Well friends, following yesterday's concerns about not hitting my fundraising target, I actually made £131.50 - £31.50 over my target of £100. Very pleased, even if my head is a bit chilly!
As promised, here's the video of how it went down:
Super-special thanks to Hannah, who videoed it all!
Thanks to Ramesh and Pam for shaving it.
Thanks to Dawn and the rest of the staff at The Sacks Of Potatoes.
Thanks to the musicians who played at such short notice - you should go check out their pages:
Jimmy Eff
Jason Kennedy
Phil Cooper
Thanks to Sam and Michelle for their support.
I'm feeling really squiffy today, barely slept last night, and spent £20 on medicine, but I'm so pleased with how this turned out in the end. I'm feeling a lot more confident about my fundraising. My next fundraising event will take place over the course of two weeks and will blow your mind, I think, as long as it all goes according to plan. More about that again.
Still need a venue for gigs though.
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Tonight's the night.
In a few short hours, my glorious mop of brown hair will be no more.
I'm disappointed that I'm still £40 short of my £100 target for this event. Hopefully I'll make up a few quid in the pub and when people actually see the shaved head. Even if I don't meet my £100 target, I can't let it get me down for future fundraising events. I'll need to look at what I've done and what lessons can be learned from it. Straight away, I know that getting tonight's event together in a week was a challenge that did not work in my favour.
That's enough self-analysis. Here's more fundraising ideas!
As the expedition I'm going on is in Costa Rica, I've been making lots of dinosaurs references. You might have noticed the banner image in this very blog. That's because Jurassic Park is off the coast of Costa Rica. I'm a bit of a fan. Anyway, ahead of my headshave event, I created this image:
That's right. It's a picture of me, riding a raptor, because I'm a badass, and if there were velociraptors around, it's most definitely what I'd do. Unfortunately, my raptor doesn't have a name, so I'm going to run a competition to name my raptor.
People will pick a name from a set list of 50 names, give me their name, email address and £2. The winner will get £50 - half of the collected money.
I realised that getting my head shaved completely, having not even had it short since 2003, a lot of the people I know will open conversations about it. This will lead to me telling them about my intentions, and a perfect way to pick up some donations, so I needed something that's quick, easy and cheap for people to get in on. Ideally, I would have got somebody to sponsor a prize, but as I only thought of it a couple of days ago, I haven't had time. There will be a lot of conversations about my head and my fundraising tomorrow, so I needed to come up with something quickly to capitalise on it.
So, that's the plan. OK, must go get ready to get baldified. Keep an eye out for the video of it, here on this very blog! You can also still donate at my JustGiving page.
I'm disappointed that I'm still £40 short of my £100 target for this event. Hopefully I'll make up a few quid in the pub and when people actually see the shaved head. Even if I don't meet my £100 target, I can't let it get me down for future fundraising events. I'll need to look at what I've done and what lessons can be learned from it. Straight away, I know that getting tonight's event together in a week was a challenge that did not work in my favour.
That's enough self-analysis. Here's more fundraising ideas!
As the expedition I'm going on is in Costa Rica, I've been making lots of dinosaurs references. You might have noticed the banner image in this very blog. That's because Jurassic Park is off the coast of Costa Rica. I'm a bit of a fan. Anyway, ahead of my headshave event, I created this image:
That's right. It's a picture of me, riding a raptor, because I'm a badass, and if there were velociraptors around, it's most definitely what I'd do. Unfortunately, my raptor doesn't have a name, so I'm going to run a competition to name my raptor.
People will pick a name from a set list of 50 names, give me their name, email address and £2. The winner will get £50 - half of the collected money.
I realised that getting my head shaved completely, having not even had it short since 2003, a lot of the people I know will open conversations about it. This will lead to me telling them about my intentions, and a perfect way to pick up some donations, so I needed something that's quick, easy and cheap for people to get in on. Ideally, I would have got somebody to sponsor a prize, but as I only thought of it a couple of days ago, I haven't had time. There will be a lot of conversations about my head and my fundraising tomorrow, so I needed to come up with something quickly to capitalise on it.
So, that's the plan. OK, must go get ready to get baldified. Keep an eye out for the video of it, here on this very blog! You can also still donate at my JustGiving page.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
I got a devil's haircut in my mind.
Well friends, fundraising has been going alright! I'm £60 towards my fundraising total of £100 for getting my head shaved.
I think lots of little events is the way to go for this. Once I hit my fundraising target for each event, I'll stop harassing people, both in person and online, so they'll get a bit of a break, rather than spending the next six months begging people for one giant sum. I seem to be struggling with the last £40 for my headshave, but I've got a couple of days to go!
To help with fundraising, I figured I'd need to give people at my events a better idea of why the event was happening, so the Costa Rica and Nicaragua Support Co-ordinator, David, kindly sent me some posters and flyers and magazines and stuff. It turns out that if my postman has a parcel that doesn't fit through the letterbox, it's OK to rip open the envelope and shove it through the letterbox in bits:
No jokes!
My pack also included a sexy Raleigh International t-shirt. I was feeling retro, so I took a Myspace pic to show it off:
Oh em jee! That is so 2006!
Anyway, apart from the sexy t-shirt, you can see my hair, which brings me back to why I'm writing this blog in the first place. Said hair is getting all shave off for sponsorship for my fundraising. Please, show your support by donating a couple of pounds at my JustGiving page.
You should also hit up the Raleigh International website to find out more about what I'm fundraising for, and what I'll be doing.
