Challenge eventers to follow in footsteps of David Livingstone
Howard Lake | 1 April 2008 | News
Participants in a fundraising challenge event in Zambia this November are being asked to follow in the footsteps of humanitarian and explorer David Livingstone.
The David Livingstone Footsteps Challenge participants will follows part of the route of Dr Livingstone’s Zambezi expedition of 1858-64. In addition, they will be following in his footsteps metaphorically by spending a day working at the Ebenezer Orphanage near the Victoria Falls.
When the trip ran for the first time last year, participants completely redecorated the girls’ dormitories and similar activities are planned for this year. Participants are also asked to bring presents that all the children can share.
“This challenge event really aims to connect people with both the causes they are fundraising for and the reasons that they do this kind of thing in the first place,” said Hugh McCaw, of event organiser Relationship Marketing.
“Quite often challenge events don’t have any kind of connection with the cause they are fundraising for, let alone the activities of someone such as David Livingstone. Of course it’s not always possible to link the event to the cause, but while we are having the debate about the relevance of enclosures in DM packs to the cause, I think we need to think just a little bit more about how we can make challenge events that bit more relevant.”
So far two charities have signed up to recruit participants, Children Today and Bighearted Scotland, a fundraising consortium of seven Scottish charities.
While any charity can join the event and recruit participants to fundraise for it, McCaw hopes that a number of charities that have connections to Africa, third world development or children’s causes will come forward. “I really want charities to come to this event viewing it as a way to connect the donors with their cause and start them on a real supporter journey, and not see this just an arbitrary way to raise money,” he said.
www.relationshipmarketing.org.uk
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.