Theo's fundraising story: Building community relations to help raise money

Theo has been extremely busy with his fundraising throughout lockdown and has no plans to slow down! He’s been working hard to build a great reputation by volunteering within his local community whilst also raising funds for his expedition.

 Why I signed up…

I attended an open evening hosted by a Camps International representative at my school and I was inspired to get involved. I have always liked helping my community, so this opportunity sounded like a great adventure for me! At first, I was extremely daunted by the amount that I had to raise but knew that it is possible. After a slow start and the problems with Covid-19 lockdown I have managed to raise around 30% of my expedition cost. There is still a long way to go but I am already more confident that I will be able to raise the total amount.

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Lockdown meant plans were rearranged

To start with I had the idea to complete a sponsored walk of a long-distance footpath, however lockdown prevented this from happening. This was disappointing and left me worrying about what I was going to do instead.

I’m fortunate enough to have the beach on my doorstep and despite the lack of visitors to my hometown during lockdown, I was shocked at the rubbish on our beach. I started to think that maybe I could raise funds by volunteering to clean up. I spoke with the resort manager and he provided me with bags and a litter picker to be able to volunteer on the beach. This has not brought in a huge amount of money yet, but it has helped me raise my profile and will allow me to approach businesses and the local public and visitors in order to ask for donations. So far, I have managed to raise my profile and have even had a charity from my hometown share my story!

Local businesses have been extremely helpful

During lockdown, I saw that my local fruit and veg shop were needing volunteers to help get fruit and veg to the vulnerable in the local area. With the help of my parents (kindly driving!) we volunteered to complete weekly deliveries and they kindly donated small amounts of money to my expedition fund each time. From this, I raised around $300 but the store have continued to be very supportive and use me to deliver their boxes once or twice a week. This has now become a regular income for me which is great.

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Recommendations from family have presented fundraising opportunities

I am also doing the gardening for a holiday property in my local area. This was an opportunity that came about when the landlord asked if my family knew of a gardener and they recommended me. I offered my services and they agreed to me weeding and cutting their grass between guests once their visitors were allowed back to stay.

Whilst it’s a small amount each time, it is a constant source of funding so I will definitely be earning more in time.

The generosity of the public has been great!

It’s difficult to say which fundraiser has been the most successful so far but raising my profile and “getting out there” is helping to get my fundraising momentum going. The generosity of the public in giving donations has been great and they always seem interested in what I’m doing and why. So many people have been impressed with my beach clean-ups and always say thank you.

My advice for other fundraisers would be to try and create a link to the local community. Getting your name known and increasing your community presence helps with asking for sponsorship.

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Looking to the future

I have so many more fundraising ideas. I am in the process of organising a 5km unicycle event along the promenade (I learnt to unicycle during lockdown!). I also plan to continue to do beach clean ups and then use this as a persuading factor to get donations from businesses.

I still plan to carry out my 80km walk and this will hopefully now happen in October or November. I will also continue to do car boot sales, and plan to sell friendship bracelets and tin cans in the Kenyan colours.

We’re always on the lookout for a great fundraising story so if you’d like to share yours, drop us an email at submissions@campsinternational.co.uk.

 

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