Fellowship for Students

It's really easy to set up an online donation page through JustGiving that will make collecting donations amazingly simple. You can email people with the link, and they can donate securely online and add Gift Aid where appropriate, all at the touch of a button (well, OK, a few buttons)!

See an example at www.justgiving.com/cmfthreepeaks-staff for one that's current.

Here's how to do it…

i) Go to www.justgiving.com

ii) Click on 'make your page' and do the same again on the next page.

iii) Follow the instructions to enter the event that you're raising money for. If it's the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, click on 'sporting' and then 'walks' with the date 9 August 2008. On the right hand side is a free-text box – enter 'Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge' and enter 'no' for overseas event.

iv) For the charity you're raising money for, enter 'Christian Medical Fellowship', then click on CMF from the page of options.

v) Enter your email address at the prompt and click 'I'm new to this site' – you will then be able to create an account with your email address and chosen password

v) Choose a web address for your page – make it something easy to remember. If you're doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge then we'd like to standardise them with the event and the name of your medical school. For instance www.justgiving.com/cmfthreepeaks-cardiff or www.justgiving.com/cmfthreepeaks-leeds - we have already set one up for staff on www.justgiving.com/cmfthreepeaks-staff

vi) Follow the on-screen instructions to customise your webpage – it's really easy to do and you can upload a photo and put in some blurb from these pages about what you're going to be raising money for. Feel free to copy text from the staff page above, or from information elsewhere on these fundraising pages.

When you enter what you're raising money for, the site will advise you not to be specific about what you're raising money for. Don't worry about this – our student fundraised money this year will go towards the national students' conference.

For the target amount I would suggest putting in £500-£1,000 for most groups (depending on how many people you've got in your team). If things are going well and you think you're going to hit it, you can always edit the page and revise it upwards so that people don't log on, see you've reached your target and then decide not to give.

vii) Once your page is created, then you can start emailing friends and family, telling your church and getting started. Be thoughtful and ambitious. Why not make a presentation in church, or apply for any spare church mission funding? You can send round lots of emails with some brief information and the link to your webpage. You may be surprised who'll respond!

The JustGiving team have some great advice on how to maximise your potential. When you're logged into your JustGiving account there is a link for 'best hints and tips'. It's not a substitute for prayer, but it's all jolly helpful advice!

Linking your Webpage to Facebook

The CMF Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge has its own Facebook event.

If you're a Facebook user you can add the JustGiving application, which enables you to link your JustGiving webpage directly to your Facebook profile and gives you even more scope for getting the word out!

Go to the JustGiving blog to find out more.

Collecting Offline Donations

Emails and online donations are great but not everyone will respond that way. If you're doing a presentation in church, or speaking to friends and family personally, it's good to have a sponsorship form with you so that people can sign up and either give you the money then, or let you collect it later.

Here is a sample sponsorship form. You can download it and alter it to suit your purposes and your event and put your own webpage address on. Once the event is over and the money is collected. Make photocopies of the forms and send the originals in to CMF with any cheques you've been given, and a cheque to the value any cash you were given. Cheques should be payable to 'CMF' or 'Christian Medical Fellowship'.