29 April 2019
Congratulations and thank you to all those who took part in the Virgin Money London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) and those who assisted with training, preparation and on the day. It was lovely to see that the final struggle to cross the line by Lukas Bates dressed as Big Ben at the finish resulted in the video going viral and many more donations to his chosen charity, Alzheimers Research UK.
The London Marathon has raised over £1bn for charities since the first event in 1981. With more than 400,000 participants from across the globe, this is a huge financial boost to the charity sector, and according to an analysis commissioned in 2015, it produced £128m of economic benefit to the city of London.
With all of this fundraising before, during and after the London Marathon, and from the follow-up Walk the Walk Moonwalk two weeks later, this is a timely reminder for charity trustees to revisit their Governance and Risk Registers to ensure that they are still appropriate and up-to-date. It may be a good idea to visit The Institute of Fundraising website where you will find a host of resources from which you can select those appropriate for your charity.
Whilst the Virgin Money London Marathon is very well run and provides excellent support for fundraisers, ensure your charity applies such rigour to other fundraising it carries out so as to protect the trustees and the charity's reputation, and to enable it to meet its objectives.
Time for trustees to get those thank you letters drafted and to celebrate those runners on your websites.
If you would like to discuss your own organisation please contact me or your nearest UHY charity sector expert.
Alternatively, you can read more about the services we provide to charities here.
