People will be much more interested in your fundraising if they know your story – especially if you’re asking people other than friends or family.

So make sure you go into detail about why you’re doing what you’re doing on your fundraising page and any letters or emails you send out.

Here are some questions to get you started:

• Why did you choose this charity?
• What event or challenge have you chosen to do?
• What will your fundraising mean to your charity?
• What do you hope to gain from the experience?

If the info isn’t on their website, don’t be afraid to get in touch with your charity about your fundraising – they’ll be really pleased to hear from you.

They might be able to tell you how your donations will be used and their hopes for the future. It could help you write an even more compelling story for your fundraising page.

For example, if you can tell people your charity only needs £10 to buy life-saving drugs, they’ll be more inclined to donate and feel confident their money is making a real difference.

Your charity might also be able to provide you with branded stationary, or an official logo for you to use on your page, posters, flyers and emails.

Gift Aid increases the value of charitable donations, because your charity can get the tax back from the Government. Your donors don’t need to pay any more – they simply just need to be a UK taxpayer and tick the Gift Aid box when they sponsor you.

The great thing about fundraising through Virgin Money Giving is we do this for your charity and pass the Gift Aid on to them in full.

So make sure you tell everyone at every opportunity to Gift Aid their donation if they’re eligible – it all adds up and could make a BIG difference to your charity.

‘If every charity supporter were to give their donations tax-effectively, charities could claim an estimated additional £900 million from the Inland Revenue each year.’ (Source: www.charityfacts.org)

Once you’ve told your story and made people aware of your fundraising, keep updating your Virgin Money Giving page to give them a reason to come back. Treat your page like a blog by adding photos and progress reports whenever you can.

You could also send an email when you’ve updated your page, to let everyone know there are new things to see. People who have already sponsored you will be interested in how you’re getting on, and it’s a reminder for those who didn’t sponsor you the first time around.

Don’t forget to keep on fundraising and asking people to sponsor you after your event has finished. A large amount of money is raised this way, and people who haven’t sponsored you already may be persuaded when they see how much effort you put into your event.

When you set up a fundraising page with Virgin Money Giving we’ll ask when you’d like it to close, so feel free to leave it open for a few weeks after your event. If you’ve got a page at the moment you can change the end date whenever you like.