The Charities Aid Foundation (2011) reported that after the global financial crisis in 2008, a sharp drop was seen in the amount of money that was being donated to charity organisations by individuals. Due to this charities have had to start thinking about new and creative ways in order to raise vital funds that they need and the way they have solved this is through charity sports events. This is especially important to charities like the NSPCC who receive little to no state fundingfrom the government and so rely entirely on donations, fundraising and volunteers in order to run their campaigns and services (NSPCC, 2012).
The question however is why are these sports events working so well?
This is a question that has been hotly debated by many academics all with various outcomes. One of the key reasons however, that comes up time and time again is the idea of the growing popularity of recreational sport (Filo et al, 2011). This is especially in the light of the very successful London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics which have arguably motivated many people to go and join a sport and encouraged them to stick at it. This added with the fact that not only do charity sports events allow participants to take part in a healthy, active lifestyle but also allow them to raise money and support a cause that they may feel particularly passionate about gives them even more reason to partake.
Woolf et al (2013) argued that one of the negatives of charity sports events is that it is arguably only a one of financial boost for the charity because participants only engage with the charity and the event on a one off basis. Furthermore they highlighted the lack of evidence about whether these events have a long term impact on the charity in relation to volunteers and generating regular donations. However this is something Hendricks and Peelen (2013) very much disagree with as they argue that in fact these charity sports events attract an audience and then create an event that facilitates for long term support by creating a relationship with participants. This then in turn develops a future participant base for events that may be held in the future, raising more funds and allowing for the charity to grow even more. Woods et al (2010) also very much disagreed with Woolf et al (2013) idea on event participation being a one off basis. They highlighted that one of the positives of using sports events was the fact that many of them could be held annually giving somewhat of a steady source of revenue into the charity every year.
Another common reason that come up as to why charities used sports events, especially the tougher ones that would require a lot of training like marathons, was in regards to the relation between the difficulty and struggle of participants training for these events and the struggle that was often faced by the people that the charities are supporting. Bunds et al (2006) suggested by doing this charities were getting participants to connect with the cause that the charity is supporting and connecting them with the people who were going to benefit the most from the money raised. The idea is that when the individual is physically exerting themselves during the event they would be thinking about the struggles of the person they are trying to help for example if they were going through cancer etc. This in turn would also help to motivate them to carry on and work through the tough bits.
Recent research has shown that the size of the charity sector in the UK has massively increased over the years making it equivalent in its size and significance to that of agriculture and privatised utilities (Taylor and Shanka, 2008). This means that there is even more competition out there in order to appeal to people enough to get them to donate or fundraise money for a specific charity. In order to compete in such a high demand and ever growing market charities have had to come up with unique and captivating ways in order to secure donors and fundraisers. One of the reasons they are arguably choosing sports events in order to do this is due to the fun and relaxed nature that can often be associated with them especially with the likes of the fun runs and colour runs. This allows participants to take part in a fun event that is good for them and they’re going to enjoy while allowing them to raise vital funds for charities.
To conclude, one of the main reasons sports events have become so popular for charities to use is because of how popular sports in general have become. This has especially been seen off the back of the recent Olympics games that have inspired people to go out and take part in sports and charities are giving participants a platform to do this that also allows them to raise money for vital causes.
References
Bunds, K., Brandon-Lai, S. and Armstrong, C. (2016) An inductive investigation of participants’ attachment to charity sports events: the case of team water charity. European Sport Management Quarterly, 16 (3) 364-383
Charities Aid Foundation (2011) World giving index 2011: A global view of giving trends. Viewed 12th December 2016, from https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/world_giving_index_2011_191211.pdf
Filo, K., Funk, D. and O’Brien, D. (2011) Examining Motivation for Charity Sport Event Participation: A Comparison of Recreation-Based and Charity-Based Motives. Journal of Leisure Research, 43 (4) 491-518.
Hendricks, M. and Peelen, E. (2013) Personas in action: linking event participation motivation to charitable giving and sports. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 18 (1) 60-72.
NSPCC (2012) Annual Report 2011/2012. Viewed 12th December 2016, from https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/annual-reports/nspcc-annual-report-2012.pdf
Taylor, R. and Shanka, T. (2008) Cause for event: not-for-profit marketing through participant sports events. Journal of Marketing Management, 24 (9-10) 945-958.
Wood, L., Snelgrove, R. and Danylchuk, K. (2010) Segmenting Volunteer Fundraisers at a Charity Sport Event. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 22 (1) 38-54.
Woolf, J., Heere, B. and Walker, M. (2013) Do Charity Sport Events Function as “Brandfests” in the Development of Brand Community? Journal of Sport Management, 27, 95-107.