Let's Talk About Brain Tumours

Episode 62 - Fantastic Fundraising

• The Brain Tumour Charity • Season 3 • Episode 62

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After weeks of toil and training, The TCS London Marathon 2025 is just around the corner and The Brain Tumour Charity has 145 runners taking part this year - more than ever before! 

Our Involvement Champion Imelda Turnock speaks to two of them - Barbara Prodger and David Barrow - about their reasons for running.

But first, Andy Tudor gets some insider tips from our man at JustGiving. 

Sam Gurry delves into the data to explain how anyone taking part in a charity challenge can maximise their fundraising. From personalising your story to the optimum number of times to post about your challenge on social media, to gamifying fundraising and incentivising donors - we get the low down.

If listening to this sparks an interest in taking part in one of our events, you can find them all listed here.

Hosts: Andy Tudor and Imelda Turnock.

Audio editors: Jo Porter and Elliot Broad

Producer: Jo Porter

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If you or someone you know needs a listening ear, you can contact our Support Team by calling 0808 800 0004 or email support@thebraintumourcharity.org

Andy Tudor:

Welcome everyone to the Brain Tumour Charity Podcast. Today we're talking to Sam Gurry from JustGiving. We're in full donation and fundraising season. There's a lot going on, especially with the London Marathon coming up, for example, on April the 27th. So we thought we'd get the expert in to try and help us and guide us into how to maximise how to make a success of our fundraising pages when we're doing them online. So welcome, Sam.

Sam Gurry:

Thanks, Andy. I appreciate joining today and I appreciate that. Expert? I don't think many people have called me an expert. But we'll go with that.

Andy Tudor:

You know a lot more than most of us do. That, in my mind, qualifies as an expert. So do you want to just give us a quick introduction, if you will, about what JustGiving does, who they are and why they're so successful and so trustworthy?

Sam Gurry:

So yeah, so JustGiving is a fundraising platform, the number one fundraising platform in the UK. We've been around for 25 years, so it was actually our 25th birthday yesterday, I believe. (Andy - Congratulations.) So quarter of a century of seeing amazing things happen and amazing fundraisers across all different causes, obviously, and it's been great to be part of that. I've been at the platform for about four years now, so working across supporting all of the wonderful charities that use the platform for fundraising for the things that they're doing. One of the really great things about JustGiving is that we have access to so much data and we've had so many amazing people fundraising across that time that it means that when we are able to give recommendations and when we're able to make updates on the platform we really can you know hone in on what is the best way to set up your fundraising page what is the best way to set up a campaign page so it really does enable us to I guess be at the forefront of fundraising across the sector as well.

Andy Tudor:

That's really good and I presume you are supporting charities throughout the whole sector, not just like brain tumour charities or health related charities. It's right across the board.

Sam Gurry:

Yeah, certainly. Yes. So we have over 22,000 charities on the platform worldwide now as well. So yeah, we're supporting all different causes and charities.

Andy Tudor:

Fantastic. So, I'm about to do some fundraising through you guys. About setting up a fundraising page, what tips and what hints can you give me as a user, should we say, to make the best impact from my fundraising page?

Sam Gurry:

Yes. So first of all, imagine your page is an extension of yourself. So you want to make it as personal as possible. That means updating your image at the top, making sure everyone knows the issue that's fundraising. Updating your target. So for a lot of events, when people take part in it, they'll have been asked to set a minimum fundraising target by the charity. But if you're just choosing to do a challenge yourself, make sure you set something that is optimistic, but not necessarily too big that you might be disheartened and not too low that it's quite easy to achieve. And then the really important part when you set up your fundraising page is the story. Whenever you're sharing your page and asking people to donate, most of the time your friends, your family, they'll be supporting you, they'll be donating to yourself, and the charity will kind of be a beneficiary of that. So it's really important to put in your story why the cause is so important or why you want to take on the challenge. And you know, it's about sharing as much information as you're comfortable. Obviously for a lot of organizations, people have got deeply personal stories of why they're fundraising for a certain charity, but yeah, as much as you're able to really put across in that story about why you're doing it and why it means so much, it will really, really help people when they land on the page and kind of push them to make that donation and hopefully a slightly higher donation as well so you can support the charities.

Andy Tudor:

I get that it's like focusing on yourself and the charity is almost like what you're doing to help them rather than focusing on the charity itself as as the as the reason almost

Sam Gurry:

Yeah so and I think talking about the charity is important as well um but it's making sure that people understand why the charity means a lot to you and then also within that what their support can do to help the charity as well. What we always love across fundraising, and if there's people listening who have worked in fundraising or done a lot of fundraising, you always see that X will pay for Y. If you can put that in your story as well and let people know how much their donations are going to make an impact, like I said, it can really push them towards making those donations.