I think lots of little events is the way to go for this. Once I hit my fundraising target for each event, I'll stop harassing people, both in person and online, so they'll get a bit of a break, rather than spending the next six months begging people for one giant sum. I seem to be struggling with the last £40 for my headshave, but I've got a couple of days to go!
To help with fundraising, I figured I'd need to give people at my events a better idea of why the event was happening, so the Costa Rica and Nicaragua Support Co-ordinator, David, kindly sent me some posters and flyers and magazines and stuff. It turns out that if my postman has a parcel that doesn't fit through the letterbox, it's OK to rip open the envelope and shove it through the letterbox in bits:
No jokes!
My pack also included a sexy Raleigh International t-shirt. I was feeling retro, so I took a Myspace pic to show it off:
Anyway, apart from the sexy t-shirt, you can see my hair, which brings me back to why I'm writing this blog in the first place. Said hair is getting all shave off for sponsorship for my fundraising. Please, show your support by donating a couple of pounds at my JustGiving page.
You should also hit up the Raleigh International website to find out more about what I'm fundraising for, and what I'll be doing.
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Dude shaved me bare.
I finally have a fundraising event planned!
On Saturday 20th April 2013, at the Sacks of Potatoes pub in Birmingham, I will be getting my head shaved. My fundraising target for the event is £100. I would have liked to have set it higher, but it's been put together at such short notice. Massive thanks to the manager of the Sacks, Dawn, for letting me hold the event. I promise every strand of my hair will be cleaned off the floor!
Let us know you're coming at the Facebook event here. If you'd like to donate pounds, you can either see me in person, or I've set up a JustGiving page should you want to donate via the interwebs. Either way, your donation will be eligible for the Gift Aid scheme.
My fundraising planning hasn't been going as smoothly as I'd hoped: my barber doesn't do communication so well; the venue where I usually hold gigs decided they no longer allow free use for charity events; the alternative place I wanted to hold an event haven't replied to my emails and I haven't had time to phone. If I don't get a venue in the next week, it's looking like I won't get a gig for May either. This is a pain because I was relying on gigs as the spine of my fundraising efforts, because it's the thing that I do best in the world. In saying that, I do it best mostly because of my tendency to work through issues, so I know that ultimately it will be fine, but I'm just at that moment of frustration before the light bulb goes off over my head. Happens all the time!
Before you all go rushing to suggest venues for my gigs, I need three things from any potentials:
1. It's got to be free, or at least really, really cheap. Places offering venue hire with a £300 deposit, returnable if that amount is take behind the bar, because their drinks prices are generally too expensive for anybody to want to buy any, therefore eliminating the chance of getting the deposit back.
2. It's got to be able to cater for a ticketed event. The money will be raised from tickets sold. Recommending a pub for live music in a corner and shaking a bucket at people will not raise as much funds as the bands selling tickets, taking their cut from selling a certain amount, and the rest goes towards event costs and my fundraising. I need the assurance of tickets being sold.
3. It's got to be in Birmingham city centre, or at least really easy to get to from town. Have you ever tried explaining to people how to get to a gig in a pub in the backstreets of Digbeth? It's not easy.
The only place that's been any help have been my ticket printers, which would be of more help if I could actually get a venue. So anyway, super-massive thanks to Performance Ticket Printers for their very generous offer of a discount on my ticket printing for my events. I promise I'll get something booked!
So that's where I'm at. I'll leave you with the song from which the title of this post came. It's a tune.
On Saturday 20th April 2013, at the Sacks of Potatoes pub in Birmingham, I will be getting my head shaved. My fundraising target for the event is £100. I would have liked to have set it higher, but it's been put together at such short notice. Massive thanks to the manager of the Sacks, Dawn, for letting me hold the event. I promise every strand of my hair will be cleaned off the floor!
Let us know you're coming at the Facebook event here. If you'd like to donate pounds, you can either see me in person, or I've set up a JustGiving page should you want to donate via the interwebs. Either way, your donation will be eligible for the Gift Aid scheme.
My fundraising planning hasn't been going as smoothly as I'd hoped: my barber doesn't do communication so well; the venue where I usually hold gigs decided they no longer allow free use for charity events; the alternative place I wanted to hold an event haven't replied to my emails and I haven't had time to phone. If I don't get a venue in the next week, it's looking like I won't get a gig for May either. This is a pain because I was relying on gigs as the spine of my fundraising efforts, because it's the thing that I do best in the world. In saying that, I do it best mostly because of my tendency to work through issues, so I know that ultimately it will be fine, but I'm just at that moment of frustration before the light bulb goes off over my head. Happens all the time!
Before you all go rushing to suggest venues for my gigs, I need three things from any potentials:
1. It's got to be free, or at least really, really cheap. Places offering venue hire with a £300 deposit, returnable if that amount is take behind the bar, because their drinks prices are generally too expensive for anybody to want to buy any, therefore eliminating the chance of getting the deposit back.
2. It's got to be able to cater for a ticketed event. The money will be raised from tickets sold. Recommending a pub for live music in a corner and shaking a bucket at people will not raise as much funds as the bands selling tickets, taking their cut from selling a certain amount, and the rest goes towards event costs and my fundraising. I need the assurance of tickets being sold.
3. It's got to be in Birmingham city centre, or at least really easy to get to from town. Have you ever tried explaining to people how to get to a gig in a pub in the backstreets of Digbeth? It's not easy.
The only place that's been any help have been my ticket printers, which would be of more help if I could actually get a venue. So anyway, super-massive thanks to Performance Ticket Printers for their very generous offer of a discount on my ticket printing for my events. I promise I'll get something booked!
So that's where I'm at. I'll leave you with the song from which the title of this post came. It's a tune.
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