Collecting sponsorship online

If you're taking part in an event for Heart Research UK we recommend that you set up an online fundraising page with Virgin Money Giving. Here is your step-by-step guide on how to do it.

What is Virgin Money Giving?

Virgin Money Giving is a website that you can use to set up your own, tailored fundraising webpage. People can sponsor you online, with the money coming direct to Heart Research UK.

Creating a Virgin Money Giving page

Simply go to the Virgin Money Giving website , click on 'Start Fundraising – Create Your Page' and follow the step-by-step instructions. It takes less than five minutes. Remember to choose Heart Research UK as your chosen charity.

Helpful hints when setting up your Virgin Money Giving page

• You can tailor your page to make it more individual, for example uploading a picture or writing a brief paragraph about why you’re fundraising for Heart Research UK. This can really help to motivate and inspire people to support your cause. Think about what will encourage your friends, family or strangers to donate.
• Ask your most generous friend or family member to sponsor you first – if they start the ball rolling with a high donation it’ll encourage everyone else to follow suit.
• Send fun reminder emails to people to nudge them to donate. Email people in groups so you can tailor your message depending on who you’re contacting. Send the email on or just before pay day.
• Use occasions such as Christmas, Easter or your birthday to collect sponsorship. For example, instead of sending Christmas cards why not send a festive e-mail with a link to your page, or ask for donations to your Virgin Money Giving account in lieu of birthday presents.
• Promote your page online with social media tools like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Remember to also include information about your fundraising in Facebook status updates, groups or notes.
• Put a link to your fundraising page in your email signature so everyone you email has a chance to visit your page and make a donation.
• Put a video, photos or regular updates on your page. Keeping it up to date makes it interesting for people to come back and find out how you’re getting on.
• Heart Research UK can provide you with more information on our work and what your supporters’ donations will go towards for inclusion on your page.
• Ask your company to put your page on their website or intranet.
• Remember to thank people – do it on your Virgin Money Giving page, in an email, with a card, on your blog/ Facebook/ Twitter – make them feel good for supporting you.

Frequently asked questions

How is it different to Justgiving?

• Virgin Money Giving works in exactly the same way as Justgiving but the operating costs are lower, which means that more of your sponsorship money comes direct to Heart Research UK. 
• Virgin Money Giving is a 100% not-for-profit fundraising website. Any money they make they put back into making the website as efficient and user-friendly as possible.
• You can still use Justgiving if you already have a page set up. However if you’re setting up a new page it’s worth doing so on Virgin Money Giving as we will receive even more of the funds you raise.

Why create a Virgin Money Giving page?

• Statistically people are much more likely to raise more money online compared to offline. Research from some charities suggests that fundraisers raise nearly three times more online compared to offline.
• Setting up your fundraising page is free, easy and takes a lot of the potential hassle out of fundraising.
• Sponsorship comes direct to Heart Research UK, meaning that you don’t have to collect money/cheques from people yourself.
• People are more likely to Gift Aid their online donations, which means that we can claim more back from the government (at no extra cost to fundraisers).

For more information, advice and support on setting up your Virgin Money Giving page contact our Fundraising Team on fundraising@heartresearch.org.uk or 0113 234 7474.