Scottish events the Kiltwalk and Social Bite’s Sleep in the Park are two big winners
Scotland is pioneering innovative new fundraising events – and is setting down a marker for the rest of the UK.
The success of some of the country’s newest and best known mass cash drives have been one of the main stories of a recently published chart of fundraising initiatives.
Events management company Massive has been compiling a list of top 25 charity fundraisers every year since 2013.
It found that income from the biggest mass participation events fell in 2017, a decline of £4 million – down to £135.5m.
This was mostly driven by a decline in long-standing and extremely well known campaigns, perhaps reflecting a degree of fatigue among the public.
However Scottish events the Kiltwalk and Social Bite’s Sleep in the Park were two of the big winners, proving Scottish events are able to compete against some of the biggest household name charities.
The biggest drop was seen in Cancer Research UK’s Race For Life, which fell by 20%, to £38m.
There was also a £2m reduction for Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning to £27.5m and Walk the Walk’s Moonwalk saw its income fall by £500,000 to £7.5m. There were also income falls by the Movember campaign and Marie Curie’s Swimathon.
However, Scotland’s Kiltwalk bucked this trend – growing by a massive 200%.
And among the newcomers – in at number 10 on the UK list, despite being Scotland-only – was Social Bite’s Sleep In The Park, which raised £3.6m.
Despite declines in income, Race For Life and the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning were still the top two fundraising events on the list bringing in more than £65m between them, more than the rest of the list combined.
Massive said that their drop in income is hardly a cause for panic but it’s clearly a case of the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Director John Tasker said: “This feels like an issue around product lifecycle for events which are 24 and 27 years old rather than a drop in appetite for mass participation.”
The success of Kiltwalk and Sleep In The Park demonstrates this appetite is still strong in Scotland at least.
Kiltwalk has been rejuvenated recently after it was taken over by The Hunter Foundation and widened out to cover all charities, rather than children’s groups, as previously.
It has just posted its best results – raising £4m – and has seen participation rocket. This year, for example, the Glasgow event went up from 4,000 to 7,000 walkers.
Kiltwalk chief executive Paul Cooney told TFN the event’s success was down to keeping it fresh and different, widening its appeal and ramping up publicity – people could hardly have missed its TV ads starring the likes of Andy Murray and Sharleen Spiteri, for example.
He said: “I can’t really comment on what others are doing, but I know we feel we have to offer something different, and to make the appeal as wide as possible. We have tried to open the Kiltwalk to everyone – that’s why we have graded walks all the way down to the Wee Toddle for youngsters.”
Social Bite co-founder Josh Littlejohn told TFN that the success in their offering was because it was more than a fundraiser – its ethos is more akin to a social movement.
He said: “We launched Sleep in the Park last year with the aim of catalysing a movement to eradicate homelessness in Scotland, and, incredibly, 8,000 people joined us to sleep out on the coldest night of the year.
“Not only does the event raise money and awareness of the issue, but it creates a mandate for political action, so that we can eventually end homelessness in this country.”
One fundraising element which seems to be declining is virtual events, where people participate on their own towards a goal, as opposed to getting together en masse.
These had been a big feature of 2016, with several launching, but last year all slipped out of the top 25 apart from Cancer Research UK’s Walk All Over Cancer, which saw an income rise.
