London Marathon runners with fundraising targets raise 58% more

Howard Lake | 13 September 2011 | News

Analysis from online giving site virginmoneygiving.com has found that 86% of runners in the 2011 Virgin London Marathon used the event to raise funds for charity. It also found that runners who set themselves a fundraising target raised 58% more than those who did not.
The analysis found that the average amount raised by those who set a fundraising target was £1,328 excluding Gift Aid, compared with £842 excluding Gift Aid by those who did not.
Starting early also pays off. Runners who set up their fundraising pages when their place was first confirmed in 2010 raised an average of £1,511 including Gift Aid compared with £1,374 for those who waited and started in 2011.
Gift Aid was reclaimed on 88% of all London Marathon donations via virginmoneygiving.com.
Fundraisers who used the site raised £13.8 million of the £51.8 million total raised from the event. This is a considerable increase on the £8.3 million raised last year. The number of donations for the Marathon received through virginmoneygiving.com was up by 70% on the previous year: 364,500 donations were received for the 2011 race compared to 214,405 in 2010.
Similarly, the number of runners using the service rose from 6,246 in 2010 to 10,231 people in 2011.
The figures are revealed in a report produced for charities by Virgin Money Giving designed to help them make the most of next year’s event.
Jo Barnett, executive director at Virgin Money Giving said: “Setting a target clearly pays off, even if fundraisers do not hit the target, as the 58% difference in average amounts raised demonstrates.”
Virginmoneygiving.com has now raised nearly £75 million for charities since it was established in October 2009.
www.virginmoneygiving.com

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.