A Look Back at Fundraising
With the end of the Financial Year upon us, we thought we’d take a look back at the efforts of the Aspire Fundraising Team and our many supporters – without them, Aspire simply couldn’t function.
The Team have had a very successful year, building up awareness of the Charity as a whole as well as the overall income. All of which has helped to ensure that the expansion of our housing programme, our continued development of independent living and our human needs fund have had the money they need.
Success of the year has to go to the Aspire Channel Swim which has simply gone from strength to strength. Last year it raised £357,000, but that impressive effort has been blown away - this year’s total is currently £472,000 and counting, thanks to the 7000 swimmers who took part and their generous sponsors.
Community events have continued to grow, with the Aspire Summer Cycle Ride doubling the number of participants this year and the Running Events incomes shooting up. The biggest running triumph has to be Lucy Reid who completed an immense 6 day, 152 miles run across the Sahara Desert raising a wonderful £5,000. Lucy suffered a compressed spine in 2001 and so this challenge was even more of a success story for Lucy.
Two other big successes have been our partnership with justgiving and the amount of Gift Aid received, which allows us to claim an extra 28 pence for every £1 donated to us. Justgiving is a website where event participants create their own fundraising pages and, since we began heavily promoting it, we’ve seen over 2,000 fundraising pages created which has helped boost the amount of money coming in to us.
Our work with the corporate sector has also grown and, with new partnerships and increasing awareness, we are set for big things over the coming year. The Sports Quiz Dinners in London, Glasgow and Manchester were also a huge triumph bringing in over £220,000.
All in all a very good year!