Justgiving.com blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s just over four weeks until our annual JustGiving awards, and needless to say, we’re getting very excited!

With more entries than ever, we’ve been completely blown away by the brilliant, moving and inspirational nominations that we’ve received. Once again, our amazing community have done us incredibly proud and we can’t wait to celebrate your fantastic achievements.

So, drumroll please… We’re delighted to be able to announce our finalists for the JustGiving Awards 2012:

Most Popular Fundraiser

Dicky Harrison

Hannah Rutherford

Mark Allison

Young Fundraiser of the Year

Devaanshi Mehta

Jack Henderson

Lauren Gander

Millie Tiana Checkley

Ruby Smith

Sharon Payne

Most Creative Fundraiser

Alison Powell

Alistair Banks and the Float to the Coast Team

Mr Broadwith and the WGGS 24 Hour Maths Lesson

Endurance Fundraiser of the Year

Dave Heeley

Mark Allison (Run Geordie Run)

Sam Gambier

PayPal Fundraiser of the Year

Karen Everson

Kelly Phillips

Simon Adams

Charity of the Year (People’s Choice)

Aspire

Cystic Fibrosis Trust

ShelterBox

Most Creative Charity of the Year

Mencap

The Joanna Brown Trust

Whizz-Kidz

Best New Charity

Mentoring Plus

Rett Syndrome Research Trust UK

The Odysseus Foundation

Lifetime Achievement Award

This award will be announced on the night

Celebrity Fundraiser of the Year

Bob Wilson

Micheal Vaughan

Richard Parks

David Walliams and Lara Stone

Dawn Porter

Scott Mills

Vodafone Mobile Fundraiser of the Year

Acorns Children’s Hospice

Holy Trinity

The STV Charitable Trust

Workplace Fundraiser of the Year

Barton Wilmore

National Grid – Fiona McCartney

KPMG – Maria Olenina

Best use of Technology

Giv2

Merlin

The Children’s Trust

Deciding on the finalists was a tough decision, one that required the help of an expert judging panel. Deliberating over your nominations were the following fundraising, technology and philanthropy stars:

Martha Lane Fox – co-founder of lastminute.com and founder of Antigone, a grant-making trust to support charities in the UK

David Gold – chair of the Philanthropy UK Advisory Board

Paul Barry Walsh - chairman of Fredericks Foundation

Karen Wallace – our Fundraiser of the Year 2011

Natalie Fergie, P/hop – our Most Creative Fundraiser 2011

Rosa Birch – from Facebook’s policy team

Caroline Diehl – chief executive and founder of Media Trust

Rachel Beer – founder of Beautiful World

And finally, our very own Anne-Marie and Zarine

The winners will be announced during n evening of celebration at Shoreditch Town Hall in London on Thursday 1st March 2012. A huge thank you to our media partner, the Daily Telegraph for making the event possible.

 

 

If you’re taking part in the marathon or a running event in 2012, it’s time to get fundraising! We have all the tools, expertise and support you need to beat your fundraising target. In fact, JustGiving pages have recently had a makeover, so they now work even harder to help you tell your fundraising story.

And to give you a little extra motivation, anyone who raises £250 by the end of February will be automatically entered into a draw to win another £250. So you could soon be well on the way to reaching your target!

If you haven’t decided on a cause or found a marathon place yet, there are still plenty of charities that would love your help. Check out our list of charities with places for more information.

Finally, a quick tip from us. People give a whopping 44% more when they can sponsor you without leaving Facebook – so try installing our Facebook app to get a boost from your supporters.

Good luck!

 

So you’ve eaten your way through Christmas, drunk your way through New Year and now you’re ready for a fitness challenge to kick start January.

Maybe you’ve decided to run the marathon in London – one of the world’s most iconic races.  You’re looking forward to the opportunity to challenge yourself and raise some money for charity at the same time.

Yet securing a marathon place can be tougher than it looks. Ballot places are announced in October and a lot of charities have already filled up their marathon teams. What next? Don’t despair! We’ve put together this list of charities who you may not have heard of who have told us they have spaces left.

Updated 27th January 2012

KIDS – has 3 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1500. To apply contact Gayle directly via email on gayle.kirkwood@kids.org.uk or for an informal chat on 0121 362 4576.

Rhino Ark – has 5 places left! Minimum fundraising target £750. To apply contact guy.tritton@btinternet.com.

