We did it! Yesterday Kaye and I smashed through the £300 fundraising target and managed to raise £335 – and that’s without counting any of the Gift Aid.
I would not necessarily say this is down to any particular genius on our part. Echoing what I wrote yesterday, I think it has been largely down to the very generous nature of our friends and family.
So…with the challenge itself still a couple of days away, what now?
Do we sit back on our laurels now we’ve managed to reach our target? Or do we continue to push as hard for more sponsorship now as we would if we were still barely half way to reaching it?
As much as I’d love to be an idealist and say I will continue to push as hard as ever for more, the truth is, now we’ve broken the £300 barrier, I just do not believe we will be putting the same amount of extra time and effort into generating more funds that we would be had we not got there yet.
It begs the question whether setting targets like this is a good idea.
Action for Brazil’s Children did, of course, use the words ‘or more’ when setting the £150 per person, but having the figure there at all gives you a goal which is hard to ignore once you’ve managed to hit it.
At the same time, I don’t criticise the charity for setting one. Without it, many would probably be satisfied having raised half this amount, without realising that had they pushed a little harder it would have been possible to double their sponsorship.
It’s certainly something for charities to consider very carefully, though. Perhaps in some ways it may be better to set a slightly ludicrous target of, let’s say, £1,000.
Or is that even so ludicrous? If that had been the goal all along would we have just knuckled down and made sure that we hit it?