Andy Tudor:

And just out of interest on that one, I've often wondered, is it best, I know you talked about the target you're aiming for, is it best to set a lowish target beat it? And then say to everyone we've beaten the target let's go higher? I don't know whether people feel in your experience better about giving if they think a target's already been achieved or whether you want to make them think that they're helping you get to a target.

Sam Gurry:

I would always recommend that people set a target that is is reachable but then if you start getting nearer to the target it's just adding adding a stretch target on top of that. I would say that what usually happens is someone lands on your fundraising page if you've done amazing and you're fundraising for london marathon and you've raised 2 100 pounds and 2 150 is your target people are probably going to land on that and see wow I can be the person that tips Andy over the edge and I'm the one that's gonna take him to his target so that's a really good way to get maybe higher donations. But then once you hit that target, maybe if I landed on that page, then I'm like, oh, Andy's already hit his target, so I'm only going to give him a £5 donation. So it's like a way that you can kind of encourage people to kind of keep giving as well. So I'd keep adding stretch targets and let people know that as well. Don't just sneakily put it on there, put in the updates. You know, I've hit my target. Come on, we can do more. I'm really confident and with that kind of stuff. So, yeah, making sure, yeah, adding stretch targets.

Andy Tudor:

Awesome. Brilliant. Something else as well about if you're doing a target that includes a distance or something, what about if you include a link to sort of Strava or Garmin or something like that? Is that helpful?

Sam Gurry:

Yeah, definitely. So I'd recommend everyone to integrate with their fitness apps if they're using JustGiving. We can do that through Strava or Fitbit. And what we see is if people integrate their fitness, they could raise up to 40% more by having that on there. And there's a few different reasons for that. But a really good way about having your fitness on there is that you can essentially share your page without sharing your page. So you can say you've hit a personal best, you know, you can share the update about how that was your quickest run, and then you can have a link when you put it on social media. So it's kind of like another way that you can share things as well and lets people know the effort that you're actually putting in, particularly if you're training for a big event.

Andy Tudor:

Yeah, okay, cool. I wouldn't know myself because I'm not that fit, but I'm asking on behalf of others. And another important question, certainly for me, because I've just done some fundraising for the Twilight Walk, say for the charity, is how often would you recommend people post about what they're doing through the various social media channels? Because I'm conscious, I guess there's a bit of a pull between either not wanting to overload your friends and family with come on, come on, come on, but also reaching people that may only come across your social media sort of fleetingly. So is there any idea or any statistics on what is the sort of the optimum if there is number of times to sort of tell people about your fundraising?

Sam Gurry:

Yeah, that's a really good question because it's one that people often think they feel like they're putting too much on social media, but I would say that as much as possible. is best. So for London Marathon last year, we saw that the top 10% of fundraisers shared their page 11 times. And then for the top one, I don't know the number off the top of my head, but I think it was something like 35 times. So, you know, you've really got to put it out there if you want to get the donations. And it's not just how many times you share it, it's kind of where you share it as well. So WhatsApp we see is the most valuable channel for receiving donations. You've got your friends and family on there. It's personal. So we'd recommend definitely making sure that you're putting it on all your WhatsApp groups. Facebook is also another great social media channel for that. And then also using JustGiving if you are accessing your page via your phone or your smartphone you can directly share to all of the kind of top social channels as well so we'd recommend using that and it will auto fill um as a as a message as well that goes out so you don't have to worry about thinking what you're going to put in the message you can easily just

Andy Tudor:

Ok so when i did mine i think i did three which was one about two months before, one about a week before, and then one just after saying I've done it. It sounds like a bit more than that would have probably helped and not made people too annoyed about me sort of putting too many requests on them.

Sam Gurry:

Yeah and I think the other thing is it's it doesn't always have to be an ask like i said about the fitness stuff you can share enough fundraising story through if you've like said done your personal best or even if you've gone out for a run and you've got caught in the rain and there's a picture of you hiding under a tree like sheltering from the rain and then you've got your link there as well i think trying to be creative in the way that you're sharing your page is also a really good way because if you keep just kind of sharing the same thing then it might not be able to cut through and we know what social media is like now in terms of

Andy Tudor:

yeah limited

Sam Gurry:

attention span

Andy Tudor:

Ok that's 10, 11 times is it? That's good. Ok um so in terms of say the London Marathon, when it's race day, is there a best time to share a post on the day itself or whatever event you're doing?