Child Bereavement Charity – has 9 places left! Minimum fundraising target £2500 Please contact Emma Riley on 01494 568912 or emma.riley@childbereavement.org.uk to apply.

The Fire Fighters Charity – has 4 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1800 or nearest offer. To apply email lmacaulay@firefighterscharity.org.uk for a Marathon Pledge Form in support of the Fire Fighters Charity, and submit a simple fundraising plan of how you will go about reaching your target Charity figure.

Carers UK – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £2,000. To apply contact Nicola on nicola.peake@carersuk.org.

Catholic Children’s Society (Westminster) – has  1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £1,500. To apply contact Elise Campbell-Hand on elisech@cathchild.org.uk.

St Catherine’s Hospice (Crawley) – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £1,500. Contact Jen Wickham at jenwickham@stch.org.uk or by calling 01293 447364.

The Outward Bound Trust – has 24 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1,750. Please contact Danielle Britton on 020 3301 6481 or email danielle.britton@outwardbound.org.uk.

The Children’s Society – has 6 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1,750. To apply visit http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-you-can-do/fundraising-and-appeals/events-and-activities/marathons-and-runs/virgin-london-marathon.

RFU Injured Players Foundation – has 5 places left! Minimum fundraising target £2,200. Application form on www.rfuipf.org.uk/run .

VSO –has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £1,750. Visit http://www.vso.org.uk/event/20505/virgin-london-marathon-2012.

Caudwell Children – has 6 places left! Minimum fundraising target £2,000. Please contact mary.rose@caudwellchildren.com giving full contact details or call 01782 600433 before 17th February.

Laureus Sport for Good Foundation – has 2 places left! Minimum fundraising target £2,000. Apply by contacting Rebecca Malcolm on Rebecca.Malcolm@laureus.com.

GOOD GRIEF APPEAL – has 2 places left! Minimum fundraising target £2,000. To apply ring John Taylor on 01623 625413.

Neurocare – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £1,500. To apply email emma@neurocare.org.uk.

The Migraine Trust – has 1 place left!  Minimum fundraising target £1,500. To apply an application pack via events@migrainetrust.org.

Blond McIndoe Research Foundation – has 4 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1,750. Please email debbie.finch@blondmcindoe.com or alternatively telephone 01342 414295.

Action Deafness – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £2,500. To apply email Denise Hodgson on hodgsondenise@actiondeafness.org.uk.

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £1,000. Please email natalie.archer@davidshepherd.org for an application form.

Young Epilepsy – has 4 places left! Minimum fundraising target £3000. Please email James Sommers at Young Epilepsy for an application form on jsommers@youngepilepsy.org.uk.

Make-A-Wish Foundation UK – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £2,200. To apply please email andy.holland@make-a-wish.org.uk.

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation – has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target £2,200. Contact Claire at claire.taylor@lgf.org.uk for more information, find out more about the LGF at www.lgf.org.uk.

Updated 20th January 2012

Sense – has 5 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1500! Contact     events@sense.org.uk or visit  www.sense.org.uk/londonmarathon for more information.

Jeans for Genes – has 3 places left. Minimum fundraising target £2,000. Please contact lina@jeansforgenes.com to apply.

John Muir Trust – has 2 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1,000. To apply email Maggie at maggie.briggs@jmt.org or call 0131 554 0114.

Henshaws Society for Blind People – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £2000! Contact Hannah.saxon@henshaws.org.uk or call 01423 814501.

FSI – has 5 places left.  Minimum fundraising target £1,750. Please contact louise@thefsi.org or phone 0207 009 3543.

St John Ambulance – has 40 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1625. To apply please visit: www.sja.org.uk/vlm2012

Care for the Wild International – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £1625. Please contact nigel@careforthewild.com or call 01403 249832.

Disability Law Service – has 10 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1500.00. Visit www.dls.org.uk/marathon or email marathon@dls.org.uk we will then forward out details.

Framework – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £2,000. Please visit http://www.frameworkha.org/pages/virgin_london_marathon_2012.html

Action on Hearing Loss – has 4 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1750. To apply visit http://www.crunch.org.uk/charity.php?CharityID=51.

Leukaemia Busters – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £1,800.00. To apply contact www.leukaemiabusters.org.uk.

Task Brasil – has 10 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1000. To apply http://www.taskbrasil.org.uk/docs/LMQuestionnaire.doc.

