I am starting to look around to sponsors to sponsor our charity JOGLE ride – to raise the profile our our ride and also to get some printed jerseys to advertise the sponsor and our attempt. In there times its even harder but any recommendations?

TBH – there’s so many folk doing it that the chances of getting someone to come up with lots of cash is pretty slim – and why should they given that you’re going off riding a bike for a while?

Treat it as a holiday (which you pay for) and ask your friends to throw a few quid at you via Justgiving.

Done that druidh – have got a few sponsors already – If you don’t ask you don’t get – if we don’t get it its not terrible – just be a nice addition 🙂 Don’t need lots of cash – we are paying everything ourselves anyhow – would just be a named sponsor for the clothing and to help us get more sponsorship?

We got a couple of sponsors when we did it a couple of years back, but all were either work or work related so we had the contacts already so to speak.

Very difficult to get a company to actually sponsor you out of the blue, so to speak, in my experience.

Good luck though and collect money on the way down, we met loads of people and got loads of donations including the use of a static caravan one night for free complete with breakfast!

Oh just thinking there used to be a list of companies with charity funds( can get it from a public library I beleive)would outline the sorts of causes they were looking to donate to so you could pick and choose the ones you’ve got the most chance with. I used this method a fair few yeards ago, sent about 100 letters and got sponsorship off about 4 and some gifts for a raffle off a few more.

Oh just thinking there used to be a list of companies with charity funds( can get it from a public library I beleive)would outline the sorts of causes they were looking to donate to so you could pick and choose the ones you’ve got the most chance with. I used this method a fair few yeards ago, sent about 100 letters and got sponsorship off about 4 and some gifts for a raffle off a few more.

Good idea – I expect that maybe online as well 🙂

Didn’t one of the importers post up on here how many letters they recieved every week asking for sponsorship for charity rides allong the lines of “we’re riding 50km/100miles/LEJOG/to school and we need 5 fullcarbon dura ace bling builds from you”.

Just asking 🙁

Treat it as a holiday (which you pay for) and ask your friends to throw a few quid at you via Justgiving.

good call. when we did ours on the Bromptons we did just that, in fact we only decided to raise a bit of cash (£1000 split for CRUK and Shelter) becuase people kept asking whether we were doing to for charity.. answer was no, but thought might try and raise a bit.

Surely the question is what you can provide for the sponsor, simply offering to ride under the banner of bike shop X isn’t going to work, but doing a record breaking attempt on Rotor crank and chain wheels is positive for the sponsor too, cos Rotors is faster and better. Something along those lines, no?
The alternative being a very large number of people donating small amounts.

foxyrider – I apologise for pissing on your chips. I did LEJOG this year for Marie Curie. I paid the minimum sponsorship amount myself and simply got friends (some from STW) to contribute. That way, I didn’t feel I was asking anyone to subsides a holiday. I note you’ve already decided to take this approach. Well done.

As for sponsorship, you do need to look at what is in it for the sponsor. As I said, so many folk are doing this ride that it has (perhaps unfairly) become somewhat devalued as a “challenge”. So, what can you offer to make it different?

I was working in a small independent bike shop recently and you’d be surprised at just how many of these requests would come through. An offer to put the name of the LBS on a support van and a bit of jersey artwork in return for (in some cases) several thousand pounds worth of kit. I think the most extreme example was a team who were cycling Edinburgh-Paris and were looking for full clothing (3 riders x 3 changes), winter clothing, turbo trainers, bikes, helmets, the lot. I doubt they’d have raised enough to cover the cost of all that gear!

When we did our ride, we chose a charity that we had personal reasons to support and then contacted local press, Exeter, Torbay (your Devon aren’t you) and then used the internet and got some shouts on podcasts and a big push from the charity. Contacted LBS for any freebies for a mention in our press article, even got a mention on local TV, my neigbour is a camera man. Just have to get out and sell yourself.
Sponsorship was the hardest part of the whole ride!!

An offer to put the name of the LBS on a support van

This is what I don’t see the point of. What is the point of a local Edinburgh bike shop being advertised on the run up to Paris?
But 7 local bike shops over 7 days each with their own little story in the corresponding local rag might have some value, just a thought like.
And good luck with it all.

I was thinking of doing it again next year for fun… hadn’t even thought of getting sponsorship.

