£135m raised for charity by 2017’s top 25 mass participation sports events
Melanie May | 16 October 2018 | News
The 25 most important mass participation sports events for fundraising raised a collective £135 million plus last year, according to estimates from massive.
massive’s annual Sports Fundraising Snapshot shows that overall, the amount raised from mass participation sports events increased last year for the fourth consecutive year.
However, whilst as a group the 25 biggest events saw income raised from them grow by more than 10%, 10 of these events saw the amount charities raised from them remain static or fall. Across the market as a whole, massive states that the charities it works with reported a slowing in the rate of growth in income raised from all sports events in their portfolio.
Overall, a small decline was seen in the number of people fundraising from mass participation sports events, while the average amount fundraisers raised last year increased by 8%.
Running still dominates the market accounting for 16 of the 25 (down from 18), however ‘trek’ events doubled their number in the top 25 from 2 to 4 events which enabled charities to raise more than £7m last year.
massive highlights three events in particular as having grown fundraising by a significant amount in 2017: Brighton Marathon Weekend, The Grand Brighton Half Marathon, and the London to Brighton Challenge.
The top five events were Virgin Money London Marathon, Prudential RideLondon, Simplyhealth Great North Run, Brighton Marathon Weekend, and Royal Parks Half Marathon. The first and the last both held their positions while the middle three all rose.
New events in the top 25 were the Cardiff Half Marathon at number 15, London to Brighton Cycle Challenge at 16, Cotswold Way Challenge and Tough Mudder North West at positions 18 and 19, and Simplyhealth Great Stirling Run at number 25.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.