Asking for online donations to your fundraising page is one of theeasiest ways to raise money, follow this guide to make sure you useyour page effectively!

Getting startedBefore sharing your page with anyone,you should do the following:

Personalise it. Add a photo of yourselfand edit the description to explain whyyou are supporting MRF, what drewyou to this challenge/event, howdonations will help the charity, andwhat you hope to gain from theexperience. Get a good first donation. Asksomeone close to you to get the ballrolling with a decent-sized donationbefore you start sharing your page.This will help to set the bar nice andhigh, and will encourage allsubsequent donors to give generously!

Don't be disheartened if you don't getloads of donations straight away. Somepeople will want to wait until they can seethat you have been working hard beforethey donate to you.

Online Fundraising Guide

"I asked everyone to donate £2.62 (for the26.2 miles of the marathon) - it went viral!"

- Gary Boon, London Marathon www.meningitis.org

www.meningitis.org

Posting updatesDon't just share your page over and overagain for the sake of it. Use yourprogress as content for an update e.g."I've just finished a 10k and beat myprevious record!"Fundraisers who share updates on theirfundraising page raise an average of45% more than those who don't, andmore updates = more donations! The top 10% of fundraisers share theirpage an average of 18 times - you willget the most response from theplatform where you know the mostpeopleFundraisers who's friends/family alsoshare their page for them receive doublethe donations on average.

When and how to shareOnline fundraising platforms receive themost traffic on Fridays, shortly followed bySaturdays and Sundays.The most popular time of day fordonations is in the evening around 8pm,and in the morning around 9am. Think about when you're sharing yourpage to try and ensure it coincides withthese peak times! Make the most of your social mediaplatforms and share your page across allof themDon't forget about sharing your page viaemail - you could share with workcolleagues and family who don't havesocial mediaYou could even add your page link intoyour email signature for work

Top tipsPublicly thank your donors by posting onsocial media to say the total amount youhave now raised, and tagging people whohave recently donated to thank them fortheir generosity. Each time you do this, you could keep itinteresting by talking about a differentarea of MRF's work to show people theimpact their donation will have. Instagram doesn't allow for links in postsbut you could always add the link to yourbio and reference it in any updates youpost!

Online Fundraising Guide

www.meningitis.org

Honor raised over £10,000 fromonline donations via her social media!- Honor McFarlane, London Marathon