As a student fundraiser, it's crucial to find a balance between fundraising, your degree, your social life, activities and your chill time. When you add being a Challenge Leader into the mix, this becomes even more vital.

As a leader, you have the responsibilities of setting an example, catering for everyone's questions, linking relevant resources and often acting as a welfare officer to the team. You must put others' needs first to make sure everyone is comfortable, happy and bonding as a team. But when does ‘me-time’ start? 

It’s not an easy task at first, but it’s also not impossible. Time balancing and management can become simple with some work on your communication, teamwork, organisation and planning skills. As a past Kilimanjaro Challenge Leader in my final year of university, I know this battle too well. Knowing when to compromise on time and give all attention to your team and when to take some me-time can be achieved, believe me. 

Communication

There are people all around you that are in similar situations or are always keen to listen and support you. One of our values at Choose a challenge is that we create communities. I’m sure every one of you is in numerous group chats and social groups! My first advice is always to reach out and see what others are doing and take some inspiration. Look to your societies, SU, RAGs, course mates, friends and family members to see how they balance their time and use that. Communication can preempt many issues before they occur. 

Talk to your participants frequently and make sure you know exactly where everyone is in their fundraising and training journeys. 1-2-1 meetings are ideal for this. 

If your team and network are happy, then you can afford to ease off and focus on your personal life. In saying that, even if your team isn't perfect and hasn't hit their targets on day 2, relax and organise your time accordingly. Allow some extra time to support someone who needs it, and then reward yourself with some ‘me time’ after.

Teamwork

This is simple if you get it right. Trust in your team to be independent and tackle their personal goals however they wish. As a leader, you can rely on the team outside of the participants for their support and resources. Make sure the communications links are made clear so participants know where to go and make sure any resources and like are accessible.

“Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who....” know where to ask! It’s down to you as a leader to keep a watchful eye to offer support guidance when they need it but haven't asked.

Organisation

The best tip to gain a balance and control is to stay organised. Rotas and schedules may seem trivial or only relative to work or revising but they can save you a headache in your day to day life too. You can allocate your time accordingly to where it's needed, prioritise other tasks and then set some time to relax. As a student, your priority will shift from deadlines to team sport matches, to fundraising 1-2-1s and so on. Having a plan and still staying flexible to change in those daily/weekly/monthly schedules will be an asset to you when managing your time. 

As an old leader, I used to balance my time between revision, my Dissertation, RAG, Lacrosse, team support, weekend fundraisers and street collections, nights out, training, matches and of course, lectures, seminars and workshops. If I didn't have a rough weekly plan and a to-do list with a colour-coded priority ranking (pastel colours are where it’s at), I would not have graduated with an upper second class honours degree, Challenge Leader of the year or hit my fundraising target! But I did!

Planning

Plan everything in advance! Try and get all your participants 1-2-1s completed in a few days and tick off another item on the to-do list. Do your market research! Sounds odd, but know what your audience needs or what they would enjoy. This is in regards to a fundraiser, ask around and work out what people want to see or do! Plan to make a realistic amount raised and strive to hit it. Any event will go well if it is thoroughly planned out in advance. 

My biggest tip to life management for the Challenge Leader at university is to set aside some weekly time to plan. Plan your next steps, career path, a bar crawl and most importantly, your fundraising. I used to dedicate 20 minutes a week in an evening while my nuggets were cooking, to brainstorm fundraising ideas and to rethink my network mind map. All notes, I would use my team around me and communication to develop those ideas into events with my charity support rep. 

Then when I could spare some time or a themed holiday/event was approaching, I had a little black book of events that I could put on at the snap of my fingers. This is how I hit my target and could just work for you.

Fundraising and Our Best Advice from my time as a Challenge Leader and student fundraiser

These suggestions and ideas are all from my experience, for specific ideas and clarifications, please contact your charity representative. 

The best tip from my experience  is to, first of all, do your market research and to plan, but then to make sure every event and idea hits one of three themes:

A Service 

You want your donors to be gaining something or be benefiting in some way from your fundraiser. This is usually the easiest way to fundraise. You can put on raffles or bake sales where people have a chance to win or buy something. Or you could run events where as long as they gain something, they will donate.

