I'm afraid you'll find that big companies/names rarely get onboard with projects such as this as they get many, many requests like yours.
But good luck.

I've been involved with several charity events in the past and I've always been amazed at the number of big companies/names that have come onboard.
We've had bikes (loaned), meals, accomodation, servicing, clothing, equipment, publicity, transport (including flights) and many other things generously donated previously. I think sometimes it's how you approach these companies/names that makes a big difference (& sometimes it's who you know, plus a good track record).
I've got no personal involvement in this project, I just wish it well.

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Give a little,.. take a little,.. live alot.
Ride safe and stay happy!
FireHorse.

Apologies Firehorse.
I tried to help someone get sponsorship a while ago and we ended up, after an awful lot of work, with virtually zero.
Maybe the approach was wrong, I don't know, but it was very disappointing at the time.

Sorry it didn't work out for you Hustler. I had some great contacts which helped out hugely (although not always). I know cold calling is hard work and not always sucessful. Best wishes

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Give a little,.. take a little,.. live alot.
Ride safe and stay happy!
FireHorse.

I've always thought of it this way. What do the companies get back for there money? Because that's how you have to think of it. So any sponsorhip approach you make has to show what that company gets back, approaching the media before you approach companies seems to help, and being able to show existing media coverage helps even more.

I've also found that sometimes small companies respond better than big ones do. Sometimes a hotel chain's head office will turn you down but the individual hotel manager will do what they can. Big companies get loads of approaches, and also have big budgets to spend on publicity. Small companies don't have either of these, and sometimes they're happy to give you £50 worth to help on your way.

I'm not certain on the knockbacks page, it might put people off.

Good luck on this.

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I have always found it strange that people want others to pay for their jollies.

Why not just give the amount you would spend on the jaunt to the charity.
Its probably more than you would make in sponsorship anyway.

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Hi Again

As it seems that the knockbacks section isn't a good idea I will take the advice and take it down and replace it with something else.

Regarding the media coverage - we have a professional PR team (thanks to Breville UK also) that is intending to promote us using their contacts. They have several high profile "celebrities" that they regularly use for their products and also lots of TV, radio and printed media contacts.

I'm not saying that this will be a media circus - far from it - but the more exposure we can get the better I suppose.

Redboots - we're not getting someone to pay for our jollies - We can do either of the things that we want to do. Either we donate and forego the trip or we go on the trip and don't donate. This way we get to do the trip AND raise money in the process.
Cancer Research is thankful for any money that they get so we're doing something that will hopefully raise more than we can afford to donate individually.

I'm sure that a lot of people are happy to donate a small sum to charity but if they can actually relate it to something that they themselves do or would like to do then they are inclined to donate a little more.

At the end of the day if we raise just £1 more than we can afford to donate as individuals then Cancer Research is a winner.

We don't expect everyone to jump onboard and wish us well as there is always an element who feel that what others do isn't to their liking but as the saying goes "The world would be a boring place if we were all the same"