How much has been raised so far...and how....and where from?

What a fantastic year 2010 was for fundraising. The charity total stood at £5,660 this time last year. During 2010, however, a whopping £14,690.34 was added to the total to give a grand total of £20,350.34. That total is made up of £10,197.84 for St Benedict's Hospice and £10,152.50 for The Children's Foundation. The aim is to raise an equal amount for both charities so I'm very pleased that both totals are so close to each other.

Of the £20,350.34 only £1,240 exists in what I call "traditional sponsorship". i.e Sponsor money to be paid upon successful completion of the run. That amount is to be collected from only 6 people with a very generous chap called Ivor Potter my biggest personal sponsor at £1,000.

If you do the sums (total sponsorship amount - traditional sponsorship), you'll realise that £19,110.34 has already been donated and sent to the 2 charities. The bulk of this has amount has been paid via justgiving.com with the rest sent directly to the charities via cheque or standing order (I have a couple of sponsors who pay on a monthly basis).

The 3 main sources of income are from sales of Run Geordie Run t-shirts (35.4%), corporate sponsorship (34.2%) and ordinary pledges (19.7%). There are only 50 or so t-shirts left so I hope to make the "3000 scheme" a success in the first quarter of this year to replace that income stream. Apart from the financial aspect, it is a scheme that I feel is very profound and quite key to the success of the run (more on that in a later blog post).

There are only four months left until the start of the run across the USA. Add 100 days on top of that for the run and the build up to the charity ball after that and that is the realistic window in which to try and raise the target of £50,000 for the 2 charities.

The target for my last big run from John O'Groats to Lands End in 2007 was £10,000. The final amount raised for that run was £34,108. Since 1994, with the help and generousity of thousands of kind folk, £71,828.34 has been raised. That total is made up of so many large and small donations. No matter what the amount, they are all very greatly appreciated.

Thanks again to everybody for their support of Run Geordie Run and 2 very worthy local charities. Here's to a successful 2011.