Guess2Give

Guess2Give is a world-first for fundraising that allows anyone taking part in an event to setup a sweepstake to raise money for charity.

Website: www.guess2give.com

Guess2Give is a new online sweepstake that people can set up to fundraise for any event or occasion. For example, if you were running the London Marathon, you'd ask friends to guess how long it would take. Each guess costs £3 with up to £2.50 (including Gift Aid) going to charity, and 50p going to the prize fund. The person who guesses closest to the actual marathon time wins the prize fund. This can be collected or also donated to charity.

Anything that can be measured can now become a fundraising event using Guess2Give. Whether it's guessing the length of a best-man's speech, the weight of all the fish on a fishing weekend or how far a paper plane will fly.

46 of the UK's largest charities have formally signed up including Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Parkinson's UK, Whizz Kidz and Shelter. And they are expecting that number to double within the next couple of months.

The Award: Guess2Give has been awarded £50,000 to help grow charity acquisitions, develop additional functionality on the website and raise awareness of the service.

Contacts

• Tim Parkman: tim@guess2give.com
• Mark Chandler: Mark@guess2give.com

Case study

Paul Buckham, 38 from Newcastle set up a Guess2Give page when he ran the Great North Run for Diabetes UK in September, just one of the 37 charities that's already using the site since its beta launch in September. Paul asked his friends to guess how long it would take him to go the distance.

He said: "What was cool was that I didn't set-up my page until two days before the Great North Run but I still raised over £70 for Diabetes UK. It was my wife who obviously knows me the best as she made the closest guess.  But then she donated her sweepstake back to the charity so overall I raised £90 in two days.

"I do lots of runs and it's hard to get sponsorship all the time. Guess2Give is a great idea as it gave me the chance to do some fundraising and make it fun for my friends and everyone at work."