Fundraising Diary: How to Fundraise Successfully

Ants Bolingbroke-Kent recently drove a tuk tuk from Bangkok to Brighton with best mate Jo in aid of mental health charity Mind. They raised £29,000 (and still counting) for their cause - Ants shares her top fundraising tips here...

Fundraising is a competitive business. Everywhere we turn people are trying to make us part with our hard-earned cash. In the last few months I've had friends swimming the Channel, trekking deserts, climbing mountains and running marathons; every one of them for a good cause and wanting my support.

As the challenges get wackier and the causes seem to multiply, standing out from the crowd is becoming increasingly hard. If you want to achieve your fundraising goal you've got to be innovative, passionate about your cause and unerringly determined. However, don't be deterred, if you go about it the right way and give yourself enough time fundraising can be incredibly rewarding.

First things first. Before you do anything you need to decide which charity you want to support and what your fundraising target is going to be. You can then start to dream up ways in which you are going to raise this money.

With Jo and I these choices were easy as our idea had always been to drive a tuk tuk back to the UK from Thailand, and both of us had strong personal reasons to support the mental health charity, Mind. Our original target was £100,000 but we quickly decided to downgrade this to £50,000 - still an ambitious amount but we felt it was more realistic.

Having agreed on this the next thing is to work out a fundraising plan. How are you going to raise this money and how long have you got to do it? What events can you put on in order to raise funds? This could be anything from a curry night to an auction of promises to a fancy dress dog show. Because I had past experience in putting on club nights and contacts with some DJs and bands we opted to put on a party at a club in London with a well known band, DJs and a fantastic raffle. The latter alone raised £500.

The main thing to remember is that when it comes to fundraising there are no rules. The more you can innovate and the more determined you are the more successful you will be. Make sure as many people as possible get to hear of what you are doing and don't be afraid to step outside the box and try things that haven't been done before.

Here are a few top tips for successful fundraising:

1. Give yourself a realistic amount of time to achieve your goal.

2. Choose a charity that means something to you. If people see you have a personal relationship with the cause they are far more likely to donate.

3. Be creative in your approach to fundraising; think of ways to make people part with their money and get something out of it at the same time.

4. Make friends with your local press and get them to publicise your cause or any events you are putting on. Publicity is one of the best ways of raising money.

5. Be bold. Don't be afraid to stand out and make a fool of yourself!

6. Make people laugh - humour is key in getting people to support you.

7. Write a really good, punchy letter describing what you are raising money for and why and send it to as many people as you can think of. Family, friends, local businesses... the more people you write to the more money you will raise. Jo and I must have written about 400 letters in total.

8. Find out which celebrities are associated with your charity and write to them via their agent. See if they will endorse what you are doing in any way, even a quote can help. Press in particular will prick up their ears if you have celebrity endorsement.

9. Find out if there are any charitable trusts in your area and when they meet. There are hundreds of these in the UK and they normally meet twice a year to decide where to distribute their funds.

Good luck!