Many of us will choose to Firewalk to overcome the challenge while raising money for a cause that is close to our hearts. But there are many ways to the top of Mount Fundraising! Here’s our top ten…
1. Run a Crowdfund or GoFundMe style page
We have a whole article on that coming soon, but yes, 85% of the money you raise will come from a well run campaign. Target should be £3,000 minimum and we expect you to exceed £5,000. £10,000 is by no means out of reach.
2. Sponsors
If anyone in your community works for a company that could sponsor your firewalk, offer them a place on the walk. They may well raffle it off to an employee and will see it as a benefit. If you make a video, the video can be clearly sponsored. You don’t need to ask for much, £500 or £1,000 is a decision that can be made on the spot. You can go for bigger numbers of course, but the bigger the number, the more decision makers in the chain.
3. BBQ and Bar
While the walkers are being trained, friends and relatives can gather and your helpers can sell booze and BBQ. You will need a liquor licence from the council (usually about £20 and easy to organise, but do it early – read out guide on that HERE). You will have about a two hour window to sell refreshments so be ready to hustle! You will of course need expert helpers with a BBQ to make sure it all works out, and possibly a small gazebo in case it drizzles. Lights will also be needed too. You can likely make an additional £500 profit here. One important note. If you have crowds, you will need a clear up, either on the day or the following morning. If you don’t clear up the venue will likely charge you. So have ample bins around the venue and encourage visitors to use them.
4. Kids Toys
We usually sell flashing light toys as the kids love these in the dark. You can buy bulk toys like theses foam glowsticks which we sold for £4 HERE. Doing this will likely raise another £100 and any you don’t sell can be used at later events.
5. Merchandise
Yes its possible you could sell T shirts, but in our experience it’s a challenge as they are expensive to make and you will need all manner of sizes. Your walkers will like them too and it makes for good photos. People may pay £7.50 or even a tenner for a good T shirt. But you also may end up taking a load back home to your garage. That said you CAN offer it as a perk in your crowdfunding campaign so effectively people can pre-order before and collect on the night. Be sure to build in postage for those who cannot collect on the night. Done right this could raise another £200.
6. Donations Bucket
Have kids wander around the crowd with a big red bucket and ask for donations, change, notes… You can even get a card reader so people can swipe with a credit card. Making donations easy will make it easier for people to contribute. Consider setting up a pre-set ammount on a card reader so people just swipe and it’s done. Like the one the busker used in the photo above, though we would opt for a fiver. Expect to raise £100 doing this.
7. Marketing Marketing Marketing… Writing Clicky Copy
Use well trodden marketing techniques to get people to look at your page and give them reasons to contribute. Bring traffic to your campaign with a short and impassioned reason to contribute will raise WAY More money.
8. Training your walkers
During the firewalk training we also do social media outreach training, so they are better prepared to reach out to their own communities. Their story plus great photos and a cool video will help people make the choice to contribute to your campaign.
9. Face Painting
Find a local artist who will paint kids faces, especially fiery ones, so they feel more involved in the experience. It’s not going to swell the coffers too much BUT it does make it more of an exciting event and creates shareable photos and video for social media.
10. Hand Out An Instruction Card
Give everyone a small business sized card with some REALLY simple instruction and a URL. Ask them to share photos and video on social media with the what, where, who and why story of what it’s all about. What it meant to them. AND… that they also ask people to contribute to your cause with the simple link we supply. In all communications you should add the URL to your campaign page. We will create a unique short link for you like this one which we made for Shine… www.Firewalk.News/Shine. This is easy to remember and type in. You can also a QR code to share the URL. We can help you here.
11. BONUS! Charge a walkers fee
Ask everyone who is walking to pay £25 upfront. This has two major benefits. First it clearly raises more money – 30 walkers at £25 is £750! BOOM! And you can make that fee more or less if you want, and also offer waivers for anyone who genuinely struggles to pay. Second, the act of putting money down will reduce the no-shows on the day. People who commit with cash, will usually follow through.
The bottom line with all these things is that money can be raised quite easily, but it does need some decision making early, leadership and happy to help followers.
Good luck and see you on the firewalk!
Chris Jones
www.FirewalkExperience.co.uk
Firewalk instructor, best selling author and film director, Chris has been training people, making movies and writing books for three decades. When he is not running a firewalk, he is currently directing splinter unit on Mission: Impossible 8.