Sam Gurry:

Yeah, definitely. So if you're taking part in the London Marathon, what I would recommend is we always see between 7 and 10 a.m., is a peak time for donations. So make sure that you're sharing pictures of yourself at the starting line. Everyone loves the picture in the morning of all of their kit laid out on the bed before they go. And if you're going to take a big picture with the rest of the team as well. So yeah, those are the times definitely in the morning to make sure that you're putting everything out as much as possible. And then in the evening time as well. So after you've taken part in the event, you've got your medal. you might take a picture of your bandaged up leg or things like that. So yeah, just make sure that you're sharing the middle picture and then also the start line picture as well. I'd say that's the key times.

Andy Tudor:

Okay, cool. And then how to incentivise donors. I've heard that it's quite good to have them If you're having a playlist, say, behind your training that they could add to the playlist, or if you could sort of give your donors a shout out as well on social media, is that something that helps?

Sam Gurry:

Yeah, definitely. So it's always a good way to kind of encourage people to give more rather than just asking for the donations. So again, say London Marathon, or even if you're taking part in a big trek, if you're going to be listening to music, um just saying to people if they donate a certain amount that they can pick you know at the playlist you're going to be listening to or in the past i've even seen people say that they'll listen to one song on repeat and if you donate. I think it was around 500 pounds you could you could pay for it so there was um you could imagine the um the choices of that song that people were putting on there as if running a marathon is not hard enough as it is um so yeah it's almost like gamifying basically a little bit of the the donation and giving people I guess something in return for their donation. And then the thing about shouting out on social media, it's just a really good way to thank people. And again, another way to kind of share your page. And we've seen that if a friend or family member shares a fundraiser's page, then it's something like double the amount of the fundraising goes to as well. So it's a really good way to magnify your reach.

Andy Tudor:

Okay. Yeah. So try and get your friends and family to sort of repost or post again, and also say that they're helping you in your sort of fundraising as well.

Sam Gurry:

Exactly. If you, if someone, um, says thank you to you on social media then you might want to re-share that you've been thanked for your donation so it's a good way of kind of spreading out there so um yeah just as much you can kind of thank your donors on social media and whichever channels you use

Andy Tudor:

Superb. Well, that's it in terms of all the insightful questions I could think of. Is there anything else, Sam, that you think would also help people in terms of getting what they want to do ultimately, I guess, which is maximising their donations?

Sam Gurry:

I think my main one would be just going back to making sure that it's really kind of personal to you. So I worked in fundraising before I worked for JustGiving, and the people that raised the most money they were always able to take their donors on a journey. So rather than just saying, hey, I'm taking part in the London Marathon, please can you sponsor me, and then kind of doing that over and over again, it was all about sharing the bits at the beginning when they first sign up, and then as they go through, sharing how the training's going, and then really taking people on that journey all the way up until race day, and just making sure you're sharing afterwards as well, because we see about... 15, 12% of donations coming after the day as well. So that journey's not over just because you've taken part in the event or done the challenge. You can still kind of share your page and try and get as much as possible.

Andy Tudor:

And Sam, last year, one of our young fundraisers in the Brain Tumour charity, Harry Smith, won a Just Giving Award. I was just wondering, how do those awards work and how do people either nominate themselves or get nominated and how are the awards actually chosen?

Sam Gurry:

Yeah, so just for people who don't know, the JustGiving Awards are an annual celebration of essentially inspiring humans that use the platform to fundraise for a variety of causes. Each year, we open nominations around the beginning of summertime, and people can then nominate their friends, their family, anyone who's kind of used JustGiving in order to fundraise for charity for an award. We then go through all of those nominations internally and we get thousands of them. And it's a really hard job to try and shortlist who is going to be taken to the judging panel, essentially, and getting shortlisted to the top three for potentially winning that prize. And essentially what we do is we just look at all of these outstanding individuals and we try to have a clear kind of breakdown as who's got a really clear objective of their fundraising who's been really creative not only who's kind of shown really good results but also the story behind it and the inspiring um nature of that as well and then once we have that free um they go on to the night itself where um one lucky person takes away the prize but essentially everyone who goes to the awards and everyone who gets nominated is a winner because yeah, just being nominated obviously shows that you've had a really big impact on either the charity that you're supporting or the cause that you're trying to help with as well.

