Fundraising FAQs

We encourage you to come to us whatever your idea. Have you ever wanted to host an open mic night, run a half marathon, kick a habit, or skydive? You could run 1k, 2k or 5k every day for a month, or organise a 5-aside football match with work or your pals. How about hosting a pub quiz or a comedy night?

Any donations will go directly towards Response’s services for Adults and Young People with mental illness. Response’s initiatives help individuals to live fulfilling lives in the community.

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Sadly, Response Giving is no longer in operation. Response Giving supplied grants to individuals in the community to improve their quality of life. We have changed our fundraising strategy, and we are currently raising funds in-house to help improve Response’s services. If you would like to support a trust like Response Giving, you can become a trustee or donate to various charity’s in the area, such as the The City of Oxford Charity.

If you are a client looking for support, here is some alternative provision to Response Giving:

• The City of Oxford Charity
• Emmaus don’t do grants, but they will do significantly discounted 2nd hand items for people on benefits. This could make a huge difference for individuals with limited incomes.
• If someone needs support furnishing their flat, they can apply for grant through the Department for Work and pensions if they are on benefits.
• Oxfordshire Mind run an info line for both professionals and clients and can be contacted on 01865 247788.  They can suggest some other options for people who need furniture for houses.

Yes! You can learn more about our upcoming events here.

The amount you donate is entirely up to you. Even a small donation can have a big impact.

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Look at our ‘Legal Stuff’ page for all that fun stuff.

Yes, absolutely! Contact us below to let us know your plans and we will support you.

We advise that you set up a JustGiving page to kick-start your fundraising. You can read our guide on how to do this here. You can also collect donations on a card machine. If you would like to do this please contact us below for details. If you would like collection buckets, we can give you Response- branded buckets.

We advise that you use Just Giving to raise your funds, and then once a week the money you raise will go to Response minus Just Giving's small charges and the transaction costs that all payment providers charge. If you have collected cash, please bring this to the finance team in our office, who are available Monday to Thursday.

A G Palmer House

Morrell Crescent,

Littlemore,

Oxford

Ox4 4SU

Don’t forget to ask your sponsors to check Gift Aid when donating to your Just Giving page. Donating through Gift Aid means charities can claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give. It won't cost you any extra!

Tell the truth about our mission! Here’s some nuggets about us:

• Response is a charity, and our services help Adults and Young people with mental illness.
• Specifically, Response supports adults with serious mental illness and complex needs to live as independently as possible by providing recovery-focused support within the community and our supported houses.
• Response work with children, young people, and their families to help them have a healthy approach to their well-being and mental health, and to live in a safe and supportive environment.

If you work for Response, we can direct you to the appropriate policies. Please get in contact below.

We can provide you with branded t-shirts, collection buckets, banners, posters, leaflets and other materials upon request. If there is something specific you want, please get in contact with us as early as possible and we will see what we can do.

We would suggest that you start by asking around your local shops, restaurants, bars and contacts. Even high street shops can be every generous with donations. We can supply you with a letter with our stamp on to prove you are fundraising for us. If you’re not having much luck with prizes, get in touch and we will if we have any donations you could use!

Shout about your fundraising! Make sure you are following us on whatever social media platforms you use, and tag us in any promotional posts and pictures on your socials. Tell your work mates, whether this be on your company intranet or through word of mouth. You can also try and submit information on your activity to local newsletters, magazines, or in notice boards in shops, libraries and pubs. You could post leaflets through neighbour's doors, share links to donation pages on WhatsApp Groups and Facebook pages. If you’re holding an event, make sure to let local What’s On guides know about it.

Yes! Get in contact.

• Create a page for your event and post regular updates with pictures of yourself and other participants. People will want to support you if they know a bit about you.
• Follow and tag us in your posts so we can repost them. Our socials are linked below.
• Tell people your story and be emotive. For example ‘I am supporting Response because they helped my sister when she was rock bottom’ or ‘I am running a marathon for Response in memory of my dad’ or ‘I am holding a comedy night because mental health problems aren’t going to go away’.
• Post across all platforms, making sure content is right for the platform you are using. For example, if you choose Instagram, make your advertising is picture-based.
• If you are using Tik Tok, always use a sound, and capitalise every word in a hashtag (this helps with reach). Tik Tok might be useful for increasing exposure about your event as people don’t have to follow you to see your content. But, sadly you can’t post links to Just Giving unless you have a business account.
• Tip from Just Giving: Friday is the most common day for donating. Donation volume peaks on the JustGiving website between 9am and 10am, then again between 7pm and 8pm.
• On Instagram, stories often catch people’s attention more than posts- and you can post clickable links to your Just Giving on stories, which you can't do with posts.
• Countdown to your event, with posts becoming more frequent as you get closer to the event, and always remember to post your Just Giving link.
• Use our logo in your posts to help catch people’s attention.
• For photos, a phone camera is perfectly fine. Here are some tips for good photos. Take them during the day, with plenty of natural light. Make sure you take pictures from lots of different angles. If lighting is a struggle, you could enhance the lighting of a picture on an editing tool, and most phones even offer a built in way of editing pictures. You can change the lighting on Instagram too. For selfies, stand in front of a window.
• If you're filming a video, hold your phone upright so it fits in the Instagram frame, rather than turning it on its side.

We absolutely encourage you to use our logo, for advertising your event on social media, creating posters, or to title your Just Giving page! Find our logos here.

Absolutely no worries at all. Life happens. Just let us know below.