Step 1: Planning your fundraising mission!

Before you get onto the fun bit of fundraising - the events - make sure you've got all the basics sorted to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible...

Fundraising is an amazing buzz – a lot of people even say that it’s almost as fun as the actual trip they’re raising money for. We’ve all got to start somewhere, however, so before you get too caught up with planning lots of fun events, it’s best to have a plan in place as to how much money you’ve got to raise, when you’ve got to raise it by and roughly how you’re going to raise it.

 

We’ve got lots of great ideas of how you’ll raise the cash coming up later on in the week, but here are a few tips for sorting of the basics to make sure all your fundraising is a rip-roaring success!

 

How much?

Before you start your fundraising you’ll need to sit down and work out how much money you’re going to need to raise. This will include the cost of your volunteer project, flights, vaccinations, visa costs and any living expenses or spending money once you’re out there. A lot of i-to-i projects include accommodation and food in the cost, but some don’t, so check carefully! If your project doesn’t include these things, or if you’re going to be doing some more travelling after your project finishes, you’ll need to budget for how much this’ll cost. For help check out this guide to living costs in cities all over the world: http://www.tefl.com/home/col_survey.html. Once you’ve worked out the cost of your entire adventure, decide how much of it you’ll pay for yourself (out of your wages, money from family etc) and how much you’re going to fundraise.

 

Set yourself goals

Once you’ve decided how much you’re going to fundraise, work out when you’ll need to have it by – remember with i-to-i you have up until 90 days before you leave to pay off your full balance. Don’t pack all your events into the last few days before your fundraising deadline though – it’s best to set yourself some realistic goals: for example, by xxx I’ll have xxx – it’ll make it much more fun (not to mention less stressful!) if you’re not desperately rushing to scrape together the money at the last minute.

 

Get your pennies organised

To keep track of the money you raise and to make sure it doesn’t get swallowed up to pay for other things, think about opening a separate savings account for the cash. Whenever you raise some money put it into this account and then you’ll always know exactly how much you’ve raised and how far you’ve got to go. Plus, if you shop around for high interest rates the bank will be contributing to your fundraising as well! It’s worth getting a PayPal account set up too to make it easy for people to donate money online.

 

Publicise your fundraising

Make sure you start a blog to let people know about what events you’re planning, how they went and how much money you’ve raised. Then, once you set out on your trip, you’ll be able to let people know how the volunteering they helped make happen is going on your blog. i-to-i’s community site, Campfire (www.i-to-i.com/campfire) is perfect for this.

 

Ask people to help

Have a think about any special talents any of your friends or family members have – are they good cooks, musicians, artists, comedians, clothes makers, stylists, seamstresses or even just wildly attractive? Make a list and ask them if they’d like to help you with your fundraising – you’ll find lots of people willing to get involved! It’s also worth getting people to help you just with advice and ideas – the more help and support you get, the more likely you’ll be to succeed.

 

Always, always say thank you

Make sure you keep track of all those lovely people who have helped you, either by sponsoring you, helping organise events, donating money and so on. Then make sure you say thank-you to them and keep in touch with them while you’re on your trip (don’t worry, just mailing them a link to your blog is enough!). It’s always worth sending people letters/emails after you get back to let them know how your trip went and what you achieved with your volunteering. All this will mean that if you ever have another gap year or want to do some more fundraising these people that you’ve been nice and polite to should be willing to help you again.

 

Finally, keep in mind why you’re doing it

Fundraising, especially if you’re doing it on your own, can feel quite exhausting sometimes. But stick with it and keep in mind why you’re doing it. You chose to volunteer because you wanted to make a real difference to underprivileged communities or fragile ecosystems, because you want to make the world a better place. Keep this passion in mind whenever you’re running an event or asking people for cash – it’ll make people more willing to help and support you. 

 

Check out the rest our fundraising series here: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/categories/22-Fundraising-Money

If you’re fundraising for your trip make sure you let us know all about it on Campfire! We love to hear your success stories!

 

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