A friend of mine is doing a sponsored 500km bike ride in Malawi next year and I have suggested that she look for sponsorship when she is buying all of her gear. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to go or experience of generous companies? Any help appreciated.
Dogsby
Is this another of these on-the-cheap adventure holidays?
yeah, my suggestion would be for her to buy her own gear, pay for her own flights/accomodation/expenses, and donate any sponsorship to charity. Anything else isn't charity, it's a holiday.
I am with sc xc
I very much doubt she will have any luck getting sponsorship off companies - they must be sick of folk asking
what sx-xc said. Also most companies that she will want to sponsor her are the type that need her to buy the stuff to be a business. Unless she can offer them something they won't do much for her.
Having said that, in the past I've written nice letters and got 10-20% off stuff to expect anything free she will need to offer something in return.
Oh the cynicism!!!
Actually she is paying over £2000 out of her own pocket to attend, cycling 500km through Africa and completing a vast array of fund raising activities to help Africans with HIV. Not what one would call an 'on the cheap holiday'.
I was rather looking at the nice letter and someone giving her 20% off all of the kit that she is buying - out of her own pocket before you ask - which would not seem unreasonable.
Any constructive assistance appreciated.
Dogsby
It is possible, a mate of mine has just secured a cheque for a few thousand for equipment for an event he is planning from a large confectionary manufacturer. He sort of works for one of their customers but still, it's "free" money. All they've asked in return is some pictures of their brand logo in the final location.
Dogsbody - Its not cynisism - these "charity" events such as it appears she is doing are very inefficient ways of raising money in terms of the amount of money the charities get compared to the costs. She would be doing far more by either volunteering for an overseas aid organisation or staying at home and raising the money
TJ, you're right, they're not very efficient, but if they motivate people to raise a little who might otherwise do nothing, they actaully increase the amount raised for chairty. A we all know, a little bit is still a lot more than nothing.
She could try firms who are trying to increase brand awareness here i.e. Ground Effect.nz, but will only work if she is likely to get some coverage. Local shops would be a good bet, so long as she gets a story in the local press?
TJ,
The automatic assumption that someone who is taking part in a charity event is doing so for personal gain is pure and absolute cynicism.
If you want to discuss the efficiency of fund raising through such events - and incidentally I do not - then that is a very separate issue. She is paying for all of her own expenses out of her own pocket and raising funds in addition. Anything that she raises goes to the charity.
She actually has worked for several foreign aid organisations and spent a lot of her own time working in Africa and Nepal. This type of activity suits her current situation and she should be applauded for it.
Dogsby
Each to their own dogsbody. I feel very strongly about these "charity" holidays. They raise very little money in comparison to their costs and arguably have a negative effect.
IMO there is a fixed amount of charity funding available. These sort of trips use up some of that funding which could be used for good causes.
I did something similar myself 20 yrs ago - operation Raleigh. I was appalled at how much was spent for how little reward.
I wrote to a couple of places for sponsorship and got an answer from one well known outdoors company
" I do not see why I should be subsidising your holiday. We put money towards charity when we can afford it. sponsoring you would reduce the money we can give to charity. I am very fed up and cross with this sort of thing"
That was 20 yrs ago.
After receiving that letter I had a bit of a rethink and although I still went I raised all the money myself not thru sponsership but by selling my possesions and going into debt which I worked to pay off when I returned
Why didn't you say that to start with then?
As a sideways thought why not try nestle as they still have a longstanding PR issue in Africa.