Sponsorship Tips
GIVING KIDS A CHANCE AROUND THE WORLD
When you register for a challenge, we will send you a 12-page sponsorship tips and ideas booklet which is packed full of great ideas for how you can go about collecting the required sponsorship for your challenge.
It's important to carefully plan your sponsorship with plenty of time, so that you have the best chance to succeed. Also, think about your social, work and family circles and direct your sponsorship efforts in a consistent way with events or activities which will interest each group. Finally, remember to not ask the same people over and over, they will quickly tell you to look elsewhere if they have already donated!
Here are just a very few ideas to get you going and there are stacks more in the booklet, which you'll receive when you register:
We did a car boot sale and tabletop sale and these are my pointers although it is all common sense really!
- Check with the local schools when they host events, i.e. car boot sales, bring and buys, table top sales, etc
- Book a table and ask if you can get it free as it is for charity. This may save you up to Dhs. 100.00
- As early as possible start collecting your stuff to sell
- Do a massive clear out in your home. If you live on a compound make up a flyer and offer to collect items from the other houses, mentioning the reason etc. and all for a good cause etc. I also sent a flyer to all the parents in my kid’s classes at school
- Offer to collect all items from others. This can take time, as I found out, but it is worthwhile and you are helping others take away stuff that they probably just never get round to shifting
- Get to the location of the sale nice and early and display as much as you can at once filling in gaps from more ‘stock’
- Do not ask a fortune for stuff. You will end up with lots of items at the end of the day. Keep prices low and agreeable
- The best situation is where you have collected a lot of money and others have benefited, do not be greedy but don’t give away quality for nothing. Remember though that you will have to take stuff home if you cannot sell it
- Include your family in selling, especially children. They are very good at dealing!
- Count the money and get it to Gulf for Good offices as quickly as possible
- Most importantly, enjoy it all, it is great fun!
Audrey Blincow (China 06) & Marie Benson (China 06 & Borneo 07)
I obtained two business class tickets from my client Gulf Air for anywhere in their network. A selective raffle with tickets were sold on a sliding scale AED250 for one, AED500 for 3 and AED1000 for 7 – which enabled me to advertise ‘short odds’ of winning (in the end it was 147 to one) AED16, 000 raised.
David Baker (Peru 05 & Everest 2007)
We are coordinating a sponsorship drive at the JESS (Jumeirah English Speaking School), schools both at Jumeirah and Arabian Ranches. As from Saturday 22nd of April the children have been invited to bring any foreign coins and dump them into a bucket. On the 8th of May at JESS Jumeirah and on May 10th at Arabian Ranches. We will be replicating the Gulf for Good logo at the schools in coins! Lloyds TSB, have very generously agreed to exchange all the money into Dirhams and for each Dirham raised through the foreign coins they will match them! They have been very generous and we very much appreciate Lloyds for their help in this matter, we literally could not do it without them. We also appreciate the generosity of the children of JESS and of course both schools for supporting us wholeheartedly in this venture
Audrey Blincow (China 06) & Nicola Lomas (Mongolia 06)
I depended solely on corporate sponsorships.
Ravi Chandran (Kilimanjaro 01, Everest 02, Emirates Adventure 03, China 04, Great Asian 05 & Jordan 05)
I collected sponsorship solely from personal contacts
Amisha Jhaveri (China 06)
We did an African themed dinner party at home – catered for about 140 pax, and suggested voluntary donations of AED 100 pp. This included food, drinks and African dancers. We made about AED 14,000 profit on the night including money we made on the auction
Laura Barker (Kilimanjaro 01)
I didn’t arrange any events. I sent out emails to lots of friends and then followed up to request contributions. I believe you have to be very upfront about what this event entails, what charities the money is going to, how funds will be disbursed to the charities, etc. Lots of skepticism needs to be countered as you get a lot of cynical comments - why should I pay for your holiday?? I believe auctions, exhibition sports events - five a side tournaments, themed parties, garage sales, etc. would be great tools to raise awareness and, therefore, sponsorship
Mohammed Somji (Jordan 03)
I held a dinner at my house, and my guests gave donations. I got the food and wine sponsored and the DJ gave his time for free. I also ran a raffle. About 100 people came and I raised around 6,000 Dhs. Had a speaker about the charity as well. I found people were more generous if you only had one event and not lots of little ones.
