GAT teams raise money as a team to pay for their trips.

There are lots of things you can do to raise money, here are just a few ideas:

• Divide your programme up and ask people to sponsor a talk or a meal
• Organise a party with the theme of your country
• Do something sponsored, a walk, run, etc
• Hold a dance
• Hold a quiz night
• Set up a car boot sale, jumble sale, cake sale, etc.
• Have a clothes swap, where people pay a fee for drinks and nibbles and then exchange their unwanted clothes, shoes, bags and jewellery.
• Organise a talent show and call it "Britain's GAT Talent", (replace Britain's with your own country!)
• Hire a restaurant to do a special meal, ie "Steak Night" or "Tandoori Night".  Invite people along and charge them more than the meal costs you.  One team made $1,000 for their GAT, inviting 100 guests to pay $20. for a meal that cost them $10.

Fundraising Stories:

A Cool Idea for a Hot Cause!  I did an ice skating marathon to raise money for my GAT to Uganda!

Why the marathon?  We have been interested in the Global Alpha Training programme since it started but it had never worked out for us to go. Then suddenly an email came from Alpha Scotland asking if my husband and I would be interested in joining a team going out to Uganda in September 2010. We instantly both wanted to do it.

We knew that as a team we were expected to pay our own way and cover our own expenses so as to not be a burden to the country destination. Fund-raising was suggested. I had already been toying with the idea of walking a marathon to see if I would be fit enough to do that after my husband had run his first marathon back in May. However, having worked at the Ice rink, the idea soon became: ‘I wonder if I could skate a marathon?’  I wasn’t at all sure. I knew that on a normal day at the ice rink, I could clock up 10 – 15 km, but that was with breaks and a chance for the feet to get out of the skates in between public sessions. It seemed a potential long way to 42 km!  However, I decided there was only one way to find out and set a date, worked out how many laps were required - 350 to be precise!

I had at least 3 challenges ahead of me:
1. Getting up at 5am to be at the rink for 6.30am and start skating early in the morning. I’m not a morning person and wearing skates at that time of day is just not normal!
2. The mental challenge. I knew it would be easy to tell myself ‘I can’t do it’. To offset this I worked out which lap rounds would be significant mentally for me and focussed on those. And told myself that most of us are quite able to do more than we think. I had also prepared myself that it would take 4 – 5 hrs. I had to because I hate it when things take longer than I hope for, so I knew I had to sort of trick myself to think long in case it was going to be.
3. Sore feet - would they make it? Anyone who has been skating will understand the ache skating can cause. There were some laps 3/4 way through where my feet were clearly in objection to what I was telling them to do but we got back on speaking terms again and it turned out to my surprise that the last 80 laps were the fastest.

I’m well aware that there are people out there who will be able to do it much faster but I was chuffed I was able to complete it - and finish with a good time of 3 hrs and 38 mins – at my age (47!) that is not too bad. And after effects? No after effects apart from aches under the feet. It seemed crazy when I planned it but it probably helped that I had to work both the afternoon and day after the marathon, no chance to cease up!

I’d encourage anybody to set themselves a challenge. It’s great!  Next challenge is adjusting to life in Kampala quickly and delivering the training programme as well as possible.  Lone, Stirling, Scotland
 

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We did an online raffle to raise money for our GATs in Brazil in the autumn of 2009.

We thought of lots of people we know in church who had skills or products that they would be happy contributing as prizes. The up-side for them was that they got their name and website advertised next to the prize when we emailed out the raffle to hundreds of people.  Free marketing!  We also got twenty or more excellent prizes donated, ranging from a beautiful necklace from a jewellery designer, a cooking lesson for 2, rugby tickets, football tickets, a luxury food hamper, a free hair cut and a public speaking lesson!  They were all freely donated. We then drafted an email explaining what we were up to on the GAT, what the prizes were, and set up a Just Giving page. The minimum entry for the raffle was £10, which bought 10 tickets. Tickets cost just £1, so if someone gave £100, they received 100 tickets. Then we all emailed this information to our numerous contacts, which meant that hundreds of people received it. In the end, more than 140 people donated and we raised around £4200!

The advantage of this fundraising method was that it wasn’t just ‘giving’, there was also a chance of winning a great prize!  It was also something that people could be involved with from their own home/office, anywhere that had a computer. They didn’t actually need to turn up to an event. We then did a live draw, announcing the ticket winning numbers to all of those who gave, which gave some suspense and excitement.  It was very easy to organise, allowed many people to be involved, and raised lots of cash.  Pat, London, England
 

If you have any fundraising ideas or articles about events you have held please e-mail them to gat@alpha.org