Graham’s #FIT4FEB blog - How to do your own ‘virtual’ fundraiser using JustGiving and Strava

Whether it’s knitting jelly, herding cats or something more traditional like running or cycling that’s your idea of a personal challenge, it’s now possible to fundraise at the same time for a charity of your choice.

With so many charities needing support following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of face-to-face fundraising events which were once the norm, there’s never been a better time to find out how to create your own unique and safe fundraising challenge – JustGiving, one of the major fundraising platform, has teamed up with Strava, the fitness app, to make it easier for people to raise funds in a creative way.

Double Impact’s CEO, Graham, describes how he got on with using the new integration to do just this, and why we are taking the plunge into this new world of fundraising:

Virtual Run, Ramble or Roll for Recovery

“I am really excited about our new campaign – we’ve missed taking part in the Robin Hood Half Marathon, which has been a important fundraiser for us for a few years now, but this new way of fundraising, although it’s been forced on charities due to the coronavirus pandemic, has the advantage that it is easy to take part and accessible to the majority of people. It’s also easier for smaller local charities such as ourselves to organise a virtual fundraising challenge!

I hope lots of people will join us and I’m really looking forward to following everyone’s efforts on JustGiving. Look out for regular updates across our social media platforms and in our regular #Fit4Feb blog series where I will be sharing tips and ideas to help you along the way to making a huge difference to people in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire recovering from addictions.

If you’re thinking of embarking on a fitness challenge for the first time, watch out for my next blog where I’ll be sharing tips on how to set a target for yourself.

For my challenge I am choosing to run, walk – or maybe even crawl! – 100 miles in February. For those that know me, it’s what I do. I’ve never used Strava linked to JustGiving before however, so here is how I got on.

How to set up your virtual fundraising page with JustGiving

When most of us go out we take our mobile phones along with us. I would recommend this as we are in a lockdown and more of us are exercising on our own. So – what do you need to do?

• Download the free version of Strava onto your mobile device and set up a free account. You will be able to link this to your fundraising page (described later).
• Next go on to Just Giving and search for our campaign called Virtual Run, Ramble or Roll for Recovery
• Click ‘Start Fundraising’. If you already have a Just Giving account you will need to sign in. If you don’t have an account you will need to sign up and start a new one.
• Once you have searched for the campaign and signed in you need to click on ‘Start’ in the box ‘Do Your Own Thing’.
• You can then edit your Fundraising Page and also set an end date – we are using 28.02.2021, so if you could do that too it would help us all in working together.
• Then you will also be given the option to ‘Personalise Your Page’. Once you have done that hit the ‘Save’ button and then ‘View’ from the menu at the top. This takes you to your completed page.
• Finally to link up with Strava click the button on your Fundraising Page ‘Manage Strava Settings’ and follow the options. That should be it all done.
• One final thing, if you use a fitness tracker like a Garmin, Fitbit or Apple Watch, remember to link it to your Strava account. That way you won’t miss out on any of your achievements.

It does seem a little complicated when you see this list of instructions but it really is straightforward. If you do run into any problems however please just contact me or one of the team or 0115 824 0366, and we can take you through it.

Thank you for all your support and efforts."

Graham