Every day more and more people start supporting charity projects. In world practice this is called “fundraising”, which literally means “to raise funds”. Therefore, a fundraiser is a person who seeks and attracts additional funds for subsistence or development of his/her own or someone else’s project.
The main purpose of fundraising is to raise funds for non-profit organizations and solve urgent problems/projects. For example, if a children’s hospital needs expensive equipment, you can collect the necessary money and purchase it. The participants take initiative, participate in projects to draw attention of others and help them think about the need to make a donation.
Over the past few years there has appeared many examples of charitable initiatives in the world. They cover different spheres of activity and people who are not related, neither by blood, nor by interests, nor by work. One of the most vivid examples in the world of fundraising is construction of the St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis in the 1930s, the money for which was raised by an unknown comic actor at the time. Being the son of Lebanese emigrants, Amos Maziat Jakob Kairoz could not find a job for a long time. And then once, when the money was very tight, he went into a church to pray .He did not expect quick success, but the miracle did happen. A short time later, he was offered a job and a multi-million dollar contract. He linked his luck in his career to that evening in the church, and resolved to build such a place of power no matter the cost, so that everyone who had lost hope would be able to regain it. This place was an oncological hospital with some of the most professional doctors of the country. It would be impossible to build a modern clinic with the necessary equipment alone, so Amos “gave a call” and involved in his initiative emigrants from the Middle East just like himself. As a result, thanks to the Americans of Syrian and Lebanese origin, a charitable foundation was founded, which still exists to this day.
If we talk about fundraising in sports, it has its own peculiarity. And people who become fundraisers in this direction, discover new sides to themselves. For example, speaking of races, one of the main advantages is the taste of competition and the development of team spirit. Most often the teams themselves or their sponsors pay for participation in such races, and organizers then already transfer the collected funds to the account of the charitable organization.But this is one of the options. There are also examples where companies pay per mile in cross-country competitions, or arrange championships within the company, with partners or competitors to unite for the sake of a charity. Today, one of the most common charitable formats is Run For Charity. It does not cease to gain momentum and with every year attracts the attention of more and more caring people. In the USA and Europe, at certain large racing events, certain slots are allocated for the runners-benefactors , and a third of the runners are running not run for the best result, but only to help the needy.Interestingly, getting on the best world marathons is often possible only through charity and fundraising, which further encourages athletes to raise funds. After all, getting on the London marathon is almost impossible because of a huge number of people.
One of the most popular and the biggest marathons in the world are: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York and Tokyo marathons, which are included in the series of annual competitions World Marathon Majors. Information about charitable foundations is found on the websites of marathons. Also you can find information about upcoming charity races all over the world on the website www.runforcharity.com.
In the world, charitable races not only raise funds for various projects, but also acquire their own unique formats and styles. For example, in Washington (USA) there is a traditional underwear race (its goal is to support children with neurofibromatosis), in Bucharest there is an unusual race on high heels (to raise funds for the Marie Curie Children’s Hospital), and in Sweden there is a new trend called “plogging” (this is the combination of jogging with picking trash).
Every year more and more people in Ukraine join such charitable sports and other initiatives. For example, over the past few years, thanks to the Wizz Air Kyiv City Marathon, many media personalities, opinion leaders, activists, caring people and the whole company with their employees took part in the races. For example, Wizz Air Kyiv City Marathon every year includes a fundraising marathon, thanks to which in the year of 2015 we were able to raise 1,100,036 hryvnia, in 2016 – 1,194,576. 27 hryvnia, and in 2017 – 1 104 019 hryvnia.
Friends, the start of the 9th Wizz Air Kyiv City Marathon and the 10th fundraising marathon from the organizer “Run Ukraine” is not far away, but there is still time to register for the race and help our funds. Doing good is not as difficult as it seems.
Additional Information
How to begin: three ideas, how you can join charitable sports initiatives:
– pay and take part in the race;
– support with information – share in your social networks about the current problem and the initiative of the supported fund;
– choose a fund and a project that you yourself want to support;