Notting Hill Housing Trust – has 12 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1,250. To apply contact http://www.crunch.org.uk/notthill.

Hearing Link – has 2 places left. Minimum fundraising target £2,000. Contact sarah.smith@hearinglink.org to apply.

The Countryside Alliance Foundation – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £3000. Contact hester-abbatt@countryside-alliance.org or call 020 7840 9258 for more information.

Concern Universal – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £1,600. Contact annie.ransome@concern-universal.org or call 01432 355 111.

United Response – has 8 places left.  Minimum fundraising target £1,500. Email mark.schueler@unitedresponse.org.uk or visit http://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/london-marathon

Sparks – has 10 places left. Minimum fundraising target £2000. To apply email claire@sparks.org or visit www.sparks.org.uk.

RELATE WEST SURREY – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £1000. To apply email jill@relatewestsurrey.org.uk.

Trees for Cities – has 4 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1500. To apply email zoe@treesforcities.org.

WheelPower – British Wheelchair Sport – has 2 places left! Minimum fundraising target £2,000. If you would like to be part of the WheelPower 2012 London Marathon team and raise funds to help disabled children and adults take part in sport please email jo.hall@wheelpower.org.uk

Treloar Trust – has 2 places left! Minimum fundraising target £650. To apply email jon.colville@treloar.org.uk.

Shaw Trust – has 7 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1500. Visit www.crunch.org.uk/shawtrust for more details.

Crimestoppers – has 5 places left. Minimum fundraising target £1350. To apply email lucy.williams@crimestoppers-uk.org.

Rose Road Association – has 3 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1500. Email Beth Rogers on bethrogers@roseroad.org.uk for more information.

Herts MS Therapy Centre – has 2 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1500. Email  charleneredmond@hmstc.net.

World Jewish Relief – has 2 places left. Minimum fundraising target £2,500. To apply call Emma on 0208 736 1253 or email es@wjr.org.uk.

Rett UK – has 1 place left. Minimum fundraising target £1200! Please apply by emailing stephanie.mitchell@rettuk.org with a short paragraph of why you want to run for Rett UK and your fundraising target.

Friendship Works – has 4 places left! Minimum fundraising target £3000. To APPLY NOW please visit: www.friendshipworks.org.uk/news-and-updates/run-london-marathon-2012.html.

Chickenshed – has 11 places left! Minimum fundraising target £1,800. To find out more visit http://www.chickenshed.org.uk/891/events-and-challenges/virgin-london-marathon-2012.html

Royal Free Hospital Kidney Patients – has 4 places left! Minimum fundraising target £500. Contact by rfhkpa@gmail.com with your name, address, age and reasons why the competitor would be happy to run in support of Royal Free Hospital Kidney Patients to apply.

Updated 19th January 2012:

Anthony Nolan – Has 25 places left! Minimum fundraising target: £2,012. Apply at www.anthonynolan.org/londonmarathon

Thai Children’s Trust – Has 1 place left! Minimum fundraising target: £1,500. Contact Ruth Flanagan on rflanagan@thaichildrenstrust.org.uk

Action on pre-eclampsia – Has 10 places left! Minimum fundraising target: £1,000. Email marathon@apec.org.uk for more information or register via www.apec.org.uk/marathon_form.html

The PSP Association – Has 3 places left! Minimum fundraising target: £1,600. Email marathon@pspeur.org or phone 01327 322419

Updated 17th January 2012:

Health Poverty Action works to strengthen poor and marginalised people in their struggle for health. The charity has 11 places left in the London marathon – one of them could be yours! Find out about how to run for Healthy Poverty Action.

The Child Bereavement Charity (CBC) is the UK’s leading charity that supports families and educates professionals both when a child dies and when a child is bereaved. CBC has five marathon places remaining. If you’re interested in taking one of them, email emma.riley@childbereavement.org.uk.

Muscular Dystrophy Campaign is the leading UK charity focusing on all muscle disease. It’s dedicated to improving the lives of all babies, children and adults affected by muscle disease. Apply to fill one of the charity’s three marathon spots today.

Action Deafness works with deaf, hard of hearing, deafened and deafblind children, young people, adults and older people across Leicestershire and the East Midlands. The charity has places available for this year’s marathons in Silverstone, Edinburgh and London. To apply, contact denisehodgson@actiondeafness.org.uk.