Andy Tudor:

Yeah, so it's not just the absolute amount, it's the story behind it, which amplifies what you're saying earlier about the more you can include yourself in the story in your fundraising, not only is it better for that but also it would be if you know if it was important it would be good for the um for the awards themselves

Sam Gurry:

yeah and i think that's the thing behind everyone who sets up a fundraising page there'll be a story behind it and one of the amazing things on the night of the awards is is kind of sitting there and seeing all of those stories on the screen yeah um yeah it's There's not really a dry eye in the house when it's going through all the different stories and different amazing people that are there. But yeah, that's the main thing. It's really just looking at those stories behind all of those fundraising pages and celebrating them.

Andy Tudor:

Did you say it's who picks the actual winners? Is it people within the charity or is it people outside the charity?

Sam Gurry:

so it changes each year um but every year is our general manager um pascal who who who is part of the judging panel and then we will have um some kind of celebrity judges as well that take part okay um give out one of the prizes on the night as well so it's a panel of um yeah which changes each year basically

Andy Tudor:

Brilliant. Well, thank you, Sam. Thanks for your time. And from what I've heard, you are an expert. So that's really good and superb advice. So thanks very much. And hopefully people can just take some of what you've said and maximise their donation. So thanks very much.

Sam Gurry:

Amazing. Thanks, Andy. Thanks for having me on.

Jo:

You're going to hear from another one of our involvement champions next. Imelda Turnock is speaking to Barbara Prodger, who is running the London Marathon in memory of her son. And she's also speaking to David and Helen Barrow. And David is running for his son Dominic, who's 10. He finished treatment for a medulla blastoma last year. Over to you, Imelda.

Imelda Turnock:

First of all... Barbara, what on earth has prompted you to take this on?

Barbara Prodger:

Yeah, I must be crazy. So I'm doing the marathon for my son that was suddenly lost last year on Mother's Day. So I feel I need to do something to raise a bit more awareness about the brain tumours, you know, being the biggest killer under people under the age of 40. Personally, myself, I've lost two family members to it, but Harley's definitely at the forefront of all of it, you know. So yeah, I'm going to hopefully get from the start to the end with my son by my side.

Imelda Turnock:

Oh that's incredible. Well done. Thank you. And David, what on earth prompted you to do it?

David Barrow:

Yeah, I've always kept reasonably fit and running something I've kind of always done, paced for a few drinks and a bit to eat and that sort of stuff. But We've had a tough sort of 18 months when our youngest son was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma and since then been through radiotherapy, chemotherapy. He's six months since post-treatment now, so we are sort of starting to dare to look forward. But yeah, it's very much similar to Barbara. It's about raising awareness, trying to raise some money for the charity and for the next, you know, for the future really. My wife did a something for charity last year, a charity walk, which was very well received. And we were humbled by those people around us that helped. And so, yeah, similar to that, really.

Imelda Turnock:

That's awesome. Well done. Can you tell me a bit about him? What sort of lad is he?

David Barrow:

About Dominic, yeah.

David Barrow:

Helen do you want to?

Helen Barrow:

Yeah, Dominic, he's a very tough kid. He's feisty, he's determined, he's strong. He's got all the characteristics that he needed to have to fight a brain tumour, basically. He's an identical twin as well, so it's been hard for his twin to watch him go through this. He's just been an inspiration, really. He's shown us all how to do it.

Imelda Turnock:

He sounds awesome. Will he be there supporting you David?

David Barrow:

yeah he will

Imelda Turnock:

and um Barbara what about your son?

Barbara Prodger:

he was brilliant he was good fun and we used to have as i was constantly told by both my boys we had good banter and he along with his brother you know they were both my best friends and Very intelligent. He always wanted to be an accountant. I remember him being at primary school and all of his little five-year-old friends saying, I want to be a fireman or a postman or a doctor, you know, which are all great. But he just piped up, I want to be an accountant. So I was a bit... It was quite

Imelda Turnock:

unusual

Barbara Prodger:

you know, and in fact, literally six weeks before he passed, he was 26. He'd just got a new job where he was head accountant with numerous accountants under him. And he just had a mortgage accepted in principle. And his life was looking good. You know, he was moving on to the next part of his life which was uh away from home so but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be so yeah but Harley was good fun real good fun and good looking really good looking

Imelda Turnock:

yeah he sounds like he sounds like a wonderful person

Barbara Prodger:

he really was

Imelda Turnock:

and um I think you said Barbara that you're living with one as well so yeah um yeah I guess that's another reason to take on such a big challenge.

