Back in the 1970s a-thins were all the rage. It’s when walk-a-thons took off in Australia. Then there were swim-a-thins, spell-a-thins, read-a-thins … all to raise money for charities.
Why not stage an a-thin at your shop or in your shop window? Choose something that connects to your business, something fun but with social and community engagement at its core. Connect with a local community group for participants and this will get them promoting the event for you.
Here are some suggestions:
- Knit-a-thon. Get all your knitters in to make a long scarf and your customers pledge donations per metre knitted.
- Crossword-a-thon. People pledge donations based on crosswords completed.
- Read-a-thon. Participants read from newspapers and magazines from your shelves and money is pledged per hour of reading.
- Crossword-a-thon. Bring in the biggest crossword your suppliers can get and get pledges for each hour spent completing it.
- Love-a-thon. Get people to send a card to a loved on and make a gold coin donation to a local charity when they do it. You should match this as a way of saying thank you for the business.
- Write-a-thon. Get participants to write a list of everything they love about the local area – on pads you provide using pens you provide. Get pledges for each hour they write or each page they write.
Where there are some logistical challenges to these types of events – such as them running for longer than your usual opening hours – they can be a lot of fun and get people thinking about your business differently and that is the key.