LOOK helps blind children and their families by listening, offering hope and finding new and creative ways to improve confidence and chances in life. The charity still has a few  marathon places left, so if you’d like one give them a call on 0121 4285038 or email jane@look-uk.org.

Updated 7th February 2012:

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation - has 1 place. Minimum fundraising target £2,000. Contact Claire at claire.taylor@lgf.org.uk for more information, find out more about the LGF at www.lgf.org.uk

Excalibur Unit – Supporting Our Heroes - have 100 places! Email info@excaliburunit.org.uk. Find more information at www.excaliburunit.org.uk

The Attlee Foundation – has 4 places. Miniumum fundraising target £1,500. Email azra.hussain@attleeycc.org.uk or call 020 7375 3212.

Find your feet - has 1 place. Minimum fundraising target £1,550. Visit their website www.find-your-feet.org/run/for information or email fundraise@fyf.org.uk for an application.

National Osteoporosis Society - has 5 places. Mimimum fundraising target £1,700. Please email k.kew@nos.org.uk or call 01761473141.

Abbeyfield Society - has 2 places. Minimum fundraising target £1,800. Email events@abbeyfield.com for an application.

UK stem cell foundation - has 3 places. £2,000 minimum fundraising target. Contact Lil Shortland before 10 February 2012 to register for the Virgin London Marathon on lil.shortland@ukscf.org

Rock FM and Magic 999′s Cash for Kids – has 5 places with a minimum fundraising target of £1,500. Email Cash for Kids directly to charity@rockfm.co.uk for details on places and the charity.

Esperanza - email clairejsmith@talk21.com for more information.

Brain and Spine Foundation –  have 1 place. Minimum fundraising target of £1,800. Email alex.lines-scrase@brainandspine.org.uk for more information

We’ll do our best to keep this information accurate but if you’re a charity with places to spare, or if the information above is now out of date, please let us know by filling in this form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If just the idea of running a marathon leaves you gasping for air, don’t worry – you’re not alone. There are plenty of us at JustGiving who are awe-struck by some of the incredible athletic feats carried out by our community, which we read about as we tuck into another chocolate biscuit.

Thankfully, great fundraisers don’t have to be great athletes. There are plenty of things you can do to raise money for your favourite charity that don’t involve you breaking into a sweat.

Here are some brilliant ideas that we’ve seen from some expert fundraisers:

1. Strike a pose

Charlotte Solomon wanted to grab people’s attention. Not only was she raising awareness for molar pregnancies, but also the vital funds necessary for the research into this rare condition. That’s why she launched the Get Naked Calendar 2012. By recruiting 28 of her friends to pose, she has raised well over £50,000 for the Cancer Treatment and Research Trust. Charlotte raised such an incredible amount, not only through sales of the calendar, but also from sponsorship of people who wanted to support her fundraising campaign.

justgiving.com/calendar2012

2. Show off your creative side

Super-talented Jack Henderson turned his artistic skills (see above for his take on the JustGiving logo) into a fundraising triumph by drawing pictures for people and then asking them to donate to The Sick Kids Friends Foundation in return. The six-year-old started off his fundraising endeavour with the aim of raising £100. But as news of his talents spread, requests for a Jack Henderson original poured in and he’s now raised a staggering £28,000. Not only that, he’s won numerous awards and he even has his own book out.

justgiving.com/jackdrawsanything

3. Use your hobby to build a fundraising community

P/hop (pennies per hour of pleasure) is the brainchild of avid knitter, Natalie Fergie. It’s a website with fantastic patterns that fellow knitters can download and enjoy. In return, they make a donation to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), basing their donation on the hours of pleasure they get from knitting their p/hop pattern. The project has raised well over £30,000 for MSF and last year, Natalie and her knitting buddies took home the award for JustGiving’s Most Creative Fundraiser.

justgiving.com/theyarnyard

4. Throw a dinner party

Delicious food, great wine, interesting conversation… now that sounds like our kind of fundraising. So why not turn a dinner party into a fundraising venture? You can catch up with old friends, invite them over for dinner and ask them to rate your cooking skills by donating what they think the meal was worth to your favourite charity. Jack Sheldon, who looks after all things community-related at JustGiving, did just that. He smashed his £100 target, raising over £500 for Winston’s Wish.

justgiving.com/dinneratjacks

5. Do something new

Or rather, 52 new things – that’s the challenge Nick Thorpe gave himself. He made a resolution that for every week of 2010, he would try something completely new. With everything from watching a Bollywood film, to having a fish pedicure, and even releasing a Christmas single on his list, you name it, Nick tried it. And name it was exactly what he asked people to do. He asked people to show their support and suggest new things for him to do by making a donation to the Alzheimer’s Society.

justgiving.com/nick-thorpe

Do you have a fundraising idea?

