Lucy Mills was so touched by the warmth of those she worked with when on her football placement in Ghana, she decided to set up her own charity to raise money for kits and training aids upon her return...

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Fundraiser of the month: Lucy Mills She shoots, she scores... Lucy Mills writes... "Fundraising is something that often takes a while to get right. You can try a lot of things that take a lot of time but that don't bring in the cash you need. Unfortunately, I've learnt this the hard way. In my experience I’ve found that generally people will commit to sponsoring you for an activity, but it is often a prolonged chore collecting up the promised cash. You have to weigh up whether the amount of time you will spend on an activity - from planning and organising it, right through to receiving payments - is worth the money you would theoretically raise. I find that if people are getting something in return then they eagerly sign up, are interested in your progress and donate cash awaiting their part of the deal. Alternatively, rather than appealing for cash, asking people to donate physical objects is usually warmly received. After my gap year spent coaching football in Ghana with GAP SPORTS I set up a charity scheme to collect football strips and equipment to give to the underprivileged teams in who I worked with on my placement. I received hundreds of football shirts from family, friends, schools, local pub teams and professional teams. Firstly I got laminated posters printed stating my aims and appeal. I put them up in work places, schools, and pubs. The appeal was for used or old football shirts - ultimately one simple, unforgettable request. I arranged with the Head teacher of my old school to do presentations in assemblies and I was allocated a box in an office in which children could bring donated shirts to so that I could pick them up. Alerting people that the donated shirts would actually be worn by underprivileged African children struck an emotive chord with the English general public. I also wrote letters to professional football teams. In order to make my appeal look like large scale professional charity, I created an email address and signed the letters ‘Lucy Mills, Ghana Football Aid Director’. I got the name of the kit secretary to whom I should address the letter and followed up the letters with phone calls (Following my letter dated...) to force a reminder as understandably office staff have a lot of paper work to deal with and ‘begging letters’ are not usually at the top of the pile! After a few months the plastic bag crammed with old shirts in the corner of my bedroom had expanded to being five large full kit bags, taking up half the garage! The response was fantastic. Local newspapers are always interested in covering stories about local youngsters going abroad and doing charity work so it is worth contacting them for extra publicity. Being astonished by the progress I then wanted to raise money to buy some equipment for the teams. I found that ordering a bulk load from an online football equipment supplier was the cheapest way. I ordered 10 balls, a ball bag, a ball pump, 22 bibs, 50 cones, linesman flags and captain armbands, all brand new, for £200. I also needed to find a stress free way of raising the money. Living in University Halls of Residence I asked permission from the Head Warden if I could sell ‘official’ hall t-shirts with any profits going towards paying for football equipment. Obviously gap year students, not being at University, can sell official t-shirts for any club or society which they belong to. Having group t-shirts is always popular as it creates a unique camaraderie and of course an item of clothing to keep. People are more willing to pay out if they receive something substantial in return. I researched various online t-shirt printing companies for the best deal. Meanwhile I sent out order forms for people to fill out preferred sizes and colours. Once I received sufficient orders to make profit, I placed an order with the t-shirt company. I charged students £12 and they actually only cost about £8 to make. The company delivered the t-shirts, individually cased in plastic packaging within two weeks. The final procedures were to dish out the t-shirts to readily awaiting students and to rake in the hundreds of pounds profit to pay for the football equipment. I’m currently writing the draft for this article with the intense African sun beating on my neck, the temperature is pushing 40 and a cold glass of fresh pineapple juice quenches my thirst. At 6am this morning I coached my young boys’ football team with whom I worked last year. However training is different this year. The boys are wearing smart Leeds United football strips instead of torn and tattered rags I first saw them in. We were practicing dribbling skills around cones with one ball between four as opposed to one ball between thirty, and for the end-of-training match, the teams were yellow bibs versus orange bibs instead of the old style- rags versus bare skins. The strips and equipment have added unbelievable optimism and happiness to the boys, but will also really benefit the boys progression in training, which occurs twice daily religiously. To know that I have achieved all of this for this handful of boys in this raw community called Nungua, Accra, any money spent, time taken, and hassle endured has, this morning, been worth every obstacle." Click here >> for fundraising ideas Click here >> Lucy's article on coaching football in Ghana Click here >> for placements from GAP SPORTS

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