Raising Money
Part of getting as many students to the demo as possible is planning how you will afford to do so. Hiring coaches might seem pretty expensive at first but there are lots of creative ways of minimising the cost to your union whether you have a lot of money or a little…
Top tips for raising money
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Set up a just giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/. As charities, students’ unions can set up a fundraising page and use it to raise sponsorship through donations from students, lectures, alumni and the local community.
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Ask your lectures to ‘sponsor a student’. They might not be able to attend the demo themselves but by donating a tenner or so they can help fund a seat on a coach for a student.
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Work with your RAG society if you have one. They will have loads of fundraising experience and might be able to help you raise extra money as part of their activities. Oxford RAG are planning specific local activities to support the demo.
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Use your income from NUS Extra Cards. With £4.70 from each card sold going back into your union, it would only take sales of around 150 cards to fund one coach to London. If you want to find out more about how to increase and ring fence your NUS Extra income, contact nusextra@nussl.co.uk.
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Ask your local trade unions for support. Bridgend College have written to all their local trade unions and Kent have managed to secure £500 from their UCU branch.
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Ask students for a deposit for their place on the coach. This will help stop students from not showing up on the day as well as helping you to fund the coach.
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Purchase some cheap promotional t shirts with the demo logo on and sell them to students for a small profit. A good way to fundraise – but also a good way to build up the hype.
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Talk to other unions nearby – could you fill empty seats on their coach?
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Need extra support? To support FE and small and specialist unions who will have difficulty in affording travel to the demo, NUS has a limited amount of funding we can allocate to these unions to enable them to work with other local unions to secure transport. If you would like to apply for this, please contact dani.beckett@nus.org.uk by 12th October.
How are YOU planning for the Demo?
Lots of you have been letting us know what you’re getting up so, so keep the good ideas coming in! Drop us a line at campaigns@nus.org.uk.
Don’t forget, you can access all the demo briefings here and download adaptable materials here.
7 WEEKS ‘TIL THE DEMO