A WOW factor 

You could do something so incredibly impressive that people will want to donate either because they can’t believe their eyes or because the feat you have just achieved is worthy of their donation. For example, Felix climbed the height of Mt. Everest on his stairs at home during the April lockdown. A student at my university cycled across Dartmoor on a Unicycle. Then one of my old teammates cycled for 24hrs on a static bike at home. IMPRESSIVE

Something silly

This speaks for itself. If you entertain people and get people to laugh and, it's doing them a service but, because they are smiling and having a good time. They may feel more inclined to donate. For example, bathing in beans or tea, a 24hr danceathon or even fancy dress at an awkward time such as dressing up like a snail and crawling around the library or supermarket? Could be funny... In saying that, please follow government guidelines if we are still in restrictions. All ideas can be made virtual if you are creative!

Use your initiative and things outside the box. What are the old reliable ideas that never fail and what has never been done before? 

The key is to do a variety of events. One or two huge ones that take a large amount of planning, some medium events that take a few weeks to sort out and then some small events that you could do the next day. 

Please reach out if you would like any ideas on some of these size ranged events. Your partnered charity will also have a vast amount of supporting materials that you can reach out for. Lastly, you can also take a look into the National Association of Student Fundraisers ‘NaSFA’, who are a friendly team of volunteers who are always happy to help. You can find their website, their Facebook group and even a youtube channel. 

Please reach out if you would like any ideas on some of these size ranged events. Your partnered charity is your primary resource. They will also have a vast amount of supportive materials and ideas that you can reach out for. Lastly, you can also take a look into the National Association of Student Fundraisers ‘NaSFA’, who are a friendly team of volunteers who are always happy to help. You can find their website, their Facebook group and even a youtube channel. 

In my time as a student fundraiser, I have come across many fundraising ideas. We think the key is to do a variety of events. Such as, one or two large events that take a significant amount of planning, some medium events that take a few weeks to sort out, and a few small events that you could arrange for the next day. Below I have listed just a few ideas and broken them down into large, medium and small events. (Please look in detail of each event/idea, there will always be rules and guidance you must follow and sometimes limitations you may not have considered)

Large:

Challenge yourself to take on a tough fitness challenge. You can raise money for completing the event but you can also add little bonuses to it. Such as, having people donate to add a song to the playlist, donate for a specific outfit, or donate to add a unit of distance per mile. Make it entertaining! If it’s a virtual challenge, go on a virtual tour and share photos of where you may be. Rant and rave over social media.

• Host an event and charge entry, provide prizes, run bonus fundraisers such as raffles and snack/food and drinks stalls. 

  • Races (can be virtual)

  • Zumba or fitness sessions

  • Giggs and music events

  • Christmas market (can be virtual - invite local businesses or students who have hobbies and skills, charge per table and perhaps a % of profits can go to charity?)

  • Speed dating 

  • Club nights

  • Swap shops

  • Dance competition (can be virtual)

  • Outdoor movies

  • Talent show (can be virtual)

• 24 hour events (GO LIVE!)

  • Gaming stream

  • Danceathon

  • Baking

  • Cycling 

  • Walking 

  • Silence

  • Movie marathon

  • Eating challenge 

Medium:

• Reach out to Rotary/Lions clubs and businesses for sponsorship. Can you provide anything in return for a donation? A talk about the charity cause? Promotion?

• Message your old school to arrange non-uniform days, book sales, swap shops, yard sales, game stalls at fairs or cake sales

• Weekly quizzes (can be virtual)

• Weekly fitness classes (can be virtual)

• Weekly yoga classes (can be virtual)

• Karaoke nights 

• Dares for Dollar - Have a list of 10 or so dares with appropriate sponsorship and allow people to add dares. Film and live stream each one. (We recommend that you choose the 'dares' in order to keep it within your comfort zone and for safety)

• Host a scavenger hunt (can be virtual)

• Eating challenge (can be virtual)

Small:

• Have a clear out and sell some old belongings. Host a car boot sale or sell over an app or virtual platform

• Learn a new hobby or skill

• Sell a craft

• Give up a luxury item or action for a period of time

• Plan a raffle or tombola (great to double up with a large event). Please run this part your charity are raffle guidelines are very strict. Please read the guideline here and also check out this helpful pack that WWF made for our leaders.

Rant and rave about everything you do! Make sure everyone knows what you’re doing and how they can view and get involved! Share EVERYWHERE!

Our final tip is don’t fundraise alone! Team up and host joint events with your teammates and use your network! Get your friends to take on some of these challenges and events to fundraise to a different audience, sharing your fundraising page in the process!

Choose a Challenge are always here to support and help where we can, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for advice if you or your team needs it. Your charity partner will be the main point of contact for fundraising queries as they are the experts.

Much love, 

Mike xx