Last month, footballing legend Paul McGrath made a heroic return to his former club, Aston Villa, and helped football fans set a record for the most amount of money every raised during a Premier League match.
By using JustTextGiving, McGrath took to the pitch at half-time and asked the crowd to get their mobile phones out and donate to Acorn Children’s Hospice by texting AVFC12 £3 to 70070.
And his plea worked! During just one football match, an amazing £7,500 in text donations were made.
It costs over £8m a year to run Acorns three hospices, currently caring for over 600 children with life limiting or life threatening conditions. The charity relies on voluntary donations for over 70% of its income, so money like that raised at Villa Park is absolutely vital for the charity to continue offering the much-needed care and support to the children and their families. In fact, the £7,500 raised that day will cover Acorns’ running costs for a whole day – not bad for 90 minutes of football.
JustTextGiving is perfect for events just like this. And you don’t need a 40,000 capacity football stadium for it to work. Whatever the event, advertising a JustTextGiving code makes it quick and easy for anyone that’s attending to donate to your chosen charity. Like Paul McGrath, you could make a half-time announcement at your local football match. If you’re hosting a formal dinner, why not make your text code a table feature? You could hand out flyers at a live gig, decorate bunting and balloons at your local fete or put you text code on the tickets for your comedy night.
Big screens, billboards pitch side banners; they’re all perfect for your JustTextGiving code. Supporters can donate in seconds and 100% of the donation (plus the Gift Aid) will go to the charity.
To generate a JustTextGiving code, all you need is an active fundraising page. Log in to your account, personalise the code and you’re good to go! Check out this FAQ if you need any help.
All that’s left is to promote your code. If you come up with any fun and imaginative ways of promoting your JustTextGiving code at a public event, we’d love to hear them.
Tags: acorn children's hospice, aston villa, event, football, Fundraising, justtextgiving, mobile, paul mcgrath