In 2008 the first Big Midnight Walk raised a phenomenal £190,000! 2009 has smashed that target with an incredible £217,000 thanks to the dedication of everyone involved. We are excited to see what 2010 will achieve!

The walk relies on all walkers asking friends, family, bosses, colleagues and neighbours. On registration all walkers are sent a sponsorship form and a pack full of ideas to make it easy and fun! Please allow up to four weeks to receive this pack. In the meantime we have put together some ideas to get you started

Getting sponsors
Collecting sponsorship online
Spreading the word
Increase the money you raise with Gift Aid
How to send us your sponsorship money

Every penny you raise will make a difference to those living with cancer and other terminal conditions.

Good luck and a big thank you from Rowcroft and Macmillan.

Getting sponsors

Don’t feel bad asking for money – raising sponsorship for Rowcroft and Macmillan is a good thing!

Ask your sponsors to give you the money when they fill in the form, that way you don’t have to go back to them.

Give a copy of your form to some little helpers, set them small targets to work towards

Ask your top sponsors to put their name and amount down first, by having a series of £5- £10 sponsors on the top of the form, others will follow suit!

Always have your sponsorship form on you, you never know who you may meet!

Set yourself a reasonable target! Tell people what your target is – this gives you a goal and people can see how they are helping you to achieve it.

Collecting sponsorship online

This year we have teamed up with Virgin Money Giving to enable you to collect sponsorship online from friends and family from all corners of the earth. With Virgin Money Giving you can personalise a page, email a link to your friends, family and colleagues and they are able to sponsor you immediately online.

It’s really easy to set up your personal fundraising page, go to http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/, select ‘start fundraising’, click on ‘sporting’. From the menu select ‘walks’ and enter the date 5th June 2010. Please select Rowcroft Hospice as the beneficiary charity. Then go on to enter your details and personalise your page - it’s that simple!

Make sure you include a link to your page in every email you send, or even better, put it in your auto signature, post it in tweets and link it to your Facebook page, that way no-one can miss it.

Spreading the word

Let as many people as possible know what you are up to and encourage them to sponsor you by spreading the word! Here’s a few ideas …

WEAR YOUR BIG MIDNIGHT WALK TEE-SHIRT WITH PRIDE! When you register for the Big Midnight Walk you will be given a special tee-shirt. Wear it with pride so that everyone knows that you are a Big Midnight Walker. If your company has entered a team why not have a wear your tee-shirt to work day to increase sponsorship?

Join our tee-shirt day wear your tee-shirt with pride wherever you are on Friday 6th May 2010, have your sponsorship forms with you and be sure to take a picture and upload it to this website!

Add a link to your Virgin Money Giving site to your auto-signature and make sure your colleagues, clients, friends and family all know that you are taking part. Their sponsorship is just a click away.

Post regular Tweets and update your Facebook status about your training and fundraising progress and be sure to include a link to your Virgin Money Giving page.

Increase the money you raise with Gift Aid

Gift Aid is brilliant. For charities it means extra money for free and it doesn’t cost you or your sponsors a penny extra. As long as they pay income tax equal to the tax reclaimed on the donation, (unless somebody is donating thousands this will be all tax payers). With Gift Aid 28p on every pound that is donated can be claimed back from the HMRC, imagine what a difference that could make! All we need is your sponsor’s full name and postcode and for them to tick the Gift Aid box!  They will not receive any unwanted mailing by ticking doing so.

In 2000 Rowcroft Hospice and Macmillan were able to claim over £25,000 in Gift Aid! That’s £25,000 just for making sure sponsors tick the Gift Aid box.

How to send us your sponsorship money

You will need to collect all the money that your sponsors have pledged to give to you - don’t forget to make sure they have ticked the gift aid box. It can be easier to collect the money at the same time they agree to sponsor you!
When you have your total, please write a cheque made payable to ‘Rowcroft Hospice (Big Midnight Walk)’ and pop it in the post along with your sponsorship forms to: Big Midnight Walk, Rowcroft Hospice, Avenue Road, Torquay, TQ2 5LS

You can also pay by credit/ debit card by phoning (01803) 217641. Then post your sponsorship forms to: Big Midnight Walk, Rowcroft Hospice, Avenue Road, Torquay, TQ2 5LS. Please do this as soon as possible, it costs the charities money to follow up missing sponsorship!

Don’t forget to keep your eye on this website to see the total raised! If you have got the ‘fundraising’ bug why not check out what Rowcroft Hospice and Macmillan are up to. Visit their websites and sign up for some more events! Please note that Rowcroft Hospice is handling all donations and splitting the total with Macmillan Cancer Support.