Barbara Prodger:

Well, I think because obviously there's three of us in our family that have all been diagnosed with a tumour. Well, unfortunately, Harley wasn't diagnosed until after. I just want to get out there and do more. You know, it's everywhere. I mean, my son's girlfriend, her brother's best friend has just lost their baby boy last year and he was one. You know, and you think that child had no life. You know, all he'd known for the last few months was pain. And unfortunately, a tumour the size of a satsuma in his head. And he was one years old. He died on his first birthday. So it's why we come together as parents. We're fiercely protective and feral about our children. But I want to get out there and do more, you know. To be honest, whatever happens with mine, what will be, will be. That's just how I am. I just don't inflate its ego. But as a parent, I'm fiercely protective about my son and want to do more for other children, but help others. It's just my nature. I always seem to put myself at the back and put everyone else first, but it's just the way I am.

Imelda Turnock:

Yeah. Well, very inspiring. And I can only imagine what it must be like. to lose a child to a tumour, to have a child with a brain tumour. Much rather it was me than one of my children any day. So I'm so sorry. Thank you. How much of a challenge is it going to be for you, David? Are you already a regular runner or is this new to you? Have you just started from scratch?

David Barrow:

I've not started from scratch. I've not done a marathon before, but no, I'm not. I'm a reasonable runner but obviously a marathon is something quite a lot bigger than anything I've ever done before so yeah it'll be tough and I'm in the thick of the training at the moment and that's really really tough so yeah but I'm looking forward to it

Imelda Turnock:

yeah I'm sure it'll be such an achievement when you get there won't it once you get to that finish line

Barbara Prodger:

assuming I get to the finish line yeah assuming I don't keel over before we get there

Imelda Turnock:

Yeah. And we were talking beforehand, weren't we, about couch to 5K. I've just about managed 15 minutes in total. So I'm in awe of you both doing it. And can you tell me as well, Barbara, how much of a challenge is it for you?

Barbara Prodger:

I think for me personally I wasn't really much of a runner just the odd fun run which I'd done for various cancer charities after my diagnosis and I've had two other cancers which thankfully I'm okay from that. I don't know it's for me I've had I don't know about yourself but I've had injury after injury and I just seem to get back into it and something else happens but I just won't let it hold me back. I've got crutches ready. I've told Harley's best friend, who's also running, you know, we'll even strap up and do a three-legged race. I just need to get from the start to the end, and I will. If it means crawling... whatever you know yeah you will um even though i used to shout at my boys on sports day and i'd run alongside of the track it's not about the taking part it's about the winning it will be about taking part and just yeah so i'm actually looking forward to the day you know the whole event being so iconic um yeah and hopefully hearing other inspirational stories because i'm sure there are far more pressing ones so that will be really heartwarming so and seeing positive um outcomes from all sorts of people from various illnesses you know but yeah but for me personally supporting this charity wow it's an honour

Imelda Turnock:

that's great to hear and it is a wonderful event. Ii've been and photographed two now, and it's just unbelievable.

Barbara Prodger:

Wow. Yeah,

Imelda Turnock:

really unbelievable, cheering all the runners on. It's lovely.

Barbara Prodger:

I've got goosebumps now.

Imelda Turnock:

Yeah, I have as well, actually. Yeah, me too, thinking about it. I don't know if I need to ask, Barbara, I was going to say, how confident are you? But I know you're going to make

Barbara Prodger:

it. Was the face that much of a giveaway? Yeah, I will get there. by hook or by crook I will get to the end I'm just so stubborn I'm my own worst enemy and I'll suffer the consequences after it'll be a long holiday lots of good stiff drinks but yeah

Imelda Turnock:

you're a determined person I can think I can tell that

Barbara Prodger:

yeah um I'm just I'm yeah Harley will be with me I mean I've had a ring which I've now got his ashes a very small quantity of ashes in and I'm I don't like tattoos but I've had it's upside down but it's a little infinity it's our symbol with his name and I've had it on the inside because when I'm running and I'm starting to flag I can actually look at that when I'm running and go do you know what get a grip move on and I can literally hear him saying crack on mother crack on you know that's really lovely so we've both got it so yeah

Imelda Turnock:

And Helen, do you think he'll do it?

Helen Barrow:

He better. He will. He's interested in his time. I've told him it's just an achievement to get over the finish line, but I think he'd quite like to do it in a certain time. But it's not important. What time he gets isn't important. It's just finishing it and, you know, doing everybody proud. We are already very proud of him, but we can't wait to see him cross the finish line.

Imelda Turnock:

Yeah, but... Deep down, he wants that best time.

Helen Barrow:

He wants that time, he does.

Helen Barrow:

There's nothing wrong with that is there?

Jo:

And we wish all our London Marathon runners the very best of luck on the day and with their fundraising. You can find more details about that in the show notes for this episode. Tune in next time to the Let's Talk About Brain Tumours podcast.