If you have a great or original idea of how to raise money without putting on a pair of running shoes, we’d love to hear them. Comment on this blog post below, or let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

JustGiving Awards 2012 – nominations are now closed

The nominations deadline for the 2012 JustGiving Awards is now upon us. And what an incredible set of set of stories you’ve submitted! You’ve inspired us, astounded us and impressed us.

This year we’ve had over 800 entries – more than we’ve ever had before in three years of running theawards.  Whether you nominated a friend, relative, charity or even yourself, we’ve loved hearing from you.

What happens next?

We’ll be reading through each and every award entry over the next few weeks and will be holding an official judging day on Tuesday 31st January. We’ll be releasing details of the full judging panel soon, so check back for updates.

Once our judges have made their (extremely tough) decisions, we’ll announce the finalists. All our finalists will be invited to our awards ceremony on Thursday 1st March in London,where the winners will be announced.

Thanks to everyone who made a nomination, and good luck!

We’ll be performing vital site maintenance late this evening until tomorrow morning, in order to minimise disruption to those using the site.

This means that from 10:00PM on Friday evening (6 January) until 9am on Saturday morning (7 January), you won’t be able to access our site.

We are always investing in great technology to ensure reliability for our users, so we’ll be back up and cracking  first thing on Saturday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year everyone!

We hope that you’re as excited and geared up for 2012 as we are! Thanks to everyone who fundraised with us and all of their incredible supporters – 2011 was a fantastic year. Now we can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2012, and with our incredible community, we’re sure it’s set to be bigger and better than ever.

Whatever your plans for 2012, we hope that we can be a part of them. Maybe you’ve set yourself a new year’s resolution or two? Is 2012 the year that you achieve that lifelong ambition to climb Kilimanjaro? Or are you taking part in your first marathon? Maybe you’re ready to conquer that fear of heights with a skydive? Whatever your challenge for 2012, you can help make a difference to your favourite charity.

By setting up a fundraising page, letting your friends and family know just how you will be pushing yourself this year and asking them to donate, you’ll be ticking one more thing of that to-do list. All while raising those all-important funds for a great cause.

We’d love to hear all of the weird and wonderful ways you’ll be raising money for charity in 2012. Comment on the blog below, or let us know on Facebook or via Twitter.

Here’s to 2012!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we introduced the new-look fundraising pages last month, we were really excited to tell you all about the new design. Now we’re equally excited to tell you about the brand new themes for your page, designed to help you tell your fundraising story better than ever.

As well as having your charity’s branding or one of four different colour schemes (there’s a blue, orange, green and purple option), there are now four great new images for you to choose from. It’s a background for your fundraising page that not only makes it stand out, but really shows off just what you’re doing for your favourite charity.

What are the new themes?

For all you runners, whether it’s the London marathon or a 5k around your local park, your page can really reflect your event with the Keep on running theme.

Or, if you’re taking part in a sponsored swim, why not give your page a watery feel with the Under the sea theme?

Maybe you’re delving into the world of mountaineering? Show off your efforts with the Climb every mountain theme.

Perhaps you’re looking for something a little less specific? Then how about the Little fluffy clouds theme, a theme for all occasions?

Update your fundraising page.

You can brighten up your fundraising page with a new theme from your account. Here’s a handy FAQ, giving you a step-by-step guide on changing your page theme.

We’d love to see your updated page! Why not take a screen shot and add it as a comment to this blog below or post it to our Facebook wall?

You can also let us know what you think about the new page themes. Do you like the designs? Do you think they’ll help tell your story? Is there a theme you’d really love to see? Is there a theme you would really love to see? We’d love your feedback, so do leave us a comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from everyone at JustGiving!

We hope you’re having a fantastic day, you’re all set for dinner and putting those feet up with a mince pie.

It’s one of our favourite days of the year, and who can blame us? Time spent with your nearest and dearest, presents all round and all of that incredible food. It’s a very special day, one filled with cheer, laughter and of course, Christmas giving.

If you’re looking to spread some festive cheer this Christmas, here are a couple of ways to do just that.

