Alison’s fundraising story
When Alison Powell (winner of a JustGiving award for Most Creative Fundraiser) dared her Facebook friends to a skinny dip, little did she know just how far that dare would go.
Within a year, Alison found herself on a beach in South Wales. Along with 412 other nude fundraisers, she braved the cold and took to the water. Not only did the dip set a Guinness World Record, but the group also raised £25,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care in the process.
Alison had some very, very tough competition in the JustGiving Awards category for Most Creative Fundraiser. But her simple, yet creative idea won over our judging panel. They loved how it quickly became infectious, involving anyone and everyone, making it a scalable event that could be easily rolled out across the fundraising community.
Also, it was fun! Alison said that she “couldn’t stop laughing” when faced with a “crowd of excited people, all lined up in rows of 10, waiting to be let into the skinny dip area”. As she began counting down from 10, the stripping off began and by the time she was at six, hundreds of people were running past her. “It was possibly one of the funniest and most amazing sights of my life. Above the sound of the roaring waves came the squealing, cheering and whooping of hundreds of naked people running into the sea. I think we really added to the outstanding natural beauty of the Gower Peninsula that morning.”
If you ever thought that the only way to fundraise was to channel your inner athlete and pull on a pair of running shoes, Alison and her fellow skinny dippers have proved otherwise. You can raise a huge amount of money without breaking a sweat.
Getting creative with your fundraising and coming up with something original will not only grab the attention of your supporters – as Alison found, there may be a whole community of fundraisers who want to join you. The more of you fundraising, the more money being raised for your favourite charity.
Alison’s top three fundraising tips
Here are some award-winning tips from Alison on how to get creative and rally your own community of fundraisers:
- Think of something that makes you smile. You know those ‘wouldn’t it be funny if…?’ types of ideas? Run with them.
- Don’t think about it too much, just do it! If you think it’s a good idea, then you can guarantee that others will too.
- Use social media and start talking about it. Once word of your idea gets around Facebook and Twitter, you’ll soon have more people on board than you can imagine.
For more inspiration, take a look at some of our favourite creative fundraising ideas.
Tags: alison powell, creative, Fundraising, fundraising guru, JustGiving Awards, JustGiving Awards 2012, midsummer skinny dip, most creative fundraiser, skinny dip, Tips, winners
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