UPDATE (TUESDAY)
It’s official: This year’s 2010 Great North Swim has been cancelled. The event website provides the full explanation, as well as the options available to entrants.
Here are your options on what to do with your JustGiving Great North Swim fundraising page. (You can also check our Help and FAQ section for more details on any of the below.)
However you choose to proceed, make sure you update anyone who’s donated to your page on the happenings. An update on your JustGiving page (under “My Story”) will help. You might also consider a quick email blast and maybe updating your status in Facebook and Twitter and wherever else your supporters are.
- EXTEND YOUR PAGE if you plan to defer until 2011
You can extend your fundraising page as long as you want – so just change the date your page is scheduled to take donations until late 2011 (or thereafter).If you do this, it’s a good idea to update “My Story” with an update about this year’s cancellation but that you’ll still be participating next year. That way anyone who’s already made a donation, or who comes to you page, knows what the score is…and that they should still sponsor you.
- CLOSE YOUR PAGE if you don’t plan to participate in 2011
This will ensure your page stops taking donations immediately. If you do close your page, make sure you update your sponsors…and let them know their donations are already with the charity. More information on this follows.
What to do with donation you’ve already recieved
Any donations made to your page have already gone through to your charity. And so any refunds to donors are the charity’s (and not JustGiving’s) discretion.
The best thing to do is to check with your sponsors before deciding how you want to proceed. Do they want refunds or are they happy to know that – event or no – their donation is with the charity and helping them do something good? Many sponsors may not want refunds. In which case, you can simply extend or close your page.
If your sponsors do want to have their donation refunded, please check with your charity to find out whether they will issue refunds. If so, have them email us at (charities@justgiving.com) to give the official thumbs-up to any refunds.
If you have any further questions, check with:
British Gas Great North Swim 2010 official release
JustGiving’s Help and FAQ section
ORIGINAL POST (MONDAY)
Blue-green algae thwarted the Great North Swim this past weekend….putting an algae covered spanner in the works for the fundraising efforts of many of you. If you’re wondering how this impacts your JustGiving fundraising, read on below. Our Help and FAQ section should also be able to answer most questions you have.
Can I change the event details on my page?
We’ll update our databases, and all pages, as soon as we hear of the new event date and plan (Bupa plan to release more info tomorrow, 7 September). This will automatically update the date on your page – so you don’t need to worry about it. You might want to update your “My Story” on your fundraising page, so your sponsors know the event’s postponed…and that you’ll keep them updated on the latest.
How can I let my sponsors know what’s happened?
The best way is to add a quick update to your “My Story” on your JustGiving page, explaining that the event has been postponed. You can also update your sponsors via your Facebook status and/or Twitter feed…and just let them know whether you’re still planning on participating — in which case they certainly still should sponsor you! Sponsors might also appreciate a quick email blast updating them on the new plan and schedule.
Can I extend my page?
Your page will be automatically extended once we update the event date. You can also manually update your page’s close date; check out our FAQ on extending your page.
I won’t do the new event. What do I do with my fundraising page?
You’ll probably want to close your fundraising page, so it doesn’t take any new donations. If you’ve already received donations, you may find you need to refund your sponsors – see below.
My sponsors want a refund (or I want to refund them). What do I do?
We need the charity’s express approval to refund donations. So contact the charity you’re fundraising for and ask them to email us to ok the refunds.
If you are a fundraiser or sponsor and have any other questions, check out our FAQs on cancelled events and/or pages….you can also drop a line to help@justgiving.com if you want a personal response.
And for charities affected…
If your supporters are getting in touch asking about refunding donations, have a look at our FAQ on how refunds work.
For any other queries, have a look at our charity help area. Or you can email us (charities@justgiving.com) or phone us (0845 021 2133).
Tags: blue-green algae, cancelled, event, FAQs, Fundraising Tips, Great North fundraising, Great North Swim, Help, helpdesk, Question, swim, Windamere