​Significant rise in original fundraisers in bid to attract more donations

Fundraising is getting more innovative, involving greater personal feats to lure donations from the public a new report has found.

Unique, one-of-a-kind fundraisers have increased by 200% over the last four years according to Virgin Money which carried out the research.

It points to a massive rise in fundraisers becoming more original in their approach to donations, the company said.

Virgin Money Giving, the not-for-profit online fundraising website run by Virgin Money, said last year 19% more pages were set up which couldn’t be categorised into standard fundraising brackets like “organised event” or “special occasion”.

The top three most popular fundraising activities last year were skydiving, shaving heads and fire walking.

Bottom of the “unusual fundraising ideas” league table was a baked beans bath (taken by two fundraisers) and a one-off cat “cuddle-athon”.

Wacky fundraising techniques were mostly popular with people aged between 50-54, with a 20% rise last year.

Jo Barnett, executive director of Virgin Money Giving, said: “We are so privileged in our job to see the brilliant ideas and super human efforts that people make to raise money.

“Going above and beyond to raise funds for causes close to our hearts is something we cannot encourage enough here at Virgin Money Giving; as we’ve seen over the last year, it really is a case of the more, the merrier.”