SpreadTheGiving and become a charity angel.

This Christmas, we want to SpreadTheGiving and make sure that every one of the 8,000 amazing charities on JustGiving benefits from the season of goodwill. You can become one of our Christmas angels and help a charity receive the recognition and donations that they deserve by encouraging your friends and family to donate.

SpreadTheGiving and become a charity’s angel.

Make a donation to your favourite charity.

Perhaps you’d like to give to a charity in your area? Well, why not search for a charity by location? Or maybe you’d like to support one of the specific, grassroots projects, working in areas all over the world? You can then follow the project’s progress and see your support making a real difference.

Find a charity or project to support.

Enjoy the rest of your festive season!

Nominations for this year’s awards close on Friday 6th January, so get yours in soon! This year we’re recognising more people than ever who have made a difference using JustGiving, with 13 award categories. There are awards for endurance, creativity, company fundraising, mobile fundraising and a fundraiser of the year.

Check out this video to find out from some of last year’s winners why you should nominate someone.

How to nominate

To nominate an individual, charity or workplace for a JustGiving award, go to justgivingawards.com and fill in the form online.

Nominate someone today and check out all 13 categories.

We’ve had over 500 entries so far and we’re really enjoying reading all the inspiring stories that have been sent in. So keep them coming!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With 2011 drawing to a close and the festive season nearly upon us, everyone is starting to gear up for that much needed end-of-year respite.  Our support teams will also be enjoying the Christmas break, so here’s a heads up as to when you’ll be able to catch us in the office.

As of Tuesday 3rd January, it’s back to normality. Our community support team will be here from 9am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm over the weekend and our charity support team will be available 9am-6pm Monday to Friday.

If you’re in need of some help and we’re not available to take your call, try our online help. Whether you’re a fundraiser or donor, or you work for a charity, you can find thorough, clear answers, right when you need them, 24-7.

Alternatively, send us an email at help@justgiving.com or charities@justgiving.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Merry Christmas!

 

Move over X Factor, a new show is in town just in time for Christmas. And we’re super excited that we’ve had the chance to be involved.

Text Santa is a new show that aims to raise awareness and money for those most vulnerable during the festive period, with viewers being asked to make a text donation (powered by our very own JustTextGiving by Vodafone).

Six charities, each with the ability to make a real difference to people’s lives over Christmas, will benefit from ITV’s first ever Text Santa appeal. Funds raised by Text Santa will be divided equally between the following charities:

1. Carers UK
2. Crisis UK
3. Samaritans
4. Help the Hospices
5. WRVS
6. With the sixth charity being comprised of four charities raising money for children’s hospitals.  These are Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Helping Hand Charity, The Noah’s Ark Appeal and the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation

The first show kicked off on Sunday night, with a surprise guest appearance from The Prime Minister announcing that the UK government will match £250,000 of Text Santa fundraising this week. The big finale show will take place live on Christmas Eve. Anyone else looking forward to TOWIE peeps performing Wham’s Last Christmas? No? Just me then.

You can get involved and send some joy this Christmas!

Choose to donate £1, £5 or £10 and text SANTA1, SANTA5 or SANTA10 to 70070 or donate online.
See here for terms and conditions.

Don’t forget you can fundraise with JustTextGiving too. Find out more about creating a text code and raising money via text donations here.

 

As it’s Christmas we’ve decided to share a little gift of insight – check out our Christmas giving infographic, which is based on nine years of data on festive donations. And while you’re at it why not support our Spread the Giving Christmas campaign – where you can help a less-known charity get a little extra joy at Christmas.

 

If you’re looking for a place to run the marathon in London next year, look no further! Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking to charities with places to spare. This week Ffion Thomas from Afghanaid tells us about the charity’s marathon plans.

Afghanaid is a UK charity that works alongside poor people in Afghanistan to enhance their opportunities and capabilities.

Poverty is widespread in Afghanistan and currently the country is experiencing a devastating drought resulting in extreme food scarcity and children walking up to 10km to collect water. Afghanaid is responding to the drought by rehabilitating water reservoirs, improve drinking water quality and providing food and animal care.

By joining the Afghanaid marathon team you will gain a unique opportunity to learn about Afghanaid’s work and contribute to its future.

The money you raise will be vital to supporting the drought response and will also support other needy projects such as teaching Afghan farmers to process fruit, training women in weaving, and building roads and bridges. To find out more about our work please visit afghanaid.org.uk.

