2018 is just around the corner and if you’ve got people taking part in the London marathon for your cause next year, they’re about to really ramp up their marathon training and fundraising. 

Here’s three simple tips to help you, and your runners, hit the ground running in the New Year and make the 2018 marathon a BIG success!

 1. Raise more money by filling all your places with Vests of the Best

Got places to fill? It’s not too late and we’re here to help you find runners! Simply tell us how many marathon places you have left to fill and we’ll make sure people can apply to join your team via our Vests of the Best website – it’s where we encourage people to run the marathon for the amazing causes on JustGiving.

Every charity listed on Vests of the Best gets a dedicated page which you can then promote on social media, on your website and emails. To get yours, simply follow these steps:

• Visit www.justgiving.com/vests-of-the-best/find-a-vest/londonmarathon2018
• Put your charity’s name in the search box and select your charity from the drop-down options
• Copy the web address of your page
• Share it on facebook, twitter, email and on your website

Here’s an example of a Vest of the Best page for the charity the Lullaby Trust:

Already filled your places? Want to get ballot place runners to fundraise for you? Vests of the Best works for you too. Follow the steps above to find your charity’s page and then share it as widely as possible, to let people know how much their marathon fundraising could help.

2. Build team spirit and encourage healthy competition with a Campaign Page

Our London marathon numbers show that people raise on average £200 more if they start their fundraising before Christmas, so there’s still time to get them to join your London marathon team! And when you use a Campaign Page on JustGiving for the London marathon, you can keep all fundraising for the event in one place and build a sense of community. You can also use the leader board to keep an eye on who’s hit milestones in their fundraising, and create a bit of healthy competition between runners.

3. Share helpful, supportive content

You know better than anyone how important an engaging and helpful stewardship journey is for your supporters. And for London marathon runners who face training on cold, dark winter nights and BIG fundraising targets, this is extra important. But you’re juggling a million things and it can be hard to find time to give your runners all the extra tips and support you want to give them.

Our London marathon hub has been designed to save you time and give you ready-made, inspiring content to share with your runners. Here’s what you’ll find in the hub:

• Fundraising tips
• Running tips
• Fundraising ideas
• Fun stuff

From carb-loading recipes and advice from previous runners, to running playlists and shareable celebratory gifs, the London marathon hub has plenty of fun things to support your 2018 marathon team. You could share a tip of the week on your Facebook group, or share a fun gif when individual runners hit milestones in their fundraising!

Get your 2018 marathon fundraising off to a great start

Building relationships and making your marathon team feel special really is key to their fundraising success. With your London marathon Campaign Page up and running (pun intended), and content to share to support your runners when they kick off their training in the New Year, you’ll be in a great place to make this the year you raise more money at the London marathon.

We’ll be here to support you and you runners every step of the way. Post a comment below and or tweet us @JGcauses if you have any questions.