Anyone want to give me stuff?

Were doing it for fun, a challenge and for charity 🙂

Well 3 of the guys doing it work (well non-paid charity) for the charity we are riding for – I am the hanger oner so trying to do my bit.

I take your point – LEJOG/JOGLE is overdone esp when its comes to charities/individuality/sponsorship so its gonna be hard – the jersey bit is my input to some extent so just trying to do what I can for the charity and riders 🙂

Were only talking about £200-£300 quid for clothing (subsidised) – everything else we have is out our own pockets. Fundraising will start in ernest next year (afrer xmas and sales!). Have £200 so far but that’s just from a few people we know.

Not looking for huge amounts of cash just can’t ask this from donors.

You should be able to get 4 jerseys out of (say) Decathlon and some basic text on them for less than £200.

Why not do it a little differently… a couple of guys at work cycled it one way, and then ran back!!! Bonkerz

shirts – why print in yourself t shirt transfers for a few quid? Wear them over your tech shirts if you want to.

It pains me to see a couple of hundred quid spent on shirts for a “charity” event that is unlikely to raise large sums.

It pains me to see a couple of hundred quid spent on shirts for a “charity” event that is unlikely to raise large sums.

Also for use to keep and use as jerseys! its not a waste, they wouldn’t go in the bin! I still wear my Jersey from 2 years ago when I raised over £500 for Prostate Cancer – a few quid more for printed on a good race jersey – can’t see the problem.

Its money being spent that is not going to the charity tho. Don’t spend that £200 on shirts – give it to the charity instead

It’s not TJ I am trying to get a sponsor for the jersey not out of fundraising – I am unlikely to get £200-£300 for an anonymous donation from a company – well I didn’t last time – Well if that is the case TJ then the few hundred quid we are spending on the trip should also go to charity and we stay at home?

foxyrider – Member
Well if that is the case TJ then the few hundred quid we are spending on the trip should also go to charity and we stay at home?

I actually struggled with that bit too. Of the just over £2k minimum sponsorship amount, around 50% of that goes to the organising/accommodation/food/support. It did occur to me that I could do it all myself for a lot less, and give more to Marie Curie. However, part of my reason for doing the ride was to help come to terms with the death of both my parents (to cancer) by meeting meet other people in the same boat and with some Marie Curie workers. Overall, I was happy with what I achieved – basically another £1k on top of the minimum.

I think this is one that each of us has to decide individually and I don’t think there’s a right and a wrong answer. I mean, how far do you take it? Why just stay at home and donate the money when you could sell all your possessions and donate even more?

“It’s not TJ I am trying to get a sponsor for the jersey not out of fundraising – I am unlikely to get £200-£300 for an anonymous donation from a company“

I guess the key thing, though, is whether the money you raise to buy jerseys serves to pull in additional money that otherwise wouldn’t have been raised (how?), or whether it just serves to buy you some new jerseys. If I read your posts correctly, you’re asking for £200-300 sponsorship of which £200-300 will go on jerseys – which just seems a nice little earner.

Apologies if I’ve read it wrong and am incorrectly chip-pissing.

Well sort of both Bez – but the idea would be to get a good sponsor subsidise the jerseys, so we look maybe a bit more organised and may allow us to make more of an impression. This would hopefully give us yes some nice jerseys but if we get a good sponsor get them to use their advertising (websites, email, FB, Twitter) (if poss) to push our event more and hence get more fundraising (as well as getting in the local news teams more readily). Do you see what I mean – its not just about money for jerseys? [trying not to be in money grabbing mode]

Anyway I’ll carry on and see if we get anywhere, its not that our event hangs on it 🙂

“Do you see what I mean – its not just about money for jerseys?“

Absolutely – as I say, if it claws in more cash (ie getting them to publicise your event rather than just you publicising them) then it’s a good move.

Its money being spent that is not going to the charity tho. Don’t spend that £200 on shirts – give it to the charity instead

yer we used our own kit and the charities just sent us a cheap t-shirt and stickers to wear… my Shelter t-shirt.

actually you see so few people on the trip that sponsorship is a bit lost unless you are doing something really mad like paddling a bath tub or you are a celeb with a TV crew in tow..

actually also do feel that for there is some kind of pressure to do such rides for charity even if you just want to do them for your own fun… which is a shame.

