Help! Sponsorship not working!

Hi Chris,

Just read your posting and wondered if the children made it to space camp.

Ruth x

[quote]I am a teacher from a school in mid Wales helping two of my pupils raise the money to pay for flights to Texas so that they can attend the International Space School at which they have both won places. We have tried to write to various companies, both local and national, big and small but to no avail. They are supposed to be flying out on 22nd July and have no finance to pay for the tickets (they have been trying since February). We have sent letters off with copies of various press articles highlighting the publicity available to the sponsors as an incentive but no-one seems to have picked up on us. Could someone please help us in our predicament?
Thank you.[/quote]

Hi Chris,

Speed being of the essence I think they've got to set up a dedicated site at justgiving.com and contact every email contact they have with a hard-working case for support.

I agree that local PR may flush out a donor or two ... especially if a press release is couched something like

"Star pupils' space race dashed by cash shortfall"

Such 'emergency' appeals for help often work well. Contact me if I can help any more - it's FREE!

Good luck,

Alastair

Local press tend to be good for a story or two. The local community can often be collared in with bingo, jumble sale, garden parties, quiz nights etc to raise money.
Sort of 'Local lads make good but need help getting there' sort of story with the press (a press release can be useful to give the facts) can be useful.

[quote]We have sent letters off with copies of various press articles highlighting the publicity available to the sponsors as an incentive but no-one seems to have picked up on us. Could someone please help us in our predicament?
Thank you.[/quote]
I guess there's two things: first, companies tend to give in a more structured way, with a strong preference for charities. Charities have a hard time fundraising from companies, and to be honest, I'd be surprised if you'd got more than one or two replies at £50 a time. For this sort of thing, friends and family are usually a much more productive avenue, and may even turn up a friend with the authority to tap into a company's charity/community fund.

Second, letter's the least successful approach for fundraising. Best is face-to-face, second best os phone, and last is letter (and after that comes email, these days!). Obviously a big generalisation, but the more impersonal the contact, the less likely it is to succeed. If you've just written, with no phone contact, followup phone calls may be worth a try. But again, I wouldn't be too optimistic...

Sorry not to have anything more optimistic to say!

James