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The real *selling* of a story

Posted by putsimply on 14th February 2011

At EML we like to do our bit for good causes, especially ones that are close to our hearts, and this year we’re raising funds for Mencap and the Princess Alice Hospice. To do this, we’ve pulled together a team to raise sponsorship for running the Edinburgh Marathon as a relay – which will be a hefty challenge for the four of us that are dusting off our plimsolls to take part.

The Dream Team: Darren, Ellie, Alex & Ben

As we creep closer to the event though, I’m starting to realise that our gut-wrenching, leg-quivering stumble around Edinburgh, and all of the necessary training beforehand, is actually going to be the easy bit (relatively speaking).

Wherever I turn for fundraising advice, I’m accosted by the insistence that ‘creativity’ is the be-all and end-all of fundraising success. But I’m not actually so sure that this is true. We’re PRs, we can do creative, we can do the communication of our key messages and <insert PR jargon here>. We are not, however, salesmen. Most of us don’t have that killer instinct to close a deal and actually persuade people to part with their hard-earned money in return for a passing warm fuzzy feeling.

In my view, that’s what it comes down to. Sure we can get creative and sell our story convincingly, but converting that receptiveness into cold hard cash is a whole different animal.

It’s still early days for our fundraising efforts but it’s clear we’ve got a long road ahead, and it’s looking much longer than 26.2 miles!

You can find further info, more silly pics and donation details here:

www.justgiving.com/eml-mencap
www.justgiving.com/eml-pahospice

putsimply