Online balloon races offer fundraising alternative to balloon releases
Howard Lake | 21 January 2009 | News
Balloon suppliers balloon.com have launched an interactive online balloon race as a fundraising tool for schools and charities.
Balloon releases have been criticised by organisations such as the Marine Life Conservation Trust because of their environmental impact, although balloon producers claim that “latex balloons are 100% biodegradable”.
Organisations keen to continue with the fun of a balloon release now have an online alternative. As such, events run using balloonrace.com can take place at any time of year, not just summer. Participants can be based anywhere with an Internet connection.
Balloonrace.com suggest that online balloons are offered for a donation of £2. Supporters can then ‘boost’ their balloon to make it go further through answering trivia questions, playing games or making donations. The company suggests that online balloon races can therefore have an educational element.
Donations are handled via a Paypal account, so organisations need to set one up to benefit. Balloonrace.com offer a page for the charity to add details about the cause together with photos.
You choose the start and end date of the online balloon races, and they last for a maximum of two weeks. There are 14 boost games, 1 game per day.
You can start from as few as 100 balloons, but you can purchase more balloons if you need them. Event holders will receive an automatic alert if the number of available balloons drops too low.
Organisers can choose the prize for the balloon that travels the furthest. Balloonrace.com suggest seeking a prize donated by a sponsor but you could also offer a cash prize.
After the race balloonrace.com will calculate the winners and display them on a scrolling leaderboard on the participating charity’s website, and this will remain visible for four weeks.
www.balloonrace.com
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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.