Were doing it for both – fun/challenge and for the charity that 3 of the members are directly involved in – its not a big issue TBH. If we don’t its not devastating. Don’t feel pressured about doing it for charity, feel good about it actually. I think my OP has been blown a bit out of context really!

There might be the possibility of some official Ambulance trust cycle jerseys on offer for free and we can get them printed on – that’s the alternative so far 🙂

actually you see so few people on the trip that sponsorship is a bit lost unless you are doing something really mad like paddling a bath tub or you are a celeb with a TV crew in tow..

sponsorship isnt about being a rolling billboard. at all.
when we “sponsor people” we do it so we can point and say “we support them and look what they are doing”

delivering a sponsor a daily blog, or having a blip on a trackable map is a good thing. riding from one end of the country to the other with a logo on your shirt is less good.

We did JOGLE 2 summers ago, for the great charity Shelterbox based in Helston, Cornwall.

Used all our own kit.

But as Shelterbox knew we were raising a few quid for them they sent us and our wives/girlfriends shelterbox t-shirts, so everyone could be wearing them, support team and riders, as we approached Lands End. Then we were able to officially have a nice little whip around for Shelterbox when we got there.
It was a nice way to do it.

delivering a sponsor a daily blog, or having a blip on a trackable map is a good thing. riding from one end of the country to the other with a logo on your shirt is less good.

Planning a daily blog and trackable map (got it working in theory from my android phone) – we also started a training diary and blog, guest book and FB updates etc 🙂 – maybe trying too hard 😉

we have about £210 (inc a nice donation last night from epicyclo off STW) so far but haven’t started fund-raising yet.

delivering a sponsor a daily blog, or having a blip on a trackable map is a good thing. riding from one end of the country to the other with a logo on your shirt is less good.

yer good point.

we did a daily tweet, which got retweeted by Brompton which was nice. But we only did it so people we knew and had sponsored us could see how we were getting on, was not really that extensive though.

we did not ask for product sponsorship as we did not need it nor want it.

it can work on a local basis, my stepdad and his mate did a sponsored ride for the local greyhound rescue – they wanted to do it on a tandem but did not have one. Dave Mellor (ginger god who runs Dave Mellor Cycles in Shrewsbury) lent them one.. in return he got some coverage for helping out in the local newspaper the Shropshire Star (oh how I miss the Star… )

as for tracking you can txt to twitter which is useful in poor 3g areas.

ps are you going down the A49.. on leg 6?

Only from Leominster to Hereford – trying to keep off major trunk roads but around there there arn’t too many options unless you add one major miles?

that is not so bad then, the bits north of Leominster are crap on the A49… twisty and busy with wagons..

on the leominster bit the only crap bit is the hill @ Hope under Dinmore.. long hill but in the context of the other hills on lejog not an issue!

think I sent you our route – we missed the A49 out completely as we went closer to the M5 Gloucester > Worsceter > Kiddeminster then straight up to stoke.

I think the aim was to include Scotland, Wales and England hence going a bit more west – Thanks for the routes though ! 🙂

yer we missed wales out as Steve my co-rider lived in Cardiff for 9 years and as both of use come from Shrewsbury.. Wales is far from an unknown place! also very familiar with the whole of the A49 ! 😉

anyhow you better crack on with your training 😉 good luck
Si

Found one!!

Compass Radio

One of our crew is meeting with Sainsburys this week and maybe in touch with Tescos and M&S poss 🙂

Sainsbury, M&S and Tesco… what business benefit would they achieve from sponsoring a ride across the UK? I’m assuming their customer base is driven by cost and quality, and to a lesser extent company ethics toward food and sustainability.

I understand riding for charity (which is highly commendable), and aid from someone like a radio station – as it would be in public interest and possibly increase their continued audience; but I’m struggling to see a supermarket’s ROI business case.

I’m sure you’ve figured one out, as you’ve spent more than 2 minutes looking at your plan, like me 😉

Looking forward to reading your ongoing training blog 🙂

I understand riding for charity (which is highly commendable), and aid from someone like a radio station – as it would be in public interest and possibly increase their continued audience; but I’m struggling to see a supermarket’s ROI business case.

I suspect a large National company like Sainsburys is the best bet actually, they probably have a pot of money allocated for charities, as such they wont look at the JOGLE as so much of a marketing exercise.