers and member charities of the event

Case Study – VMG & The Reading Half Marathon

This year, VMG has partnered with the Reading Half Marathon with the express

aim for both parties to help drive the amount of fundraising for the event

Provision of “deep link” emails to all member charities and to the event

organiser to be used in communications with their participants

Provision of material and messaging to go in regular event communications to

participants

Promotion of the event via the VMG homepage, VMG, Virgin Money and Virgin

Group social media

Training workshops with member charities and Training workshops for charity

participants

Tailored communications to fundraisers on the VMG platform both during and

post event

Case Study – VMG & The Reading Half Marathon

In 2010 the Reading Half Marathon was not an event of note on the VMG platform

124 fundraising pages created

£42,000 raised

In 2011, both have seen a marked improvement across all key metrics

540 fundraising pages created

£185,000 raised

By working with both the event and the member charities has realised a 334%

increase in the number of fundraising pages created and 340% increase in the

amount raised

Creating Communities to Spread the Word

Sharing news… Engagement…

Acquisition of Fundraisers

Examples of how VMG has helped both charities and event organisers promote their

event to a wider population

Making the Most of your Fundraisers

You can do online fundraising passively and achieve one result

You can fundraise online actively and achieve a much better one

Registering a participant and getting them to create a fundraising page does not mean the job is done and the money will flow in

To truly benefit you need to :

promote online giving in all communications

explain the benefits

drive donors and fundraisers to online partners through a one step process

educate all areas within your charity to the benefits

continually remind fundraisers of their target

Fundraising platforms and event registration providers should have the tools and resources to help with this

Activating and Driving Fundraisers

VMG has a serious of online buttons and “deep links” which will help drive people to

create a page

Email and (where necessary) physical marketing collateral can be provided to both

charities and event organisers

Activating and Driving Fundraisers

Regular contact can increase average amount raised by up to 30%

VMG has seen very strong results from their activation campaigns designed to help

welcome, support, remind and encourage fundraisers to keep fundraising

Below is an example campaign used by VMG for the 2011 London Marathon

Tools to Help Fundraisers Spread the Word

Make your fundraising

page as interactive as

possible by adding any

Blog or Twitter feeds

you have.

Tools to Help Fundraisers Spread the Word

The use of social media is well known and talked about but integrating it as part of the journey a

fundraiser and their donors take is key to spreading the message as widely as possible

VMG goes further than simply having a Facebook App which can sit sedentary on a fundraisers profile

but rather takes the activities of fundraisers and donors and shares this with their Facebook friends

Tools to Help Fundraisers Spread the Word

Share Stats

Like Stats

Targeted Advertising

VMG has utilised targeted add

campaigns to help promote charity

places in events

Using key terms, these adds can be

driven to your correct target audience,

event driving down to location

Questions & Answers?

Alex Heasley/ Virgin Money Giving

E-mail: theteam@virginmoneygiving.com

Tel: 0845 610 1045

Twitter: @VMGiving

Active Network

E-mail: Marketing.Global@ActiveNetwork.com

Tel: +44 (0)207 313 5701

www.twitter.com/active_uk

Thank you for attending!

Would you like to be a speaker at a future

Active Network webinar?

Contact Ana Jesus on the email below:

marketing.global@activenetwork.com

Special thanks to

Alex Heasley