Liz Irving (Everest 02)
All sponsorship I have raised has been through solicitation from corporations my organization do business with, or friends.
Jay Cooper (China 04 & Sri Lanka 05)
Work sponsors have been my method. I ask companies if they are interested in sponsoring.
Mathew Griffiths (Kilimanjaro 06)
For Peru I organised a raffle and sold tickets at work to all my colleagues and customers. The tickets were only Dhs 10 so they sold like hot cakes!!. I also sent e-mails to family and friends and very cheekily imposed a set amount: Dhs 500 for family members and Dhs 250 for friends. It was cheeky but hey, it worked! For Thailand, I had a birthday party and requested donations for the challenge. I was also very lucky to get a generous sponsorship from my employer for both trips. Nima, Val and I had a fancy dress party (Arabian) at the Dubai Country Club for Jordan. We raised about Dhs 15k. Unfortunately I was not able to go in the end but the event was great fun. One of the best “tricks” that I’ve learnt is to get friends and colleagues involved … it helps spread the word quicker!
Carla Duarte (Thailand 01, Jordan 03, Peru 05 & Everest 07)
We have just organised a very successful 'Mongolian BBQ and Quiz night at the country club' (as the challenge I'm doing is in Mongolia and it seemed appropriate). The country club did a great job in the food and think that everyone had a good time. We had 120 people (each paying AED 80 a ticket) there and encouraged friends to organise tables of 8 people of their friends together. Posters were also put up, but with friends helping it was easier. Also they got to sit with people they wanted to. Half the ticket money went to food and half to charity. It seemed like a good mix. Country club was really helpful. We also had a sweepstake with 10 Dirhams tickets, (many bought strips for 50 Dhs+) again half to charity and half to the pot for the winning ticket. In actual fact, the winner of the Sweepstake gave their winnings back into the kitty in the end. Prizes were donated by sponsors who were Paris Gallery, Crocs, MMI, Lipton and Master foods. So we were able to offer 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes to all team members.
Jennifer Brown & Nicola Lomas (Mongolia 06)
We are working on a kids’ Kompendium, which is an activity book for children to use in the holidays, with sponsored pages (pays for printing) and distribution in major supermarkets etc. Funds raised depend entirely on how many books we sell as the whole sales revenue goes into the pot, but so far we have enough sponsor companies to cover the production costs so all's well on that front!
Jennifer Brown & Nicola Lomas (Mongolia 06)
I took my sponsorship ideas from those suggested in the G4G list. I did not use many!! I only raised 12,000 Dirhams. Contacting companies first by phone followed by a letter, raised about 5000 Dirhams. Held an auction at the Meridien Hotel - items from jewellers, handicrafts, Etihad Airways tickets, etc. Raised approximately 6,000 Dirhams. About 15 people attended. Local radio announcer was the auctioneer. Remainder from colleagues - by suggesting "what about just 100 Dirhams?" rather than "would you like to donate something?" Seemed to tip the balance as one hundred does not seem like too much to someone who may not have donated anything.
Sandra Abu El Nour (Everest 04)
I’ve raised my cash in various ways…
- just e-mailed everyone I knew & asked them to donate a small amount (raised Dhs 8,000)
- asked my daughter’s school (JESS) to donate the proceeds from their end of term non-uniform day (raised Dhs 5,000)
- raffled a case of mixed wines (I donated that, but the raffle raised Dhs 4,500) both times I did it
- Ran a series of ‘inspirational evenings’ at my villa & charged people Dhs 100 for it (I’m a Coach & it raised Dhs 3,000)
Tricia Evans (Jordan 03, Egypt 04 & Great Asian 05)
I did a coffee morning and had a raffle, I charged people 50 Dirhams and they got a raffle ticket. Some people bought more. I had over thirty prizes. I raised almost seven thousand Dirhams. I had the coffee morning at my house and there were about 35 to 40 people. I also did fundraising with 8 classes of children at school, they had to do up buttons Velcro buckles etc, and they were age 3 to 5. I raised about six thousand Dirhams.
Lots of letters to companies and also my sister did an Irish music evening. Friends and people I work with gave me money.
Rose Davies (Peru 05)
