This blog comes from Amelia Sanford, one of our incredible Global Citizens, who recently ran the Cambridge Half Marathon. While pounding the pavements, Amelia found herself reflecting not just on the heat, the costumes, or the distance between water stations, but on the power of fundraising at sporting events. In this piece, she shares her experience of running for a cause, how sponsorship works, and some thought-provoking ideas on how race fundraising could be made even more impactful for charities and communities.
Read Time: ~5 minutes
In March, I ran the Cambridge half marathon; an exhausting but fun experience. During the couple of hours it took for me to plod round the 13.1 miles, I had plenty of time to mull over a wide variety of thoughts; the heat (it was the hottest day of the year so far), the distance to the next water station, the people in costumes overtaking me, and, probably the most profound of my thoughts, fundraising from races like these.
The Cambridge half marathon is extremely popular–13,574 people ran this year–and places sell out quickly. I decided to get a charity place witha charity called HoverAid, an amazing organisation that provides emergency medical services to remote parts of Madagascar, using hovercrafts to reach these isolated regions. For popular races–where places sell out quickly–signing up with a charity is a good route in. In exchange for the place, the charity asks you to fundraise a minimum sponsorship target; it is a brilliant way for people to fundraise for charities they have long supported or become connected to new ones.
HoverAid’s fundraising target was £300, similar to the other charities that had places at the half marathon. Initially, I found the fundraising target slightly daunting. I was unfamiliar with the sponsorship process (I couldn’t remember the last sponsored activity I had done) and felt slightly awkward about asking people for donations, albeit for a good cause. I set up my JustGiving page, outlining HoverAid mission and impact, and encouraged donations. I shared the JustGiving page with my friends and family and was overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and kind words of encouragement; I soon reached the fundraising target!
It seems other runners experienced similar generosity from their networks. This year, the Cambridge half marathon raised close to £1 million for charities, a new record, and the London Marathon also raised a record £75 million. Sporting events like these are famously effective fundraising events–a culmination of generous supporters and committed participants–often driven by causes close to their hearts. They also serve as invaluable opportunities to raise awareness of a variety of impactful charitable causes, especially televised events like the London Marathon.
As I started the race, I was reminded of participants’ fundraising efforts as the commenter shouted,
“Good luck, when you start to find it hard, think of who you are racing for, think of the impact of your fundraising. This year you have contributed to us raising a record…”
The speakers trailed off as I turned the first corner. Prompted by this encouragement, I reflected on fundraising for HoverAid and how surprisingly easy it had been! Everyone seemed eager to donate what they could to support, for which I was very grateful. My surprise was unwarranted really as the UK public are generous, donating an estimated £15.4 billion to charity in 2024.
More notable is the contrasting nature of fundraising between individual giving, like my sponsorship, and the grant-making process of institutional donors, large trusts, and foundations. Individuals are often willing to give generously to causes they consider worthwhile, with relatively little information regarding exactly where their money is being spent or how the organisation is structured. Around 8.2 million people report they donate to charity by monthly direct debit or standing order, accounting for £2.7 billion worth of donations. Conversely, institutional donors, trusts, and foundations often have intensive due diligence processes for organisations they award funding to, with restrictive allocation of funds for specific activities and rigorous reporting requirements.
The ease and generosity of individual giving felt even more pertinent in this case, than say standing orders or Christmas appeals which people choose. On my fundraising page, people were willing to donate to a cause I had chosen. There was quite limited information about HoverAid on my JustGiving page, a couple of short paragraphs and a link to the website, and there was certainly no indication of exactly how my sponsorship would be spent. I don’t know how many of my sponsors did further reading about Hoveraid, but I think the following tentative conclusion can be drawn: people are willing to donate to a charity, based on its mission statement and a broad sense of its charitable activities, and/or, a personal recommendation.
Personal recommendations significantly shape giving, with it being the most cited reason for prompting a donation in the UK giving report 2025. I am not casting aspersions about my sponsors, I think their generosity, and that of the general public, is only to be celebrated. This reflection is about the contrasting fundraising landscapes within the charity sector. At what point does this generosity for causes–chosen by others–plateau and how does that evolve into funds being predicated on the strict reporting and due diligence hoops delimited by donors?
My second reflection was regarding how donations raised from sponsorship events could have maximum impact. Following these events, the charities whom people have fundraised for receive a lump of unrestricted funding. Unrestricted, regular funding is optimal for organisations as they can spend this money where it is required and can plan according to these regular payments. As a departure from grants awarded to specific projects and activities, unrestricted funding fosters autonomy and investment in organisational strengthening. This made me think of One World Together (OWT).
OWT responds to organisations’ expressed need for regular, unrestricted funding, establishing the Solidarity Fund for their partners, with proven impact. Reflecting on OWT’s effective and powerful model, I began to wonder if there could be a way for event sponsorship to be transferred into a standing order. While funds being unrestrictive is perhaps more important that them being regular, could there be a way to achieve both with money raised at sports events?
I appreciate that asking sponsors to set up a standing order–as opposed to a one-off donation–to a JustGiving page may be a step too far, taking advantage of sponsors’ generosity and complicating the donation process, and it would require specific and extensive promotion. But perhaps, there could be an add-on to JustGiving, where charities could opt to receive the money raised from an event in monthly installments rather than in a lump-sum. I am unsure about the operational viability of this and I am sure it would require significant collaboration. Equally, these conversations should start, as they did with OWT, with the organisations affected. For organisations that annually have ‘X’ number of race places, which generates ‘Y’ in fundraising, there is some predictability and regularity to sponsorship funds, but for charities without regular places who receive more unpredictable sponsorship funds, a standing order conversion service may be a more attractive alternative.
Running the Cambridge Half Marathon was a physical challenge, but it also provided an unexpected window for reflection on sponsorship and fundraising. OWT has made important strides in remodeling how funding is done and I think it’s time we reconsider how we can harness the generosity of sponsors and maximise the impact of fundraising at sporting events. While my reflections are tentative, it is clear that giving is relationship-based and people are trusting of charities that those in their network support, so speaking to friends and family about OWT is probably more influential than you imagine!
Written by Amelia Sandford, OWT Global Citizen
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