Maximise Virtual Fundraising Events

For the majority of charities and events, the cancellation or postponement of this year’s calendar has provided huge challenges to the financial & future state.

That being said, a lot of events and charities are finding prosperity in organising and promoting virtual events, enticing people to complete milestones by themselves or with members of their household.

We’ve worked with a number of mass participation events and charities over the past couple of months to create products for their virtual events, which usually take shape in the form of cycling or running challenges. Financially, this has seen benefits for the huge whole in fundraising and event participation that the market is seeing at the moment.

With a number of sports and leisure activities either prohibited or restricted, a rise in the number of people running and cycling has been seen across the UK. The NHS-backed Couch to 5K app on iPhone & Android saw a 92% increase in downloaded between March & June this year compared to 2019.

So what could a virtual challenge look like for you?

The Challenges.

Fundamentally, as always, the plan starts with the overall goal. Are you looking to provide charity fundraisers with a way to continue their exploits away from the likes of the London Marathon & RideLondon events, or are you looking to replicate your event so people can still take part? You’ll want to make sure your challenge offers something a little different than those out there.

By deciding how you want to monetise the event and make the most of the opportunity from the outset, you can design your event around the people who will be taking part. By keeping distances short, the sign-up process easy and costs low, you’re more likely to end up with an engaged, comprehensive participant list.

The Awareness.

People need to feel involved. In a time where social media screen time has raised by 36% over the same period in 2019, utilise participants micro-communities to help spread the message and encourage sign up.

Create social media assets for participants to download and flaunt their participation across Facebook, Twitter,  Snapchat, Instagram & Tiktok; including social media sharing links in your confirmation emails.

Use the power of motivation, community & pride to drive engagement.

The Rewards.

A lot of clients have come to us for virtual medals and finisher t-shirts, rewarding people for their involvement and providing items that you’d normally expect with mass participation events.

Why not think outside the box when it comes to prizes? For charities, you could develop a campaign where the more people fundraise during a set time period, the more you reward them with tiered levels of prizes to encourage active participation. Mass participation events could look at doing a monthly prize draw for the top three participants; those who rack up the most miles during the month are given a prize.

The possibilities and opportunities are endless.

On the other side, you can create a small merchandise range that people can purchase/pre-order to show their involvement? Perhaps a number of hoodies and t-shirts would go down well and help open an additional income stream of sorts.

Finally, virtual events aren’t limited to mass participation events and charities.

Here are some scenarios where virtual events could work for other businesses and sectors.

• With many people split between working from home and frequenting the office, companies can help connect staff and keep morale up by hosting monthly events with prizes. These can be as simple from walking challenges and monthly step counts to fundraising the most for charity; reward participants and bring the workforce back together.
• Participation doesn’t need to be limited to running & cycling events. Sports teams could encourage people to take part in virtual gym events, encouraging players to keep fit with a monthly leaderboard and prize for the winner(s).
• Much like the opportunities mentioned above, large running clubs and cycling clubs can partake in their very own challenges, encouraging people to take part and entice with a low-cost prize (such as a neck warmer or a branded t-shirt, for example).

Whatever your virtual fundraising requirements, speak to the team at Scimitar and we can help you make the most of your ideas.

Email us at sales@scimitarsports.com or call the team on 01905 425324. Alternatively, click below and submit a form.

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