We have 25 places on our team this year – could one of them be yours? Everyone in our marathon team receives:

• Training advice and fundraising tips all the way to the finish line
• Team meetings with Afghanaid staff
• A professional running vest
• A post-marathon reception for the runner and his/her friends and family
• A complimentary post-marathon massage

We are now accepting applications from individuals and corporate teams. To apply for your place visit www.afghanaid.org.uk/challenge or contact us on 020 7065 0825.

If you have already secured a marathon ballot place, please consider joining the team.

If you’re a charity with marathon places to spare and would like to be featured on this blog, get in touch by emailing yourstories@justgiving.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re gearing up for Christmas here at JG towers, so wanted to let you know about a new way you can spread a little extra joy this festive season.

There are over 8,000 amazing charities you can donate to directly using JustGiving. Many of them you might not have heard of, but are doing amazing work out of the limelight. Sometimes they don’t receive the recognition and donations they deserve. So this Christmas, we’d like to spread the giving and make sure that every charity benefits from the season of goodwill. That’s why we’ve launched SpreadTheGiving.

We’d like you to become a charity angel this Christmas. Here’s how to earn your wings:

• We give you a lucky-dip charity from our pot.
• You become their angel and give them a present of £5 or more.
• You round up your friends, family, Twitter and Facebook friends to add donations of their own.
• You bathe in the glow of goodness, knowing you’ve helped a charity this Christmas.

If you’re ready to become an angel for a very worthy cause this Christmas, sign up for SpreadTheGiving now. And start polishing your halo.

Find out which charity you’ll be supporting now:

I want to be a Christmas angel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The JustGiving Awards 2012 are fast approaching and we want your nominations! It’s a night where we celebrate the amazing achievements of the JustGiving community by rolling out the red carpet for all of the incredible individuals, teams and charities that have together raised more than £930 million through their JustGiving pages.

Have you or someone you know done something truly extraordinary for a charity? Have they gone above and beyond and put their endurance levels to the test? Maybe they’ve put the fun into fundraising and wowed you with their creativity? Perhaps there is a particular charity that you would like to see rewarded for their incredible work? If so, we want to hear from you.

How to nominate

This year, we will be recognising more of you than ever who have made a difference using JustGiving. Not only will we be rewarding endurance and creativity, there is also an award for company fundraising, mobile fundraising and a fundraiser of the year for every region.

Nominate someone today and check out all 13 categories.

Nominations close on the 6th of January. The finalists will be announced a few weeks later and then it’s over to our judging panel of some of the UK’s leading fundraising, philanthropic and digital figures to decide who will take home the much coveted prizes.

The awards will be handed out on March 1st. Nominees will be invited down to London to come and celebrate with us – and if the last two years are anything to go by, it’s all set to be an inspiring and memorable night, so get your nominations in today.

From the end of November all fundraising pages created on JustGiving will have a new look and feel,  in anticipation of adding some great new features to help fundraisers tell their story. Anyone who’s currently fundraising will be able to preview how their page looks in the new design and upgrade too! We’ve listened to what fundraisers have asked us to build, and we’ve designed a page to fit those features, and more that may come up in the future.

Watch the video to see what’s new, or read on to find out more.

New page header

We’ve put all the most important information about what someone is doing in a new header, to make it easy for sponsors to know they’re on the right page and know what activity someone’s doing for their favourite cause. The new thermometer is more prominent (and less spiky), as we want to highlight how well you’ve done against your individual target – it doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to raise a few hundred or many thousands, every person’s goal is different and you need to know how well you’re doing.

There are also more ways to share your fundraising page with your friends – whether they’re on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google +!

If you are taking part in an event and raising money in memory of a loved one, this is also reflected in the header, as well as showing team members or the names of people celebrating a marriage or birthday.

Your charity and your story

As before, we give you a way of saying why you’re fundraising and to tell your story. We know it’s often hugely important why you are raising money for a particular charity, and we wanted your friends to be able to read more about what the charity does.

Donations

We’ve not made any changes to the tried and trusted donation process, but we’re displaying your friends’ comments in a more conversational style. A recent feature we’ve added is to allow sponsors to leave their Facebook profile picture with their donation, this makes the page much more interesting and allows your friends to show their support even more.

