One of the main reasons we wanted to setup CharityKick was to get as many people involved in charity fundraising as we possibly could.
Unfortunately, it was increasingly obvious to us that fundraising was becoming less and less appealing. And the more the appeal dropped, the less money the charities were receiving, something we really did want to change.
So the aim behind CharityKick is simple – to bring a different approach to charity fundraising to make more people interested and ultimately, to donate more money to a range of good causes.
As much as we strongly believe charity dares could help to get a whole new generation more excited than ever in raising money for charity, we also know that for many, charity dares are going to be their first foray into fundraising.
It’s because of this reason why today, we want to give you some really straightforward and helpful information on exactly what you need to do to both setup a charity dare and get it off the ground.
And the first place you need to start is to work out who you’re going to dare and what it is you’re going to dare them to do.
Thinking of the right idea
To all intents and purposes, the world really is your oyster here. As long as the dare is tasteful, we don’t put any other restrictions in place at CharityKick, so be creative and don’t hold back!
However, to give you a bit of a helping hand and some guidance, we’ve divided up the types of dares you can create into three separate categories – local, business and celebrity.
In theory, it doesn’t matter whether you decide on who you’re going to dare or what you’re going to dare them to do first, but for anyone starting a charity dare for the first time, it can often be best to begin by thinking who you’re going to dare.
The reason behind this is as the dare itself can be whatever you want it to be, you can find you keep going round and round in circles trying to work out what it is you want to dare someone to do. If you sit down and work out who you want to dare first, you’ve then got some base from which you can decide on the dare.
Another point to note here is that you should try and keep a degree of realism present at all times, so to ensure the dare can be as successful as possible.
For instance, although it’s a little farfetched, daring President Obama to work in the White House in Michelle Obama’s clothes for the day is a possibility; daring the British Queen to jump out of a helicopter isn’t (no matter what you saw on the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony!).
Getting the word out there
Once you’ve decided on who you’re going to dare, what it is you’re going to hopefully get them to do and have officially set the dare up (it’s quick and easy, with the simple form here and a helpful video on our home page), it’s time to start the fun bit – letting everyone know about the dare!
With so much to say and do here (as the promotional possibilities are endless), it can be difficult for many to know where to start.
But what we’d recommend at the very beginning is to go with the obvious.
Once your dare is live, send the details via e-mail to your friends, family and work colleagues. Get on your Facebook and Twitter accounts and spread the word about who it is you’ve dared to do something. If you’ve got a blog, write a few blog posts about it (and if you haven’t got a blog, set one up!).
One of the most important points to note now is that you should always ask everyone you send the details to to pass them on to their contacts. A lot of people don’t realise just how fantastic word of mouth advertising and promotion is – if you send the details to 100 people and they each send them to 50 people, that’s over 5,000 people who’ll receive details of your charity dare.
And even if just a tenth of them pledged money, that’s 500 people you’ve got donating money to your cause.
As fantastic as this may be, it’s unlikely to be enough to get the amount of money pledged to the figure you want it to be and so it’s therefore time to start putting your business hat on – but don’t worry, you don’t need a degree to see the benefits, just a bit of common sense!
For instance, we strongly advise that everyone who’s running a charity dare aims to get a business to endorse them. Essentially meaning that the organisation gets behind the dare, which can be fantastic for the dare’s promotion, it might be a little too ambitious to get McDonald’s or Amazon to endorse you, so try and think more locally.
Every organisation wants a bit of good publicity and endorsing a charity is the perfect way to do so. Therefore, if you can reach out to a few local businesses and explain what your dare is about and who it’s going to benefit, you might soon find that you’ve actually got a selection of businesses willing to endorse you to choose from.
At the end of the day, the promotion of your charity dare – and its eventual success – all comes back to the simple point that the more you talk about it and get people talking about it, the more successful it will be.
People often overestimate how difficult getting a new charity dare off the ground is. Whilst we’re not saying it’s easy and it will all happen by itself, it’s important to know that you simply have to do the one thing you want to do – talk about your dare.
We really have tried to make the whole dare process as simple and as straightforward as it can possibly be at CharityKick. Although we’ve got a helpfulFAQ, a great video and we regularly update this blog with useful information, if you’ve got any question at all, whether it’s about starting a dare or the promotion of one, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – we love charity fundraising and we’d love to help ensure your dare is a complete success.