A new photo and video gallery

As photos and videos form a big part of people’s stories, we’re now showing thumbnails of all the images or videos you’ve added to a page, and make browsing through them much more pleasurable. In time, we’ll be allowing you to add many more photos and videos than now too!

Teams and companies

We know that fundraising as part of a team can help you raise more (up to 33%!) so we’ve made the display of your teams more prominent on your page. Read more about how to create a team or add your page to a team here.

Our recently released company fundraising product now allows companies to have a presence on JustGiving to showcase their staff fundraising. If you link to your company’s JustGiving page, this is now displayed more prominently on your own fundraising page – giving you and your company more exposure.

What’s coming next…

Whilst there’s already a lot that’s new, this isn’t everything! We’ll be releasing new features over the next three months, including a better way to highlight why you’re fundraising, a new way keep your friends in the loop throughout your fundraising experiences and new themes to customise your page with. To keep in the loop with all these features as soon as they’re live,  subscribe to the blog, or join us on Facebook or on Twitter.

What do you think?

We’d love to hear what you think about the changes – do you like them, are there things we’ve missed out, or improvements you can spot? We’d love to get your feedback, so please leave a comment below or send a tweet us with the #newJG hashtag.

The month formerly known as November is in full swing and as ever, it’s been impossible to escape the men of Movember.

One group that caught our attention is Tash Safari, a team made up of four colleagues. Joe, Rob, Ed and Sim got together and formed a supergroup of Mo’ growing heroes and so far they’ve raised a staggering £36,180 for Bowel Cancer UK. Impressive!

The four are donating the proceeds from their itchy upper lips to Bowel Cancer UK after Rob’s wife was recently diagnosed with the disease. By forgoing their razors for one month, the Tash Safari have made a huge difference to an incredible cause. Bowel cancer affects more than 36,500 people in the UK every year. It’s the second most common cancer in women and the third in men.  Bowel Cancer UK aims to save lives by not only raising awareness of bowel cancer, but also by campaigning for the best treatment and care.

The amazing success of Tash Safari really demonstrates the potential benefits of joining forces with your fellow fundraisers and forming a team. Getting together with friends, family or colleagues to work towards a larger fundraising target not only means that you can share the experience, but it can also do wonders for your fundraising total.

An individual page will be seen by whoever you contact, but joining a team opens your page up to your teammates’ friends and family too. In fact, the average team on JustGiving raises 33% more than the average fundraising page! As Joe of Tash Safari says, “I think it has definitely helped. Apart from uniting us as tache growers, we’ve been able to raise more awareness by approaching our friends, families and business contacts as a team.”

If you fancy forming your very own fundraising squad, take a look at the following FAQ for more details: just.ly/create-a-team

With Movember drawing to a close, head over to the Tash Safari’s team page to see their hairy efforts. Why not make a donation to whoever you think is the Tash Safari’s King of the Mo’s.

www.justgiving.com/teams/tashsafari

 

 

A few weeks ago we revealed our brand new Company Fundraising tool. Where did it come from?

Fundraising amongst Britain’s employees it seems, is really quite rife. Until recently however, we didn’t quite know how rife it was.

From the hundreds of thousands of JustGiving fundraising pages live at any time, we’d always known that employees and the companies they work for enjoy fundraising – whether it’s as a company team or for an organised corporate event.

We’ve found plenty of examples of colleagues joining forces to raise money for charity. The staff from parcel delivery firm DPD smashed their fundraising target by 50% and raised more than £74,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. And the 900-strong workforce (plus friends) who took part in Barclays’s Step in to the Night event raised over £50,000 for UNICEF and Have a Heart.

In some interesting analysis, we found that in 2010, employees working for Britain’s 100 biggest companies (in terms of JustGiving fundraising) raised over £11.5m. This is based on people building fundraising pages using their work email address – it’s not taking in to account personal fundraising.

Despite the recession, financial services firms feature highly on the list, but companies of all sizes, from every industry sector were represented.

It’s clear that company fundraising is already happening. It represents a huge proportion of all fundraising on JustGiving. We hope we’ve built a tool to make it easier.

How you can get involved

Are you fundraising for a company event, or think your company may benefit from Company Fundraising?  We’d love to discuss how the tool can help you. Please phone us on 020 7067 0965.

 

People are asking their friends and family for donations more and more through social media. Here’s what we found out about social giving, and how much it’s growing. For more information on how to take donations through Facebook using JustGiving, click here to download instructions.